Di Li (NACO)

Di Li colloquium: Pressure, Mass Function, and Turbulence in Star Formation

Abstract

Star formation is a key process in forming cosmic structures. Propelled by new capabilities in infrared and millimeter bands, e.g. Herschel and ALMA, the amount of information available for star forming regions has seen exponential growth . It allows us to probe some of the classical problems, still resolved, in star formation. I present here our recent works based on FCRAO, JVLA, GBT, ALMA and etc. Our main results include 1)Even in a massive star forming region such as Orion, the heating is dominated by a small number of external sources and the gas conditions mimic those of low mass star formation. 2)The core mass function (CMF) seems to be universally flatter than that of the IMF, suggesting that the CMF reflects cloud structures, rather than the origin of IMF. 3)The star formation feedback can inject energy at sub-pc scales to sustain turbulence dissipation.