Summary of September 2004 Cambridge conference on "Starbursts - From 30 Doradus to Lyman Break Galaxies," proceedings eds. R. de Grijs and R. M. Gonzalez Delgado (Dordrecht: Kluwer).
astro-ph/0412585

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Abstract. Starbursts are extreme concentrations of star-forming activity with mass conversion surface densities reaching over 1000 times higher than normal for disk galaxies. They are responsible for a large fraction of all cosmic star formation. They have shaped the cosmic landscape not just in individual galaxies but though the effects of "superwinds" that enrich the intergalactic gas, constrain supermassive black hole growth, and perhaps facilitate cosmic reionization. This conference provided vivid testimony to the importance of starbursts in galaxy evolution and to the speed with which our understanding of them is being transformed by a flood of new pan-spectral data, especially at high redshifts. A key result is that it appears possible to scale the physics of smaller star-forming events upward to encompass starbursts.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION: SOLVED & UNSOLVED PROBLEMS
• WHAT ARE STARBURSTS?
• ARE STARBURSTS IMPORTANT?
• WE'RE ALL PAN-SPECTRAL NOW
• THE LIMITS OF SPATIAL RESOLUTION
• SCALABILITY
• CONCLUSION