Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and
Planets VI, University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther,
R. Klessen, C. Dullemond, Th. Henning
For a PDF version of the article, click here.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.3223
Mark R. Krumholz
University of California,
Santa Cruz
Javier Ballesteros-Paredes
Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México
Alberto D. Bolatto
University of
Maryland, College Park
Yasuo Fukui
Nagoya University
Mark Heyer
University of
Massachusetts
Mordecai-Mark Mac Low
American Museum of
Natural History
Eve C. Ostriker
Princeton
University
Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni
Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México
Abstract: Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the primary reservoirs of cold, star-forming molecular gas in the Milky Way and similar galaxies, and thus any understanding of star formation must encompass a model for GMC formation, evolution, and destruction. These models are necessarily constrained by measurements of interstellar molecular and atomic gas, and the emergent, newborn stars. Both observations and theory have undergone great advances in recent years, the latter driven largely by improved numerical simulations, and the former by the advent of large-scale surveys with new telescopes and instruments. This chapter offers a thorough review of the current state of the field.
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