Colloquium Abstract - Ginsburg - 2024May03
May 3, 2024
11:00am Mountain
Adam Ginsburg (U Florida)
High-Mass Star Formation & Mass Flows in the Galaxy
Abstract
The most important factor deciding the fate of a star and its surroundings is its initial mass. The relative number of high- and low-mass stars decides how much light and mass escape from a population of stars. This distribution, the stellar initial mass function, is often assumed to be universally invariant, though we have plenty of reason to believe it varies with environment. I will present results from several ALMA programs that measure the mass distribution of pre- and proto-stellar objects at early phases. Denser regions of our Galaxy, like its center, form more stars in clusters than do the outskirts where the Sun resides. Core mass function measurements suggest that more intensely star-forming regions preferentially form high-mass stars. However, the simplest models of core-to-star evolution fail, and I'll show how some have been ruled out. Since stars grow through episodic accretion events while their envelopes continue to grow and interact, we have only snapshots of the star formation sequence. I'll present this information as a visual tour through the Galaxy, covering local regions, the Galactic plane, and the Galactic Center.
Local Host: Brian Svoboda
