Subproject B1: Star Formation and Global Matter Cycle of the Milky Way

Numerical study of the coupled evolution of stars and gas in the disk on a Galactic scale to constrain the interplay between star formation, feedback and gravitational instabilities.

The moving-mesh code AREPO coupled with a time-dependent chemical network for the most relevant atomic and molecular species in the ISM along with a realistic link between matter and the ambient radiation field allows one to investigate star formation and the destruction of molecular gas in simulated spiral galaxies – one of the outcomes of the first funding period. These novel numerical techniques to model the Galactic disk as a whole in unprecedented physical detail permit us, for instance, to follow the evolution of H₂ and CO column densities and to estimate the CO emission and the CO-H₂ conversion factor. Interestingly, for the Milky Way around 40% of the total molecular mass should be in CO-dark regions. The CO-dark molecular gas primarily resides in extremely long (> 100 pc) filaments that are stretched between spiral arms by Galactic shear. Only the centers of the filaments are bright in CO, hence the observed filamentary molecular clouds in the Milky Way may be only small parts of much larger structures.

Publications

Bik, A., Henning, Th., Stolte, A., Brandner, W., Gouliermis, D.A., Gennaro, M., Pasquali, A., Rochau, B., Beuther, H., Ageorges, N., Seifert, W., Wang, Y., Kudryavtseva, N.: ”Age Spread in W3 Main: Large Binocular Telescope/LUCI Near-infrared Spectroscopy of the Massive Stellar Content”, ApJ, 744, 87 (2012)

Comeron, F., Pasquali, A.: “New members of the massive stellar population in Cygnus”, A&A, 543, 101 (2012)

Da Rio, N., Gouliermis, D.A., Rochau, B., Pasquali, A., Setiawan, J., De Marchi, G.: “The massive stellar population in the young association LH 95 in the Large Magellanic Cloud”, MNRAS, 422, 3356 (2012)

Frink, S., Röser, S., Alcalá, J.M., Covino, E., Brandner, W.: “Kinematics of T Tauri stars in Chamaeleon”, A&A, 338, 442 (1998)

Goldman, B., Röser, S., Schilbach, E., et al.: “Towards a complete stellar mass function of the Hyades. I. Pan-STARRS1 optical observations of the low-mass stellar content”, A&A, 559, 43 (2013)

Kharchenko, N.V., Piskunov, A.E., Schilbach, E., Röser, S., Scholz, R.-D.: "Global survey of star clusters in the Milky Way. I. The pipeline and fundamental parameters in the second quadrant", A&A 543, 156 (2012)

Kharchenko, N.V., Piskunov, A.E., Schilbach, E., Röser, S., Scholz, R.-D.: “Global survey of star clusters in the Milky Way. II. The catalogue of basic parameters”, A&A, 558, 53 (2013)

Neuhäuser, R., Walter, F.M., Covino, E., Alcalá, J.M., Wolk, S.J., Frink, S., Guillout, P., Sterzik, M.F., Comeron, F.: “Search for young stars among ROSAT All-Sky Survey X-ray sources in and around the R CrA dark cloud”, A&AS, 146, 323 (2000)

Neuhäuser, R., Wolk, S.J., Torres, G., Preibisch, Th., Stout-Batalha, N.M., Hatzes, A.P., Frink, S., Wichmann, R., Covino, E., Alcalá, J.M., Brandner, W., Walter, F.M., Sterzik, M.F., Köhler, R.: “Optical and X- ray monitoring, Doppler imaging, and space motion of the young star Par 1724 in Orion”, A&A 334, 873 (1998)

Preibisch, Th., Guenther, E., Zinnecker, H., Sterzik, M.F., Frink, S., Röser, S.: “A lithium survey for pre- main sequence stars in the Upper Scorpius OB association”, A&A 333, 619 (1998)

Reffert, S.: “Astrometric measurement techniques”, NewAR 53, 329 (2009)

Tremblay, P.-E., Schilbach, E., Röser, S., Jordan, S., Ludwig, H.-G., Goldman, B.: “Spectroscopic and photometric studies of white dwarfs in the Hyades”, A&A, 547, 99 (2012)