Workshop Rationale

Our view of the formation and evolution of galaxies is severely hampered by our incomplete understanding of the physics of star formation. The origin of the existing empirical prescriptions that link global galaxy properties to star formation rates - such as the Kennicutt-Schmidt relations - is still hotly debated. Meanwhile, new instruments such ALMA and great strides in modeling of the star formation medium are now bridging the traditional barrier between Galactic and extra-galactic communities. Decisive empirical progress towards a physical model of the ISM and its relation to star formation is expected in the next years. This will be driven by 1) in-depth investigations of the hierarchical structure of the ISM with a special attention to its star forming component, including the studies of the star formation on GMC scales in external galaxies (e.g. star formation efficiencies, time evolution, gas consumption rates, GMC disruption), and 2) a thorough assessment of the importance of the galactic and local environments for shaping the ISM. At the same time major progress is being made on the modeling side of the interstellar medium reaching similar resolutions and including more and more physical processes such as heating, cooling, multi-phase nature of the ISM etc.

New observational and theoretical results will provide better understanding of the interstellar medium (ISM) leading to a physically motivated model of the ISM and its evolution. In particular, the following important questions need to be addressed: