FORMATION OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS AND GLOBAL CONDITIONS FOR
STAR FORMATION
C. Dobbs (Exeter University, United Kingdom),
M. Krumholz (University of California, Santa Cruz, United States),
J. Ballesteros-Paredes (CRyA-UNAM, Mexico),
A. Bolatto (University of Maryland, United States),
Y. Fukui (Nagoya University, Japan),
M. Heyer (University of Massachusetts, United States),
M. Mac Low (American Museum of Natural History, United States),
E. Ostriker (Princeton University, United States),
E. Vazquez-Semadeni (UNAM, Morelia, Mexico)
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 reviews the current state of the field.
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