Star formation is one of the great four themes of 'Origins' studied in astronomy today, and special attention is attributed to the formation of low-mass stars like our own sun. Low-mass stars are thought to form from the collapse of a low-density interstellar molecular cloud, producing a high-density core which evolves into a flattened proto-planetary disk through which material is accreted on to the growing central object.

Large ground-based telescopes and currently active satellite observatories like HST, Chandra, XMM, and most outstandingly Spitzer are delivering a wealth of new details, partially forcing us to re-conceive our conceptions of star formation. At the same time, these new data are preparing the ground for ALMA and Herschel, which will come online in the near future.

The advanced numerical simulations of the complex evolution of collapsing low-mass cores are about to enter a new era with the explicit inclusion of heating and cooling by radiative transfer and with multi-wavelengths modeling of high-resolution images.

However, despite all of these new high-resolution observations and simulations of low-mass star forming regions, the main controlling agents of the early phase star formation process remain highly debated.

The main goal of the splinter session is to highlight ongoing progress in tackling the controlling physical processes of the formation of low-mass proto-stars and proto-brown dwarfs.

The oral presentations are planned to address the main physical processes gravitational collapse, turbulence, magnetic fields, radiation, chemistry, and jets. Detailed work should be presented in posters which are available during the CS14 meeting and which is summarized in a dedicated talk. The final discussion has the objective to consolidate possible projects for improving the progress in the identification of the controlling agent of early low-mass star formation.