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Rachel Friesen
University of Toronto

Abstract

The conversion of gas into stars is a key process driving the evolution of structures in the universe. Recent surveys of dust continuum emission of Galactic star-forming regions have revealed the ubiquity of filamentary structures within molecular clouds, raising the tantalizing possibility that the star formation efficiency is strongly dependent on how these dense filaments form and evolve. I will show how the combined analysis of gas dynamics and chemistry in star-forming regions is critical to understand filamentary mass accretion, stability, and fragmentation. Consequently, large-scale surveys of molecular lines that trace dense, star-forming gas are sorely needed. Filling this gap, I will present results from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey, a Large Program on the 100m Green Bank Telescope that has mapped the dense molecular gas of all the major star-forming molecular clouds within 500 pc. Finally, I will discuss how new and upcoming facilities will enable tests of star formation theory over the next decade from stellar cluster to protostellar disk scales.