McKee, Christopher F., Krumholz, Mark R.
Understanding the molecular content of galaxies is a critical problem in star formation and galactic evolution. Here we present a new method, based on a Stromgren-type analysis, to calculate the...
The formation of the first stars and galaxies (2009)
Bromm, Volker, Yoshida, Naoki, Hernquist, Lars, McKee, Christopher F.
Observations made using large ground-based and space-borne telescopes have probed cosmic history all the way from the present-day to a time when the Universe was less than a tenth of its present age....
The Star Formation Law in Atomic and Molecular Gas (2009)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Tumlinson, Jason
We propose a simple theoretical model for star formation in which the local star formation rate in a galaxy is determined by three factors. First, the interplay between the interstellar radiation...
The Formation of Massive Star Systems by Accretion (2009)
Krumholz, Mark R., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F., Offner, Stella S. R., Cunningham, Andrew J.
Massive stars produce so much light that the radiation pressure they exert on the gas and dust around them is stronger than their gravitational attraction, a condition that has long been expected to...
The Atomic to Molecular Transition in Galaxies. II: HI and H_2 Column Densities (2008)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Tumlinson, Jason
Gas in galactic disks is collected by gravitational instabilities into giant atomic-molecular complexes, but only the inner, molecular parts of these structures are able to collapse to form stars....
Offner, Stella S. R., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F.
Molecular clouds are observed to be turbulent, but the origin of this turbulence is not well understood. As a result, there are two different approaches to simulating molecular clouds, one in which...
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Tumlinson, Jason
In this series of papers we study the structure of the atomic to molecular transition in the giant atomic-molecular complexes that are the repositories of most molecular gas in galaxies, with the...
Li, Pak Shing, McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I., Fisher, Robert T.
Most numerical investigations on the role of magnetic fields in turbulent molecular clouds (MCs) are based on ideal magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD). However, MCs are weakly ionized, so that the time...
First Stars III Conference Summary (2008)
O'Shea, Brian W., McKee, Christopher F., Heger, Alexander, Abel, Tom
The understanding of the formation, life, and death of Population III stars, as well as the impact that these objects had on later generations of structure formation, is one of the foremost issues in...
A Minimum Column Density of 1 g cm^-2 for Massive Star Formation (2008)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F.
Massive stars are very rare, but their extreme luminosities make them both the only type of young star we can observe in distant galaxies and the dominant energy sources in the universe today. They...
Koo, Bon-Chul, McKee, Christopher F., Lee, Jae-Joon, Lee, Ho-Gyu, Lee, Jeong-Eun, Moon, Dae-Sik, ...
We report the discovery of a star-forming loop around the young, Crab-like supernova remnant (SNR) G54.1+0.3 using the AKARI infrared satellite. The loop consists of at least eleven young stellar...
Star Formation at Zero and Very Low Metallicities (2007)
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
We describe how star formation is expected to proceed in the early metal-free Universe, focusing on the very first generations of stars. We then discuss how the star formation process may change as...
McKee, Christopher F., Tan, Jonathan C.
We consider the radiative feedback processes that operate during the formation of the first stars, including the photodissociation of H_2, Ly-alpha radiation pressure, formation and expansion of an...
Far-Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions and Photometric Redshifts of Dusty Galaxies (2007)
Chakrabarti, Sukanya, McKee, Christopher F.
We infer the large-scale source parameters of dusty galaxies from their observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using the analytic radiative transfer methodology presented in Chakrabarti &...
Theory of Star Formation (2007)
McKee, Christopher F., Ostriker, Eve C.
We review current understanding of star formation, outlining an overall theoretical framework and the observations that motivate it. A conception of star formation has emerged in which turbulence...
Molecular Line Emission from Massive Protostellar Disks: Predictions for ALMA and the EVLA (2007)
Krumholz, Mark R., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F.
We compute the molecular line emission of massive protostellar disks by solving the equation of radiative transfer through the cores and disks produced by the recent radiation-hydrodynamic...
Theory of star formation (2007)
McKee, Christopher F., Ostriker, Eve C.
We review current understanding of star formation, outlining an overall theoretical framework and the observations that motivate it. A conception of star formation has emerged in which turbulence...
Equations and Algorithms for Mixed Frame Flux-Limited Diffusion Radiation Hydrodynamics (2006)
Krumholz, Mark R., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F., Bolstad, John
We analyze the mixed frame equations of radiation hydrodynamics under the approximations of flux-limited diffusion and a thermal radiation field, and derive the minimal set of evolution equations...
Reconstructing Deconstruction: High-Velocity Cloud Distance Through Disruption Morphology (2006)
Peek, J. E. G., Putman, M. E., McKee, Christopher F., Heiles, Carl, Stanimirovic, Snezana
We present Arecibo L-band Feed Array 21-cm observations of a sub-complex of HVCs at the tip of the Anti-Center Complex. These observations show morphological details that point to interaction with...
Krumholz, Mark R., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F.
We simulate the early stages of the evolution of turbulent, virialized, high-mass protostellar cores, with primary attention to how cores fragment, and whether they form a small or large number of...
Krumholz, Mark R., Matzner, Christopher D., McKee, Christopher F.
We present semi-analytic dynamical models for giant molecular clouds evolving under the influence of HII regions launched by newborn star clusters. In contrast to previous work, we neither assume...
Equilibrium Star Cluster Formation (2006)
Tan, Jonathan C., Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F.
We argue that rich star clusters take at least several local dynamical times to form, and so are quasi-equilibrium structures during their assembly. Observations supporting this conclusion include...
Nakamura, Fumitaka, McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I., Fisher, Robert T.
The effect of smooth cloud boundaries on the interaction of steady planar shock waves with interstellar clouds is studied using a high-resolution local AMR technique with a second-order accurate...
Radiation Pressure in Massive Star Formation (2005)
Krumholz, Mark R., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F.
Stars with masses of >~ 20 solar masses have short Kelvin times that enable them to reach the main sequence while still accreting from their natal clouds. The resulting nuclear burning produces a...
Bondi-Hoyle Accretion in a Turbulent Medium (2005)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I.
The Bondi-Hoyle formula gives the approximate accretion rate onto a point particle accreting from a uniform medium. However, in many situations accretion onto point particles occurs from media that...
Stars Form By Gravitational Collapse, Not Competitive Accretion (2005)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I.
There are now two dominant models of how stars form: gravitational collapse theory holds that star-forming molecular clumps, typically hundreds to thousands of solar masses in mass, fragment into...
Chakrabarti, Sukanya, McKee, Christopher F.
We present analytic radiative transfer solutions for the spectra of unresolved, spherically symmetric, centrally heated, dusty sources. We find that the dust thermal spectrum possesses scaling...
A General Theory of Turbulence-Regulated Star Formation, From Spirals to ULIRGs (2005)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F.
We derive an analytic prediction for the star formation rate in environments ranging from normal galactic disks to starbursts and ULIRGs in terms of the observables of those systems. Our calculation...
How Protostellar Outflows Help Massive Stars Form (2004)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I.
We consider the effects of an outflow on radiation escaping from the infalling envelope around a massive protostar. Using numerical radiative transfer calculations, we show that outflows with...
Bondi Accretion in the Presence of Vorticity (2004)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I.
The classical Bondi-Hoyle formula gives the accretion rate onto a point particle of a gas with a uniform density and velocity. However, the Bondi-Hoyle problem considers only gas with no net...
Feedback and Formation of Massive Star Clusters in Giant Molecular Clouds (2004)
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
It is well known that the energy input from massive stars dominates the thermal and mechanical heating of typical regions in the interstellar medium of galaxies. These effects are amplified...
Embedding Lagrangian Sink Particles in Eulerian Grids (2003)
Krumholz, Mark R., McKee, Christopher F., Klein, Richard I.
We introduce a new computational method for embedding Lagrangian sink particles into an Eulerian calculation. Simulations of gravitational collapse or accretion generally produce regions whose...
Outflow-Confined HII Regions and the Formation of Massive Stars by Accretion (2003)
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
If massive stars form by disk accretion, then bipolar outflows should be generated as in the case of low-mass star formation. High accretion rates lead to high outflow rates and make the wind density...
An unsplit, cell-centered Godunov method for ideal MHD (2003)
Crockett, Robert K., Colella, Phillip, Fisher, Robert T., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F.
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
We present a theoretical model for primordial star formation. First we describe the structure of the initial gas cores as virialized, quasi-hydrostatic objects in accord with recent high resolution...
Mass Limits to Primordial Star Formation from Protostellar Feedback (2002)
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
How massive were the first stars? This question is of fundamental importance for galaxy formation and cosmic reionization. Here we consider how protostellar feedback can limit the mass of a forming...
The Formation of Massive Stars from Turbulent Cores (2002)
McKee, Christopher F., Tan, Jonathan C.
Observations indicate that massive stars form in regions of very high surface density, ~1 g cm^-2. Clusters containing massive stars and globular clusters have a comparable column density. The total...
Massive star formation in 100,000 years from turbulent and pressurized molecular clouds (2002)
McKee, Christopher F., Tan, Jonathan C.
Massive stars (with mass m_* > 8 solar masses) are fundamental to the evolution of galaxies, because they produce heavy elements, inject energy into the interstellar medium, and possibly regulate the...
The Formation of Massive Stars and Star Clusters (2002)
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
We model the formation of high-mass stars, specifying the accretion rate in terms of the instantaneous and final mass of the star, the ambient pressure of the star-forming region and the form of...
Time Dependence of the Ultraviolet Radiation Field in the Local Interstellar Medium (2002)
Parravano, Antonio, Hollenbach, David J., McKee, Christopher F.
Far Ultraviolet radiation has been recognized as the main source of heating of the neutral interstellar gas, and, as a consequence, it determines whether the thermal balance of the neutral gas...
Trans-Relativistic Supernovae, Circumstellar Gamma-Ray Bursts, and Supernova 1998bw (2001)
Matzner, Christopher D., Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
Supernova (SN) 1998bw and gamma-ray burst (GRB) 980425 offer the first direct evidence that supernovae are the progenitors of some GRBs. However, this burst was unusually dim, smooth and soft...
The Trans-Relativistic Blast Wave Model for SN 1998bw and GRB 980425 (2001)
Tan, Jonathan C., Matzner, Christopher D., McKee, Christopher F.
The spatiotemporal coincidence of supernova (SN) 1998bw and gamma-ray burst (GRB) 980425 and this supernova's unusual optical and radio properties have prompted many theoretical models that produce...
Young Supernova Remnants: Issues and Prospects (2001)
After reviewing recent work on the dynamics of young supernova remnants (YSNRs) and discussing how YSNRs can be used as physics laboratories, I discuss several challenges: Where are the very young...
Trans-Relativistic Blast Waves in Supernovae as Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors (2000)
Tan, Jonathan C., Matzner, Christopher D., McKee, Christopher F.
We investigate the acceleration of shock waves to relativistic velocities in the outer layers of exploding stars. By concentrating the explosion energy in the outermost ejecta, such...
The Genesis of Super Star Clusters as Self-Gravitating HII Regions (2000)
Tan, Jonathan C., McKee, Christopher F.
We examine the effects of ionization, radiation pressure and main sequence winds from massive stars on self-gravitating, clumpy molecular clouds, thereby modeling the formation and pre-supernova...
Polytropes: Implications for Molecular Clouds and Dark Matter (2000)
Polytropic models are reasonably successful in acounting for the observed features of molecular clouds. Multi-pressure polytropes include the various pressure components that are important in...
Efficiencies of Low-Mass Star and Star Cluster Formation (2000)
Matzner, Christopher D., McKee, Christopher F.
Using a quantitative model for bipolar outflows driven by hydromagnetic protostellar winds, we calculate the efficiency of star formation assuming that available gas is either converted into stars or...
Photoionization of Galactic Halo Gas by Old Supernova Remnants (2000)
Slavin, Jonathan D., McKee, Christopher F., Hollenbach, David J.
We present new calculations on the contribution from cooling hot gas to the photoionization of warm ionized gas in the Galaxy. We show that hot gas in cooling supernova remnants (SNRs) is an...
Bipolar molecular outflows driven by hydromagnetic protostellar winds (1999)
Matzner, Christopher D., McKee, Christopher F.
We demonstrate that magnetically-collimated protostellar winds will sweep ambient material into thin, radiative, momentum-conserving shells whose features reproduce those commonly observed in bipolar...
Composite Polytrope Models of Molecular Clouds. I. Theory (1999)
Curry, Charles L., McKee, Christopher F.
We construct spherical, hydrostatic models of dense molecular cores and Bok globules consisting of two distinct, spatially separate gas components: a central, isothermal region surrounded by a...
McKee, Christopher F., Holliman, John H.
Molecular clouds are supported by thermal pressure, magnetic pressure, and turbulent pressure. Each of these can be modeled with a polytropic equation of state, so that overall the total pressure is...
The Structure and Evolution of Molecular Clouds: from Clumps to Cores to the IMF (1999)
Williams, Jonathan P., Blitz, Leo, McKee, Christopher F.
We review the progress that has been made in observing and analyzing molecular cloud structure in recent years. Structures are self-similar over a wide range of scales with similar power law indices...
The Dynamical Structure and Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds (1999)
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the sites of star formation in the Galaxy. Many of their properties can be understood in terms of a model in which the GMCs and the star-forming clumps within them...
The Expulsion of Stellar Envelopes in Core-Collapse Supernovae (1998)
Matzner, Christopher D., McKee, Christopher F.
We examine the relation between presupernova stellar structure and the distribution of ejecta in core-collapse supernovae, assuming adiabatic, spherically symmetric flow. We develop a simple yet...
Gravitational Collapse and Fragmentation in Molecular Clouds with Adaptive Mesh Refinement (1998)
Klein, Richard I., Fisher, Robert T., McKee, Christopher F., Truelove, J. Kelly
We describe a powerful methodology for numerical solution of 3-D self-gravitational hydrodynamics problems with extremely high resolution. Our method utilizes the technique of local adaptive mesh...
Doppler-Shift Asymmetry in High-Velocity Maser Emission from Shocks in Circumnuclear Disks (1997)
Maoz, Eyal, McKee, Christopher F.
SHORT VERSION: The rapidly rotating, masing circumnuclear disk in the central sub-parsec region of the galaxy NGC 4258 is remarkably circular and Keplerian, yet a striking asymmetry appears in the...
Accretion Disk Coronae in High Luminosity Systems (1994)
Murray, Stephen D., Castor, John I., Klein, Richard I., McKee, Christopher F.
We present the results of self-consistent models of Compton-heated accretion disk coronae. The models are calculated using a new method for computing monochromatic radiative transfer in...