Syllabus

The interstellar medium and its phases - dust - mol ecular clouds - virial theorem analysis. Star clusters - OB associations - T and R associations - initial mass function. Heating and cooling of clouds - cloud thermal structure - build up of mole cules - molecular transitions of H2, CO. Cloud equilibrium and stability - Jeans mass - isothermal spheres - basic magnetohydrodynamics - magnetic support - ambipolar diffusion - inside-out collapse - rotational effects. Collapse of dense cores - accretion - Deuterium burning - proto stellar disks - fragmentation - formation of binaries and stellar groups - jets and molecular ou tflows – masers. Formation of massive stars - monolithic collapse - competitive accretion - stell ar mergers. Effects of massive stars - hot cores - ultracompact HII regions - photoevaporation - ind uced star formation. Quasi-static contraction - nuclear reactions and stellar birth line - T-Tauri stars - Herbig Ae/Be stars - debris disks - planet formation in disks.