Unveiling star formation at sub-solar metallicity with ALMA2040
Abstract
A fundamental question in astrophysics is whether the processes governing star formation are universal or depend on the physical conditions of their local galactic environment. The Milky Way and the Magellanic clouds offer ideal laboratories to explore this question, as the gas conditions in them span up to orders of magnitude in metallicity, gas surface density, ambient pressure, dust abundance, radiation field, and cosmic-ray flux. In particular, both the outer Milky Way and the Magellanic clouds provide the closest low-metallicity environments with conditions similar to those of metal-poor galaxies, while remaining sufficiently close to soon allow spatial resolution of individual star-forming cores and disks. Recent observations with ALMA and other facilities have begun to unveil the physical and chemical properties of star-forming regions in low-metallicity environments. Yet, their distances from the Sun still require transformational gains in current ALMA capabilities to address fundamental open questions: (1) Are the properties of prestellar cores universal? (2) Does cloud fragmentation, and the resulting stellar IMF, depend critically on metallicity? (3) How does dust evolution depend on metallicity, and what is the impact in the survival of protoplanetary disks? (4) Is the reduced amount of metals and dust shielding at low metallicity critical for the formation and survival of molecules? ALMA2040 will identify similarities and differences between solar- and sub-solar-metallicity star-forming regions, and answer the question: how do different environmental conditions influence the physical and chemical pathways leading to star formation?
Related
- ALMA2040: Mapping the Spatially Resolved Dust and Star Formation Physics Driving High-z Galaxy Assembly
- ALMA2040: Understanding the Early Assembly of Galaxies - The Formation of Star-Forming Clumps and their Role in Shaping Galaxy Evolution
- Low-Metallicity Star Formation Survey in Sh2-284 (LZ-STAR): The Core Mass Function
- Metallicity Dilution Without a Detectable Star Formation Difference in Morphologically Disturbed versus Quiet Early-Type Galaxies
- Dependence of Merger-driven Star Formation and Gas-phase Metallicity Evolution on Merger Type and Stellar Mass
BibTeX
@misc{fontani2026unveiling,
title = {{Unveiling star formation at sub-solar metallicity with ALMA2040}},
author = {Francesco Fontani and Frédérique Motte and Maria T. Beltrán and Jan Forbrich and Jes Jørgensen and Timea Csengeri and Laura Colzi and Victor M. Rivilla and Giovanni Sabatini and Álvaro Sánchez-Monge and Peter Schilke and Fengwei Xu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.21331},
eprint = {2610.21331},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.21331},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Unveiling star formation at sub-solar metallicity with ALMA2040
AU - Francesco Fontani
AU - Frédérique Motte
AU - Maria T. Beltrán
AU - Jan Forbrich
AU - Jes Jørgensen
AU - Timea Csengeri
AU - Laura Colzi
AU - Victor M. Rivilla
AU - Giovanni Sabatini
AU - Álvaro Sánchez-Monge
AU - Peter Schilke
AU - Fengwei Xu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.21331
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.21331
AB - A fundamental question in astrophysics is whether the processes governing star formation are universal or depend on the physical conditions of their local galactic environment. The Milky Way and the Magellanic clouds offer ideal laboratories to explore this question, as the gas conditions in them span up to orders of magnitude in metallicity, gas surface density, ambient pressure, dust abundance, radiation field, and cosmic-ray flux. In particular, both the outer Milky Way and the Magellanic clouds provide the closest low-metallicity environments with conditions similar to those of metal-poor galaxies, while remaining sufficiently close to soon allow spatial resolution of individual star-forming cores and disks. Recent observations with ALMA and other facilities have begun to unveil the physical and chemical properties of star-forming regions in low-metallicity environments. Yet, their distances from the Sun still require transformational gains in current ALMA capabilities to address fundamental open questions: (1) Are the properties of prestellar cores universal? (2) Does cloud fragmentation, and the resulting stellar IMF, depend critically on metallicity? (3) How does dust evolution depend on metallicity, and what is the impact in the survival of protoplanetary disks? (4) Is the reduced amount of metals and dust shielding at low metallicity critical for the formation and survival of molecules? ALMA2040 will identify similarities and differences between solar- and sub-solar-metallicity star-forming regions, and answer the question: how do different environmental conditions influence the physical and chemical pathways leading to star formation?
ER -