Over the past decades, the discovery of a large number of young massive clusters (YMCs) in the local Universe and giant clumps in high-z galaxies suggests that clustered star formation is the dominant star formation mode across cosmic time. Mass and energy feedback from these enormous clusters is inevitably responsible for shaping their host galaxies. In this talk, I will discuss the tight relationship between giant molecular clouds on small scales and galaxies on large scales and provide the first attempts to bring star formation and galaxy formation community together. On the one hand, the properties of YMCs and GMCs populations can be used to calibrate and help improve the current cosmological simulations. On the other hand, galaxy formation simulations provide the perfect initial conditions for the modeling GMCs in realistic environments. Finally, bringing together the collective wisdom from both galaxy and star formation, I will highlight some of my recent works on solving the mystery of the origin of globular cluster populations in the Universe.
BIO
Hui Li received his B.S. and M.S. in astronomy and astrophysics from Nanjing University in 2009 and 2012. He moved to the University of Michigan and obtained his Ph.D. in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Oleg Gnedin. He then joined the Mark Vogelsberger group at MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in Oct. 2017, first as a postdoctoral associate and then a Hubble fellow. Now he is working at Columbia University to continue his Hubble fellowship. Hui’s research focuses on studying the formation and evolution of young massive star clusters in a cosmological context across various scales using theoretical and numerical tools. He is also working on other astrophysical problems, such as the tidal disruption of massive clusters in a realistic galactic environment, the connection between young massive clusters formed at high-z and globular clusters observed in the local universe, the diversity of Milky Way-sized galaxies, the effect of anisotropic thermal conduction on AGN feedback, the origin of gamma-ray emission from cosmic rays accelerated in supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae.
Host:Cheng Li
