The Origin of Stars and Planetary Systems

A collection of tutorial reviews that critically and systematically discuss the state of our knowledge of star formation and early stellar evolution, from the genesis of giant molecular clouds to the birth of young stars and their surrounding planetary systems. The chapters are written at the graduate student level by a group of 20 internationally distinguished scientists. The emphasis is on fundamentals rather than recent research results. The book thus provides a rigorous treatment of the basic empirical and theoretical foundations of star formation research.