Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter ALMA2040

Wednesday, 09 September 2026, 16:55   (MW-2235)

From Clouds to Disks: Revealing the Environmental Regulation of Star Formation with ALMA2040

Jaime Pineda
MPE

How do molecular clouds determine the properties of the stars and planetary systems that ultimately emerge from them? Recent observations show that star formation is an open process: dense cores and protostars continue to exchange mass and angular momentum with their surroundings through filaments, accretion flows, and streamers, while the chemical and ionization state of the environment regulates the coupling between gas and magnetic fields. I will highlight recent results, including from the PRODIGE programme, that reveal these connections across scales, and discuss the key observations needed to turn them into a predictive picture of star and disk formation. ALMA2040 will provide the sensitivity, resolution, bandwidth, and survey capabilities required to systematically trace these processes from molecular clouds to protostellar disks, across a much broader range of environments. This combination will allow us to move beyond isolated snapshots of star formation and directly quantify how the environment regulates the delivery of mass, angular momentum, and magnetic flux into forming stellar systems.