Fragmentation 

          and

disk Formation

       during

    high-mass

star formation

(NOEMA large program)

 
What are the fragmentation properties of massive gas clumps during the formation of high-mass stars and their surrounding clusters? How do massive accretion disks form and what are their properties? These questions are central to understanding high-mass star formation. This NOEMA program addresses these issues from a statistical point of view. NOEMA in the 1.3mm/850mum bands and the extended configurations resolves the necessary spatial scales. It allow us to investigate a well- characterized northern sample of 20 high-mass star-forming regions with L > 10^4 L_sun and extensive complementary high-resolution NIR/MIR/cm data, which is not or only poorly accessible to ALMA. Combining the multi-wavelength data with the new NOEMA (sub)mm continuum and line observations at 0.2''-0.35' (<=1000AU) resolution is a powerful approach to systematically study important topics in high-mass star formation ranging from the fragmentation processes of the gas clumps, the disk formation and disk-fragmentation, infall processes in the molecular and ionized gas to the chemical evolution and inner jet/outflow properties.
 
 

The NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA)

Picture: Courtesy A. Rambaud