Star and Stellar Cluster Formation: ALMA-SKA Synergies

TL;DR

This paper discusses how upcoming ALMA and SKA observations will revolutionize our understanding of star formation by providing detailed data on mass assembly, accretion, and variability in young stars across different masses.

Contribution

It reviews ALMA's capabilities, recent early science results, and outlines a new SKA radio survey to systematically study radio variability in star-forming regions.

Findings

ALMA's early science has provided key insights into star formation processes.

A proposed SKA survey will generate extensive radio light-curves for young stars.

Radio variability studies will shed light on magnetospheric interactions and episodic accretion.

Abstract

Over the next decade, observations conducted with ALMA and the SKA will reveal the process of mass assembly and accretion onto young stars and will be revolutionary for studies of star formation. Here we summarise the capabilities of ALMA and discuss recent results from its early science observations. We then review infrared and radio variability observations of both young low-mass and high-mass stars. A time domain SKA radio continuum survey of star forming regions is then outlined. This survey will produce radio light-curves for hundreds of young sources, providing for the first time a systematic survey of radio variability across the full range of stellar masses. These light-curves will probe the magnetospheric interactions of young binary systems, the origins of outflows, trace episodic accretion on the central sources and potentially constrain the rotation rates of embedded sources.