Panel discussion II: Reconciling observations and modeling of star formation at high redshifts

Abstract

This is the written account of the second of two panel discussions, on "Reconciling observations and modeling of star formation at high redshifts". The chair of the panel was Pavel Kroupa, and panel members were Marc Balcells, John Beckman, Christopher Conselice, and Joseph Silk. After a short introduction by each of the panelists, panel and audience entered into a lively discussion, centered around the following six themes: the mass function of pre-stellar gas clouds; a possible top-heavy initial mass function at high redshifts versus mini-quasars as the first sources of ionization; the integrated galactic initial mass function; possible differences in specific star formation rates in disks and in massive galaxies; whether merging rates yield a wrong prediction for massive galaxies, and what is the physics behind the onset of the red sequence of galaxies; and the case of dark matter-dominated dwarf galaxies versus tidal dwarf galaxies.