A large fraction of stars form in clusters containing high-mass stars, which affect the local and galaxy-wide environment. Yet fundamental questions about the physics responsible for fragmenting molecular Clumps into Cores are still open. What are the physical characteristics of core fragments in dense clumps as a function of evolution? To what extent is fragmentation driven by dynamics in clumps or mass transport in filaments?

ALMAGAL aims at observing 1mm continuum and lines toward more than 1000 dense clumps with M>500 M_sun and d < 7.5 kpc with similar linear resolution. The sample covers all evolutionary stages from IRDC to HII regions from the tip of the Bar to the outskirts of the Galaxy. The setup with 0.1 mJy sensitivity will enable a complete study of the clump-to-core fragmentation process down to at least 1000 AU and 0.3 M_sun Galaxy-wide, mapping the temperature and the local/global infall velocity patterns of the cores-hosting clumps. ALMAGAL publicly accessible data cubes and catalogs will be an invaluable legacy of ALMA, that will allow numerous community followup
studies.

ALMAGAL was approved in Cycle 7 and data started to be taken in October 2019.  We are in charge of the Scientific Working Group Physics.  See next picture for the data analysis framework.