The similarity between the mass and spatial distributions of pre-stellar
gas cores in star-forming clouds and young stars in clusters provides
strong circumstantial evidence that these gas cores are the direct
progenitors of individual stars. I describe a physical model for the
evolution of massive cores into stars, starting with the intial phases of
collapse and fragmentation, through disk formation and fragmentation, the
later phases of stellar feedback, and finally interaction of the newly
formed stars with their environments. This model shows that a direct
mapping from cores to stars is the natural physical outcome of massive core
evolution, and thereby allows us to explain many of the properties of young
star clusters as direct imprints of their gas-phase progenitors.
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