scholarly journals Resolved Schmidt-Kennicutt Relation for Star Forming Regions in the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S292) ◽  
pp. 307-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.-H. R. Chen ◽  
R. Indebetouw ◽  
E. Muller ◽  
M. Messineo ◽  
K. M. Menten ◽  
...  

AbstractThe relationship between star formation rate (SFR) and the gas surface density (Σgas) is one of the most critical links between star formation and galaxy evolution. The observed SFR- Σgas relation, the “Schmidt-Kennicutt (S-K) law”, is tight when properties are averaged over kpc, but breaks down at the scale of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). To understand the physics governing the variations at GMC scales and the tight correlation at kpc scales, spatially and temporally resolved data covering a wide range of linear scale are needed. We have used the Spitzer surveys of the Large Magellanic Cloud and Magellanic Bridge to identify massive young stellar objects (YSOs), estimate “instantaneous” SFRs, and compare them to the S-K relation. These instantaneous SFRs are further compared to that estimated from integrated Hα and 24 μm luminosities to examine how SFRs vary on 10 Myr timescales. We have also used SINFONI near-IR integral field spectra of two Galactic mini-starbursts W31 and W43 to determine their underlying massive stellar content, estimate the SFRs, and compare to the S-K relation. To investigate evironmental effects on star formation, we have used complete YSO samples in the LMC and the Bridge to estimate global star formation efficiencies (SFE) in these two systems.

Author(s):  
Ryohei Harada ◽  
Toshikazu Onishi ◽  
Kazuki Tokuda ◽  
Sarolta Zahorecz ◽  
Annie Hughes ◽  
...  

Abstract The aim of this study is to characterize the distribution and basic properties of the natal gas associated with high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) in isolated environments in the Large Magellanic Cloud. High-mass stars usually form in giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as part of a young stellar cluster, but some OB stars are observed far from GMCs. By examining the spatial coincidence between the high-mass YSOs and 12CO (J = 1–0) emission detected by NANTEN and Mopra observations, we selected ten high-mass YSOs that are located away from any of the NANTEN clouds but are detected by the Mopra pointed observations. The ALMA observations revealed that a compact molecular cloud whose mass is a few thousand solar masses or smaller is associated with the high-mass YSOs, which indicates that these compact clouds are the sites of high-mass star formation. The high density and high temperature throughout the clouds are explained by the severe photodissociation of CO due to the lower metallicity than in the Galaxy. The star formation efficiency ranges from several to as high as ∼40%, indicating efficient star formation in these environments. The enhanced turbulence may be a cause of the efficient star formation therein, as judged from the gas velocity information and the association with the lower density gas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (S345) ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Josefa E. Großschedl ◽  
João Alves ◽  
Stefan Meingast ◽  
Birgit Hasenberger

AbstractThe giant molecular cloud Orion A is the closest massive star-forming region to earth (d ∼ 400 pc). It contains the rich Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) in the North, and low-mass star-forming regions (L1641, L1647) to the South. To get a better understanding of the differences in star formation activity, we perform an analysis of the gas mass distribution and star formation rate across the cloud. We find that the gas is roughly uniformly distributed, while, oddly, the ONC region produced about a factor of ten more stars compared to the rest of the cloud. For a better interpretation of this phenomenon, we use Gaia DR2 parallaxes, to analyse distances of young stellar objects, using them as proxy for cloud distances. We find that the ONC region indeed lies at about 400 pc while the low-mass star-forming parts are inclined about 70∘ from the plane of the sky reaching until ∼470 pc. With this we estimate that Orion A is an about 90 pc long filamentary cloud (about twice as long as previously assumed), with its “Head” (the ONC region) being “bent” and oriented towards the galactic mid-plane. This striking new view allows us to perform a more robust analysis of this important star-forming region in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (1) ◽  
pp. 815-820
Author(s):  
Eric G Blackman

ABSTRACT Molecular cloud complexes exhibit both (i) an unfettered Larson-type spectrum over much of their dynamic range, whilst (ii) still producing a much lower star formation rate than were this cascade to remain unfettered all the way down to star-forming scales. Here we explain the compatibility of these attributes with minimalist considerations of a mass-conserving fragmentation cascade, combined with estimates of stellar feedback. Of importance is that the amount of feedback needed to abate fragmentation and truncate the complex decreases with decreasing scale. The scale at which the feedback momentum matches the free-fall momentum marks a transition scale below most of the cascade is truncated and the molecular cloud complex dissipated. For a 106 M⊙ giant molecular cloud (GMC) complex starting with radius of ∼50 pc, the combined feedback from young stellar objects, supernovae, radiation, and stellar winds for a GMC cloud complex can truncate the cascade within an outer free-fall time but only after the cascade reaches parsec scales.


2017 ◽  
Vol 605 ◽  
pp. A35 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Palmeirim ◽  
A. Zavagno ◽  
D. Elia ◽  
T. J. T. Moore ◽  
A. Whitworth ◽  
...  

We present a comprehensive statistical analysis of star-forming objects located in the vicinities of 1360 bubble structures throughout the Galactic plane and their local environments. The compilation of ~70 000 star-forming sources, found in the proximity of the ionized (Hii) regions and detected in both Hi-GAL and GLIMPSE surveys, provided a broad overview of the different evolutionary stages of star-formation in bubbles, from prestellar objects to more evolved young stellar objects (YSOs). Surface density maps of star-forming objects clearly reveal an evolutionary trend where more evolved star-forming objects (Class II YSO candidates) are found spatially located near the center, while younger star-forming objects are found at the edge of the bubbles. We derived dynamic ages for a subsample of 182 H ii regions for which kinematic distances and radio continuum flux measurements were available. We detect approximately 80% more star-forming sources per unit area in the direction of bubbles than in the surrounding fields. We estimate the clump formation efficiency (CFE) of Hi-GAL clumps in the direction of the shell of the bubbles to be ~15%, around twice the value of the CFE in fields that are not affected by feedback effects. We find that the higher values of CFE are mostly due to the higher CFE of protostellar clumps, in particular in younger bubbles, whose density of the bubble shells is higher. We argue that the formation rate from prestellar to protostellar phase is probably higher during the early stages of the (H ii ) bubble expansion. Furthermore, we also find a higher fraction of massive YSOs (MYSOs) in bubbles at the early stages of expansion (<2 Myr) than older bubbles. Evaluation of the fragmentation time inside the shell of bubbles advocates the preexistence of clumps in the medium before the bubble expansion in order to explain the formation of MYSOs in the youngest H ii regions (<1 Myr), as supported by numerical simulations. Approximately 23% of the Hi-GAL clumps are found located in the direction of a bubble, with 15% for prestellar clumps and 41% for protostellar clumps. We argue that the high fraction of protostellar clumps may be due to the acceleration of the star-formation process cause by the feedback of the (Hii) bubbles.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 378-383
Author(s):  
Mark R. Krumholz

AbstractOne of the outstanding puzzles about star formation is why it proceeds so slowly. Giant molecular clouds convert only a few percent of their gas into stars per free-fall time, and recent observations show that this low star formation rate is essentially constant over a range of scales from individual cluster-forming molecular clumps in the Milky Way to entire starburst galaxies. This striking result is perhaps the most basic fact that any theory of star formation must explain. I argue that a model in which star formation occurs in virialized structures at a rate regulated by supersonic turbulence can explain this observation. The turbulence in turn is driven by star formation feedback, which injects energy to offset radiation from isothermal shocks and keeps star-forming structures from wandering too far from virial balance. This model is able to reproduce observational results covering a wide range of scales, from the formation times of young clusters to the extragalactic IR-HCN correlation, and makes additional quantitative predictions that will be testable in the next few years.


2018 ◽  
Vol 609 ◽  
pp. A82 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Bisigello ◽  
K. I. Caputi ◽  
N. Grogin ◽  
A. Koekemoer

The analysis of galaxies on the star formation rate-stellar mass (SFR–M∗) plane is a powerful diagnostic for galaxy evolution at different cosmic times. We consider a sample of 24 463 galaxies from the CANDELS/GOODS-S survey to conduct a detailed analysis of the SFR–M∗ relation at redshifts 0.5 ⩽ z<3 over more than three dex in stellar mass. To obtain SFR estimates, we utilise mid- and far-IR photometry when available, and rest-UV fluxes for all the other galaxies. We perform our analysis in different redshift bins, with two different methods: 1) a linear regression fitting of all star-forming galaxies, defined as those with specific SFRs log 10(sSFR/ yr-1) > −9.8, similarly to what is typically done in the literature; 2) a multi-Gaussian decomposition to identify the galaxy main sequence (MS), the starburst sequence and the quenched galaxy cloud. We find that the MS slope becomes flatter when higher stellar mass cuts are adopted, and that the apparent slope change observed at high masses depends on the SFR estimation method. In addition, the multi-Gaussian decomposition reveals the presence of a starburst population which increases towards low stellar masses and high redshifts. We find that starbursts make up ~ 5% of all galaxies at z = 0.5−1.0, while they account for ~ 16% of galaxies at 2 <z< 3 with log10(M∗/M0) = 8.25–11.25. We conclude that the dissection of the SFR–M∗ in multiple components over a wide range of stellar masses is necessary to understand the importance of the different modes of star formation through cosmic time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 504 (2) ◽  
pp. 2325-2345
Author(s):  
Emanuel Sillero ◽  
Patricia B Tissera ◽  
Diego G Lambas ◽  
Stefano Bovino ◽  
Dominik R Schleicher ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present p-gadget3-k, an updated version of gadget-3, that incorporates the chemistry package krome. p-gadget3-k follows the hydrodynamical and chemical evolution of cosmic structures, incorporating the chemistry and cooling of H2 and metal cooling in non-equilibrium. We performed different runs of the same ICs to assess the impact of various physical parameters and prescriptions, namely gas metallicity, molecular hydrogen formation on dust, star formation recipes including or not H2 dependence, and the effects of numerical resolution. We find that the characteristics of the simulated systems, both globally and at kpc-scales, are in good agreement with several observable properties of molecular gas in star-forming galaxies. The surface density profiles of star formation rate (SFR) and H2 are found to vary with the clumping factor and resolution. In agreement with previous results, the chemical enrichment of the gas component is found to be a key ingredient to model the formation and distribution of H2 as a function of gas density and temperature. A star formation algorithm that takes into account the H2 fraction together with a treatment for the local stellar radiation field improves the agreement with observed H2 abundances over a wide range of gas densities and with the molecular Kennicutt–Schmidt law, implying a more realistic modelling of the star formation process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (2) ◽  
pp. 2347-2366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Quai ◽  
Lucia Pozzetti ◽  
Michele Moresco ◽  
Annalisa Citro ◽  
Andrea Cimatti ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Understanding when, how, and where star formation ceased (quenching) within galaxies is still a critical subject in galaxy evolution studies. Taking advantage of the new methodology developed by Quai et al. to select recently quenched galaxies, we explored the spatial information provided by the IFU data to get critical insights on this process. In particular, we analyse 10 SDSS-IV MaNGA galaxies that show regions with low [O iii]/H α compatible with a recent quenching of the star formation. We compare the properties of these 10 galaxies with those of a control sample of 8 MaNGA galaxies with ongoing star formation in the same stellar mass, redshift, and gas-phase metallicity range. The quenching regions found are located between 0.5 and 1.1 effective radii from the centre. This result is supported by the analysis of the average radial profile of the ionization parameter, which reaches a minimum at the same radii, while the one of the star-forming sample shows an almost flat trend. These quenching regions occupy a total area between ∼ 15 and 45 per cent of our galaxies. Moreover, the average radial profile of the star formation rate surface density of our sample is lower and flatter than that of the control sample, at any radii, suggesting a systematic suppression of the star formation in the inner part of our galaxies. Finally, the radial profiles of gas-phase metallicity of the two samples have a similar slope and normalization. Our results cannot be ascribed to a difference in the intrinsic properties of the analysed galaxies, suggesting a quenching scenario more complicated than a simple inside-out quenching.


1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 343-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Smecker-Hane ◽  
J. S. Gallagher ◽  
Andrew Cole ◽  
P. B. Stetson ◽  
E. Tolstoy

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is unique among galaxies in the Local Group in that it is the most massive non-spiral, is relatively gas-rich, and is actively forming stars. Determining its star-formation rate (SFR) as a function of time will be a cornerstone in our understanding of galaxy evolution. The best method of deriving a galaxy's past SFR is to compare the densities of stars in a color-magnitude diagram (CMD), a Hess diagram, with model Hess diagrams. The LMC has a complex stellar population with ages ranging from 0 to ~ 14 Gyr and metallicities from −2 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ −0.4, and deriving its SFR and simultaneously constraining model input parameters (distance, age-metallicity relation, reddening, and stellar models) requires well-populated CMDs that span the magnitude range 15 ≤ V ≤ 24. Although existing CMDs of field stars in the LMC show tantalizing evidence for a significant burst of star formation that occurred ~ 3 Gyr ago (for examples, see Westerlund et al. 1995; Vallenari et al. 1996; Elson, et al. 1997; Gallagher et al. 1999, and references therein), estimates of the enhancement in the SFR vary from factors of 3 to 50. This uncertainty is caused by the relatively large photometric errors that plague crowded ground-based images, and the small number statistics that plague CMDs created from single Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) images.


2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (3) ◽  
pp. 3128-3141 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Rodríguez-Kamenetzky ◽  
C Carrasco-González ◽  
J M Torrelles ◽  
W H T Vlemmings ◽  
L F Rodríguez ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The massive star-forming region W75N (B) is thought to host a cluster of massive protostars (VLA 1, VLA 2, and VLA 3) undergoing different evolutionary stages. In this work, we present radio continuum data with the highest sensitivity and angular resolution obtained to date in this region, using the VLA-A and covering a wide range of frequencies (4–48 GHz), which allowed us to study the morphology and the nature of the emission of the different radio continuum sources. We also performed complementary studies with multi-epoch Very Large Array (VLA) data and Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) archive data at 1.3 mm wavelength. We find that VLA 1 is driving a thermal radio jet at scales of ≈0.1 arcsec (≈130 au), but also shows signs of an incipient hypercompact H ii region at scales of ≲1 arcsec (≲1300 au). VLA 3 is also driving a thermal radio jet at scales of a few tenths of arcsec (few hundred of au). We conclude that this jet is shock exciting the radio continuum sources Bc and VLA 4 (obscured Herbig–Haro objects), which show proper motions moving outward from VLA 3 at velocities of ≈112–118 km s−1. We have also detected three new weak radio continuum sources, two of them associated with millimetre continuum cores observed with ALMA, suggesting that these two sources are also embedded young stellar objects in this massive star-forming region.


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