Computer Science
Scientific paper
Dec 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999sf99.proc....3e&link_type=abstract
Star Formation 1999, Proceedings of Star Formation 1999, held in Nagoya, Japan, June 21 - 25, 1999, Editor: T. Nakamoto, Nobeyam
Computer Science
Scientific paper
Star formation on a galactic scale is regulated by the self-gravity of the gas, as shown by the Jeans-length spacing of giant cloud complexes along spiral arms and the sensitivity of the star formation rate to the gravitational stability parameter Q. Simple models based on this scenario reproduce the general properties of galactic star formation in both normal and starburst disks, and perhaps even the formation of the bulge. However, star formation is far more complex than this. It tends to follow the exponential disk and the distribution of old stars, rather than the radial dependence of the Q parameter alone, and it extends over a wide range of scales with few obvious connections between the processes that operate on small scales and those that operate on galactic scales. Spiral waves and pressurized shells also show no detailed influence on the overall rate. Moreover, the Jeans-mass condensations that form in spiral arms and starburst rings, and which house most of the star formation on smaller scales, are not collapsing as a whole, and neither are the giant molecular clouds. Indeed, the turbulence scaling relations suggest that all scales smaller than that of a gravitating cloud will be more stable than the cloud itself. One wonders then how stars form at all. This review summarizes the galactic star formation process and offers an explanation for how galactic processes regulate the conversion of gas into stars on a wide range of scales.
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