Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Aug 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996ssrv...77..303m&link_type=abstract
Space Science Reviews, Volume 77, Issue 3-4, pp. 303-366
Mathematics
Logic
31
Scientific paper
Bursts of massive star formation can temporarily dominate the luminosity of galaxies spanning a wide range of morphological types. This review is concerned primarily with such events in the central ˜1 kpc region of spiral galaxies which result from bar driven inflows of gas triggered by interactions or mergers. Most of the stellar radiant luminosity of such bursts is absorbed by dust and re-emitted in the far-infrared and is accompanied by radio and X-ray emission from supernova remnants which can also act collectively to drive galaxy scale outflows. Both evolutionary stellar models and estimates of the gas depletion times are consistent with typical burst durations of 107 8 yr. Spatially-resolved studies of nearby starburst galaxies reveal that the activity is distributed over many individual star forming complexes within rings and other structures organized by interactions between bars and the disc over a range of scales. More distant and extreme examples associated with mergers of massive spirals have luminosities > 1013 L &sun; and molecular gas masses > 1010 M &sun; implying star formation rates > 1000 M &sun; yr-1 which can only be sustained for ˜ 107 yr. In the most luminous merging systems, however, the relative importance of starburst and AGN activity and their possible evolutionary connection is still a hotly debated issue. Also controversial are suggestions that starbursts in addition to a black hole are required to account for the properties of AGNs or that starbursts alone may be sufficient under certain conditions. In a wider context, starbursts must clearly have played an important role in galaxy formation and evolution at earlier times. Recent detections of high redshift galaxies show that star formation was underway at z ˜ 4 but do not support a continuing increase of the strong evolution in the co-moving star formation density seen out to z ˜ l. Primeval starburst pre-cursors of spheroidal systems also remain elusive. The most distant candidates are radio galaxies and quasars at z = 4 5 and a possible population of objects responsible for an isotropic sub-mm wave background tentatively claimed to have been detected by the COBE satellite.
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