Computer Science
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009eimw.confe..12b&link_type=abstract
"The Evolving ISM in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies, The Fourth Spitzer Science Center Conference, Proceedings of the confere
Computer Science
Radio Lines: Galaxies, Radio Lines: Ism, Galaxies: Ism, Galaxies: Evolution
Scientific paper
We present results from a comprehensive analysis of the relation between HI, H_2, total gas (HI+H_2) and star formation rate surface density (ΣHI, ΣH2, Σgas and ΣSFR respectively) in 18 nearby galaxies (7 spirals and 11 HI-dominated dwarfs) at 750 pc resolution. We use high resolution HI data from THINGS, CO data from IRAM and BIMA, 24 μm data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and UV data from GALEX. We find that a Schmidt-type power law with index N=1.0 ± 0.2 relates ΣSFR and ΣH2 across our sample of spiral galaxies, i.e. that H_2 forms stars at a constant efficiency in spirals with an average molecular gas depletion time of ˜ 2 \cdot 10^9 years. We interpret the linear relation and constant depletion time as evidence that stars are forming in GMCs with approximately uniform properties and that ΣH2 may be more a measure of the filling fraction of giant molecular clouds than changing conditions in the molecular gas. We find no correlation between ΣHI and ΣSFR. The dwarf galaxies in our sample resemble the outer disks of spirals in ΣSFR-Σgas space. This is likely due to the similarity of both environments (low,density, low,metallicity, HI,dominated). We furthermore find a sharp saturation of ΣHI at ˜9 M&sun; pc-2 in both the spiral and the dwarf galaxies. For the spirals, we observe gas in excess of this cutoff to be molecular.
Bigiel Frank
Brinks Elias
deBlok W. J. G.
Leroy Adam
Madore Barry
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