Related papers: Star Formation Thresholds
Empirical star formation laws from the last 20 years are reviewed with a comparison to simulations. The current form in main galaxy disks has a linear relationship between the star formation rate per unit area and the molecular cloud mass…
We present a general star formation law where star formation rate depends upon efficiency $\alpha$, timescale $\tau$ of star formation, gas component $\sigma_{g}$ of surface mass density and a real exponent $n$. A given exponent $n$…
Through the study of two absorption spectral features in the optical range (Mg2 and the 4000 A break), we find evidence for star formation in the inner regions of cooling-flow galaxies. The application of simple stellar population models…
We argue that gravitational instability of typical protostellar disks is not a viable mechanism for the fragmentation into multiple systems -- binary stars, brown dwarf companions, or gas giant planets -- except at periods above roughly…
We applied a criterion of gravitational instability, valid for two-component and infinitesimally thin discs, to observational data along the major axis for 7 spiral galaxies of early types. Unlike most papers, the dispersion equation…
Local gravitational instability (LGI) is considered crucial for regulating star formation and gas turbulence in galaxy discs, especially at high redshift. Instability criteria usually assume infinitesimally thin discs or rely on…
We propose a simple theoretical model for star formation in which the local star formation rate in a galaxy is determined by three factors. First, the interplay between the interstellar radiation field and molecular self-shielding…
We present new semi-analytical models for the formation of disk galaxies with the purpose of investigating the origin of the near-infrared Tully-Fisher (TF) relation. The models assume that disks are formed by cooling of the baryons inside…
We invoke star formation triggered by cloud-cloud collisions to explain global star formation rates of disk galaxies and circumnuclear starbursts. Previous theories based on the growth rate of gravitational perturbations ignore the…
We use a high-resolution grid-based hydrodynamics method to simulate the multi-phase interstellar medium in a Milky Way-size quiescent disk galaxy. The models are global and three-dimensional, and include a treatment of star formation and…
Gravitational instabilities play a primary role in shaping the clumpy structure and powering the star formation activity of gas-rich high-redshift galaxies. Here we analyse the stability of such systems, focusing on the size and mass ranges…
We study the galactic-scale triggering of star formation. We find that the largest mass-scale not stabilized by rotation, a well defined quantity in a rotating system and with clear dynamical meaning, strongly correlates with the star…
(ABBREVIATED) Understanding the formation of stars in galaxies is central to much of modern astrophysics. In this review the relation between interstellar turbulence and star formation is discussed. Supersonic turbulence can provide support…
Large-scale star formation in disk galaxies is hypothesized to be driven by global gravitational instability. The observed gas surface density is commonly used to compute the strength of gravitational instability, but according to this…
Stars form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest and most massive…
The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way harbours gas densities, pressures, velocity dispersions, an interstellar radiation field and a cosmic ray ionisation rate orders of magnitude higher than the disc; akin to the environment found…
Although the basic physics of star formation is classical, numerical simulations have yielded essential insights into how stars form. They show that star formation is a highly nonuniform runaway process characterized by the emergence of…
A large fraction of the gas in the Galaxy is cold, dense, and molecular. If all this gas collapsed under the influence of gravity and formed stars in a local free-fall time, the star formation rate in the Galaxy would exceed that observed…
(Abridged). We model gravitational instability in a wide range of isolated disk galaxies, using GADGET, a three-dimensional, smoothed particle hydrodynamics code. The model galaxies include a dark matter halo and a disk of stars and…
Self-regulation of star formation in disks is controlled by two dimensionless parameters: the Toomre parameter for gravitational instability and the porosity of the interstellar medium to supernova remnant-heated gas. An interplay between…