Related papers: Star-formation laws in extreme starbursts
The observational study of star formation relations in galaxies is central to unraveling the physical processes at work on local and global scales. We wish to expand the sample of extreme starbursts, represented by local LIRGs and ULIRGs,…
We present new observations made with the IRAM 30m telescope of the J=1-0 and 3-2 lines of HCN and HCO^+ used to probe the dense molecular gas content in a sample of 17 local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs).…
We measure empirical relationships between the local star formation rate (SFR) and properties of the star-forming molecular gas on 1.5 kpc scales across 80 nearby galaxies. These relationships, commonly referred to as "star formation laws,"…
Active star formation (SF) is tightly related to the dense molecular gas in the giant molecular clouds' dense cores. Our HCN (measure of the dense molecular gas) survey in 65 galaxies (including 10 ultraluminous galaxies) reveals a tight…
The use of specific tracers of the dense molecular gas phase can help to explore the feedback of activity on the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies. This information is a key to any quantitative assessment of the efficiency of the star…
We derive a physical model for the observed relations between star formation rate (SFR) and molecular line (CO and HCN) emission in galaxies, and show how these observed relations are reflective of the underlying star formation law. We do…
Star formation laws are empirical relations between the cold gas (HI+H$_2$) content of a galaxy and its star formation rate (SFR), being crucial for any model of galaxy formation and evolution. A well known example of such laws is the…
The centers of bulges are formed dissipationally via gas inflows over short timescales: the 'starburst' mode of star formation (SF). Recent work has shown that detailed observations can be used to separate the stellar mass profile of these…
The Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relationship between the surface density of the star formation rate (SFR) and the gas surface density has three distinct power laws that may result from one model in which gas collapses at a fixed fraction of the…
Whilst the star formation rate (SFR) of molecular clouds and galaxies is key in understanding galaxy evolution, the physical processes which determine the SFR remain unclear. This uncertainty about the underlying physics has resulted in…
We study the global star formation law - the relation between the gas and star formation rate (SFR) in a sample of 130 local galaxies with infrared (IR) luminosities spanning over three orders of magnitude (10^9-10^12 Lsun), which includes…
We use observed radial profiles of mass surface densities of total, $\Sigma_g$, & molecular, $\Sigma_{\rm H2}$, gas, rotation velocity & star formation rate (SFR) surface density, $\Sigma_{\rm sfr}$, of the molecular-rich ($\Sigma_{\rm…
We derive an analytic prediction for the star formation rate in environments ranging from normal galactic disks to starbursts and ULIRGs in terms of the observables of those systems. Our calculation is based on three premises: (1) star…
We use simulations with realistic models for stellar feedback to study galaxy mergers. These high resolution (1 pc) simulations follow formation and destruction of individual GMCs and star clusters. The final starburst is dominated by in…
Star formation in disk galaxies is observed to follow the empirical Kennicutt-Schmidt law, a power-law relationship between the surface density of gas ($\Sigma_{gas}$) [$\textrm{M}_{\odot}\; \textrm{kpc}^{-2}$] and the star formation rate…
We investigate the enhancement of star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers, by numerical simulations of several hundred galaxy collisions. All morphological types along the Hubble sequence are considered in the initial…
Observations have revealed prodigious amounts of star formation in starburst galaxies as traced by dust and molecular emission, even at large redshifts. Recent work shows that for both nearby spiral galaxies and distant starbursts, the…
In order to understand what controls the star formation process in luminous starburst mergers (e.g., NGC 6240, Arp 220, and so on), we investigate observational properties of two samples of high-luminosity starburst galaxies mapped in…
Measurements of H-alpha, HI, and CO distributions in 61 normal spiral galaxies are combined with published far-infrared and CO observations of 36 infrared-selected starburst galaxies, in order to study the form of the global star formation…
(abridged) HCN luminosity Lhcn is a tracer of DENSE molecular gas, n(H_2) >~ 3x10^4 cm^{-3}, associated with star-forming giant molecular cloud (GMC) cores. We present the results and analysis of our survey of HCN emission from 65 infrared…