Star Formation Timescales and the Schmidt Law

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new parameterization of star formation rates in galaxies that accounts for different timescales and explains the observed non-linear Schmidt law dependence on gas density.

Contribution

It introduces a model decoupling cloud collapse timescales from disruptive effects, fitting observed non-linear star formation laws in galaxies.

Findings

The model predicts linear star formation at high gas densities.

It accounts for the observed upturn at high column densities.

The parameterization explains scatter in empirical relations.

Abstract

We offer a simple parameterization of the rate of star formation in galaxies. In this new approach, we make explicit and decouple the timescales associated (a) with disruptive effects the star formation event itself, from (b) the timescales associated with the cloud assembly and collapse mechanisms leading up to star formation. The star formation law in near-by galaxies, as measured on sub-kiloparsec scales, has recently been shown by Bigiel et al. to be distinctly non-linear in its dependence on total gas density. Our parameterization of the spatially resolved Schmidt-Sanduleak relation naturally accommodates that dependence. The parameterized form of the relation is rho_* ~ epsilon x rho_g/(tau_s + rho_g ^{-n}), where rho_g is the gas density, epsilon is the efficiency of converting gas into stars, and rho_g^{-n} captures the physics of cloud collapse. Accordingly at high gas densities quiescent star formation is predicted to progress as rho_* ~ rho_g, while at low gas densities rho_* ~ rho_g^{1+n}, as is now generally observed. A variable efficiency in locally converting gas into stars as well as the unknown plane thickness variations from galaxy to galaxy, and radially within a given galaxy, can readily account for the empirical scatter in the observed (surface density rather than volume density) relations, and also plausibly account for the noted upturn in the relation at very high apparent projected column densities.