Star formation scales and efficiency in Galactic spiral arms

TL;DR

This study examines star formation efficiency in Galactic spiral arms by analyzing infrared-selected young stellar objects and dense clumps, finding slight enhancements in spiral arms but no definitive influence on star formation rates.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of star formation indicators in spiral arms versus interarm regions using multi-wavelength surveys, highlighting the intrinsic variability of star formation efficiency.

Findings

Enhanced L_IR/M_clump ratio in spiral arms compared to interarm regions.

No significant difference in luminosity distribution between arm and interarm sources.

Strong linear correlation between L_IR and M_clump across environments.

Abstract

We positionally match a sample of infrared-selected young stellar objects (YSOs), identified by combining the Spitzer GLIMPSE, WISE and Herschel Space Observatory Hi-GAL surveys, to the dense clumps identified in the millimetre continuum by the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey in two Galactic lines of sight centred towards l = 30deg and l = 40deg. We calculate the ratio of infrared luminosity, L_IR, to the mass of the clump, M_clump, in a variety of Galactic environments and find it to be somewhat enhanced in spiral arms compared to the interarm regions when averaged over kiloparsec scales. We find no compelling evidence that these changes are due to the mechanical influence of the spiral arm on the star-formation efficiency rather than, e.g., different gradients in the star-formation rate due to patchy or intermittent star formation, or local variations that are not averaged out due to small source samples. The largest variation in L_IR/M_clump is found in individual clump values, which follow a log-normal distribution and have a range of over three orders of magnitude. This spread is intrinsic as no dependence of L_IR/M_clump with M_clump was found. No difference was found in the luminosity distribution of sources in the arm and interarm samples and a strong linear correlation was found between L_IR and M_clump.