Star formation in disk galaxies and its relation with spiral structure in numerical simulations

TL;DR

This study uses MHD simulations to analyze how spiral structures in disk galaxies are observed through various gas properties and how these properties influence star formation activity and spiral arm morphology.

Contribution

It introduces a new method for identifying and analyzing spiral structures in simulated galaxies across different gas tracers.

Findings

Spiral arms exhibit different shapes and widths depending on the gas property observed.

Star formation activity correlates with specific features of the spiral pattern.

The developed method effectively characterizes spiral structures across multiple gas tracers.

Abstract

The spiral structure of a spiral galaxy can be seen through different observational tracers such as the dust in the interstellar medium, the free electrons in ionized regions, the molecular gas, or the atomic hydrogen in H{\alpha} regions. In this work, we use an N-body simulation with Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) to investigate the spiral pattern and the star formation activity in the gas component of a disk galaxy. Some of the questions that we tackle include: how are galaxies observed through the different properties of the gas? Does the spiral structure of the galaxy change when we trace it with the different properties of the gas? Do the spiral arms in the simulation change its shape and width depending on what property we are "looking" through? Can we somehow model the shape of the arms to measure their width consistently? Does this model apply to all the properties? To answer these questions, we developed a method for the identification and extraction of the spiral structure in a disk galaxy. Using the results of this procedure, we further investigate the features of the spiral pattern through the different properties of the gas, with special attention to the star formation activity and how it behaves along and across the spiral structure.