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The Global Schmidt Law in Star-forming Galaxies

Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr. 1998 ApJ 498 541-552   doi: 10.1086/305588  Help

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Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr.1,2
1 Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
2 Visiting Astronomer, Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomical Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation

ABSTRACT. Measurements of Hα, H I, 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 law over the full range of gas densities and star formation rates (SFRs) observed in galaxies. The disk-averaged SFRs and gas densities for the combined sample are well represented by a Schmidt law with index N = 1.4 ± 0.15. The Schmidt law provides a surprisingly tight parametrization of the global star formation law, extending over several orders of magnitude in SFR and gas density. An alternative formulation of the star formation law, in which the SFR is presumed to scale with the ratio of the gas density to the average orbital timescale, also fits the data very well. Both descriptions provide potentially useful "recipes" for modeling the SFR in numerical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution.

Subject headings: galaxies: evolution; galaxies: ISM; galaxies: spiral; galaxies: starburst; galaxies: stellar content; stars: formation

Print publication: Issue 2 (1998 May 10)
Received 1997 October 6, accepted for publication 1997 December 23

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