Galactic star formation in parsec-scale resolution simulations

The New Frontier: Galactic–Scale Star Formation

The arena of investigation of star formation and its scaling laws is slowly, but consistently, shifting from the realm of luminous galaxies to that of faint ones and to sub–galactic regions, as existing and new facilities enable investigators to probe regions of the combined parameter space of surface brightness, wavelength, and angular resolution that were inaccessible until a few years ago. W...

Self-Organized Large-Scale Coherence in Simulations of Galactic Star Formation

It is often assumed that galaxies cannot generate large-scale coherent star-forming activity without some organizing agent, such as spiral density waves, bars, large-scale instabilities, or external perturbations due to encounters with other galaxies. We present simulations of a simple model of star formation in which local spatial couplings lead to large-scale coherent, and even synchronized, ...

Outflow Feedback Regulated Massive Star Formation in Parsec-Scale Cluster Forming Clumps

We investigate massive star formation in turbulent, magnetized, parsec-scale clumps of molecular clouds including protostellar outflow feedback using three dimensional numerical simulations of effective resolution 2048. The calculations are carried out using a block structured adaptive mesh refinement code that solves the ideal MHD equations including self-gravity and implements accreting sink ...

Star Formation and Galactic Evolution

Star Formation Thresholds in Galactic Disks

We report the first results of a detailed study of the star formation law in a sample of 32 nearby spiral galaxies with well-measured rotation curves, HI and H2 (as traced by CO) surface density profiles, and new Hα CCD photometry. In this paper we present an atlas of Hα images and radial surface brightness profiles and describe a surface-density threshold in the star formation law. Prominent b...