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Galactic-scale star formation by gravitational instability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Mordecai-Mark Mac Low ,
Yuexing Li  and
Ralf S. Klessen
Mordecai-Mark Mac Low
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street at Central Park West, New York NY 10024-5192, USA. Email: mordecai@amnh.org
Yuexing Li
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street at Central Park West, New York NY 10024-5192, USA. Email: mordecai@amnh.org Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Email: yxli@cfa.harvard.edu
Ralf S. Klessen
Affiliation:
Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Alber-Überle-Str. 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Email: rklessen@ita.uni-heidelberg.de
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Abstract

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We present numerical experiments that demonstrate that the nonlinear development of the Toomre instability in disks of isothermal gas, stars, and dark matter reproduces the observed Schmidt Law for star formation. The rate of gas collapse depends exponentially on the (minimum) value of the Toomre parameter in the disk. We demonstrate that spurious fragmentation occurs in the absence of sufficient resolution in our SPH model. Our models also reproduce observed star formation thresholds in disk galaxies. We finally briefly discuss the application of our models to the study of globular cluster formation in merging galaxies.

Keywords

hydrodynamicsinstabilitiesgalaxies: spiral
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S237: Triggered Star Formation in a Turbulent ISM , August 2006 , pp. 336 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

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