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Control of galactic scale star formation by gravitational instability or midplane pressure?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2011

Mordecai-Mark Mac Low
Mordecai-Mark Mac Low*
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA. email: mordecai@amnh.org
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Abstract

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Star formation in galaxies has been suggested to depend on large-scale gravitational instability or on the pressure required to form molecular hydrogen. I present numerical models and analysis of observations in support of the gravitational instability hypothesis. I also consider whether the correlation between the surface densities of molecular hydrogen and star formation implies causation, and if so in which direction.

Keywords

stars: formationgalaxies: evolutionISM: moleculesISM: cloudsISM: structure
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S270: Computational Star Formation , May 2010 , pp. 371 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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