A law for star formation in galaxies

Abstract

We study the galactic-scale triggering of star formation. We find that the largest mass scale not stabilized by rotation, a well-defined quantity in a rotating system and with clear dynamical meaning, strongly correlates with the star formation rate in a wide range of galaxies. We find that this relation can be understood in terms of self-regulation toward marginal Toomre stability and the amount of turbulence allowed to sustain the system in this self-regulated quasi-stationary state. We test such an interpretation by computing the predicted star formation rates for a galactic interstellar medium characterized by a lognormal probability distribution function and find good agreement with the observed relation. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..