Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:03:19.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A universal, turbulence-regulated, multi-freefall star formation law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

Christoph Federrath
Affiliation:
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia email: [email protected]
Diane M. Salim
Affiliation:
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia email: [email protected]
Lisa J. Kewley
Affiliation:
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We develop a new star formation (SF) law based on the density PDF of turbulence and on the multi-freefall concept of gas collapse. We derive a relation where the star formation rate (SFR) correlates with the molecular gas mass per multi-freefall time, whereas previous models had used the average, single-freefall time. We define a new quantity called maximum (multi-freefall) gas consumption rate (MGCR) and show that the actual SFR is only about 0.4% of this maximum possible SFR, confirming the observed low efficiency of star formation.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

Federrath, C. 2013, MNRAS, 436, 3167 Google Scholar
Federrath, C. & Klessen, R. S. 2012, ApJ, 761, 156 Google Scholar
Federrath, C., Klessen, R. S., & Schmidt, W. 2008, ApJ, 688, L79 Google Scholar
Federrath, C., Roman-Duval, J., Klessen, R. S., Schmidt, W. & Mac Low, M. 2010, A&A, 512, A81 Google Scholar
Hennebelle, P. & Chabrier, G. 2011, ApJ, 743, L29 Google Scholar
Kennicutt, R. C. & Evans, N. J. 2012, ARAA, 50, 531 Google Scholar
Krumholz, M. R. 2014, Physics Reports, 539, 49 Google Scholar
Krumholz, M. R., Dekel, A., & McKee, C. F. 2012, ApJ, 745, 69 Google Scholar
Padoan, P., Federrath, C., Chabrier, G., et al. 2014, in: Beuther, H., Klessen, R. S., Dullemond, C. P., & Henning, T. (eds.), Protostars and Planets VI, p. 77Google Scholar
Salim, D. M., Federrath, C., & Kewley, L. J. 2015, ApJ, 806, L36 Google Scholar