Context. The question of how most stars in the Universe form remains open. While star formation predominantly takes place in young massive clusters, the current framework focuses on isolated star formation. This poses a problem when trying to constrain the initial stellar mass and the core mass functions, both in the local and distant Universe. Aims. One way to access the bulk of protostellar activity within star-forming clusters is to trace signposts of active star formation with emission from molecular outflows. These outflows are bright, e.g., in water emission, which is observable throughout cosmological times, providing a direct observational link between nearby and distant galaxies. We propose to utilize the in-depth knowledge of local star formation as seen with molecular tracers, such as water, to explore the nature of star formation in the Universe. Methods. We present a large-scale statistical galactic model of emission from galactic active star-forming regions. Our model is built on observations of well-resolved nearby clusters. By simulating emission from molecular outflows, which is known to scale with mass, we create a proxy that can be used to predict the emission from clustered star formation at galactic scales. In particular, the para-H 2 O 2 02 − 1 11 line is well-suited for this purpose, as it is among one of the brightest transitions observed toward Galactic star-forming regions and is now routinely observed toward distant galaxies. Results. We evaluated the impact of the most important global-star formation parameters (i.e., initial stellar mass function, molecular cloud mass distribution, star formation efficiency, and free-fall time efficiency) on simulation results. We observe that for emission from the para-H 2 O 2 02 − 1 11 line, the initial mass function and molecular cloud mass distribution have a negligible impact on the emission, both locally and globally, whereas the opposite holds for star-formation efficiency and free-fall time efficiency. Moreover, this water transition proves to be a low-contrast tracer of star formation, with I ν ∝ M env . Conclusions. The fine-tuning of the model and adaptation to morphologies of distant galaxies should result in realistic predictions of observed molecular emission and make the galaxy-in-a-box model a tool to analyze and better understand star formation throughout cosmological times.

Context. The question of how most stars in the Universe form remains open. While star formation predominantly takes place in young massive clusters, the current framework focuses on isolated star formation. This poses a problem when trying to constrain the initial stellar mass and the core mass functions, both in the local and distant Universe. Aims. One way to access the bulk of protostellar activity within star-forming clusters is to trace signposts of active star formation with emission from molecular outflows. These outflows are bright (e.g., in water emission), which is observable throughout cosmological times, providing a direct observational link between nearby and distant galaxies. We propose to utilize the in-depth knowledge of local star formation as seen with molecular tracers, such as water, to explore the nature of star formation in the Universe. Methods. We present a large-scale statistical galactic model of emission from galactic active star-forming regions. Our model is built on observations of well-resolved nearby clusters. By simulating emission from molecular outflows, which is known to scale with mass, we create a proxy that can be used to predict the emission from clustered star formation on galactic scales. In particular, the para-H 2 O 2 02 − 1 11 line is well suited for this purpose as it is one of the brightest transitions observed toward Galactic star-forming regions and is now routinely observed toward distant galaxies. Results. We evaluated the impact of the most important global star formation parameters (i.e., initial stellar mass function, molecular cloud mass distribution, star formation efficiency, and free-fall time efficiency) on simulation results. We observe that for emission from the para-H 2 O 2 02 − 1 11 line, the initial mass function and molecular cloud mass distribution have a negligible impact on the emission, both locally and globally, whereas the opposite holds for star formation efficiency and free-fall time efficiency. Moreover, this water transition proves to be a low-contrast tracer of star formation, with I ν ∝ M env . Conclusions. The fine-tuning of the model and adaptation to morphologies of distant galaxies should result in realistic predictions of observed molecular emission and make the galaxy-in-a-box model a tool for analyzing and better understanding star formation throughout cosmological times.

Context. The star-formation rate (SFR) quantitatively describes the star-formation process in galaxies throughout cosmic history. Current ways to calibrate this rate do not usually employ observational methods accounting for the low-mass end of stellar populations as their signatures are too weak. Aims. Accessing the bulk of protostellar activity within galactic star-forming regions can be achieved by tracing signposts of ongoing star formation. One such signpost is molecular outflows, which are particularly strong at the earliest stages of star formation. These outflows are bright in molecular emission, which is readily observable. We propose to utilize the protostellar outflow emission as a tracer of the SFR. Methods. In this work, we introduce a novel version of the galaxy-in-a-box model, which can be used to relate molecular emission from star formation in galaxies with the SFR. We measured the predicted para-water emission at 988 GHz (which is particularly bright in outflows) and corresponding SFRs for galaxies with LFIR = 108 − 1011 L⊙ in a distance-independent manner, and compared them with expectations from observations. Results. We evaluated the derived results by varying star-forming parameters, namely the star formation efficiency, the free-fall time scaling factor, and the initial mass function. We observe that for the chosen water transition, relying on the current Galactic observations and star formation properties, we are underestimating the total galactic emission, while overestimating the SFRs, particularly for more starburst-like configurations. Conclusions. The current version of the galaxy-in-a-box model only accounts for a limited number of processes and configurations, that is, it focuses on ongoing star formation in massive young clusters in a spiral galaxy. Therefore, the inferred results, which underestimate the emission and overestimate the SFR, are not surprising: known sources of emission are not included in the model. To improve the results, the next version of the model needs to include a more detailed treatment of the entire galactic ecosystem and other processes that would contribute to the emission. Thus, the galaxy-in-a-box model is a promising step toward unveiling the star-forming properties of galaxies across cosmic time.