Star formation efficiency patterns in the spiral arms of M51

Knapen, Johan H.; Beckman, J.; Cepa, J.; Vanderhulst, T; Rand, R.

doi:10.1086/186272

Cited by 44 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…Grand-design spiral galaxies show strong local enhancements of star formation in their spiral arms (e.g. Cepa & Beckman 1990, Knapen et al 1992, so the absence of a corresponding excess in their total SFRs suggests that the primary effect of the spiral density wave is to concentrate star formation in the arms, but not to increase the global efficiency of star formation.…”

Section: Luminosity and Massmentioning

confidence: 99%

Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence

Kennicutt

1998

Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.

5,977

186

4,070

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Observations of star formation rates (SFRs) in galaxies provide vital clues to the physical nature of the Hubble sequence, and are key probes of the evolutionary histories of galaxies. The focus of this review is on the broad patterns in the star formation properties of galaxies along the Hubble sequence, and their implications for understanding galaxy evolution and the physical processes that drive the evolution. Star formation in the disks and nuclear regions of galaxies are reviewed separately, then discussed within a common interpretive framework. The diagnostic methods used to measure SFRs are also reviewed, and a self-consistent set of SFR calibrations is presented as a aid to workers in the field.

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Section: Luminosity and Massmentioning

confidence: 99%

Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence

Kennicutt

1998

Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.

5,977

186

4,070

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“…Most grand-design spiral galaxies approximate two-fold rotational symmetry (e.g, Knapen et al 1992;Rozas et al 1998;Binney & Tremaine 2008). For our Galaxy, a two-fold symmetry of the spiral structure has been proposed (Dame 2013), which is based on analyzing the observational data of stellar component (e.g., Benjamin et al 2005) and the discovery of the Far 3 kpc Arm (Dame & Thaddeus 2008) and distant GMCs and HII regions (Dame & Thaddeus 2011;Anderson et al 2011).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The observed spiral structure of the Milky Way

Hou

Han

2014

A&A

237

233

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Context. The spiral structure of the Milky Way is not yet well determined. The keys to understanding this structure are to increase the number of reliable spiral tracers and to determine their distances as accurately as possible. HII regions, giant molecular clouds (GMCs), and 6.7 GHz methanol masers are closely related to high mass star formation, and hence they are excellent spiral tracers. The distances for many of them have been determined in the literature with trigonometric, photometric, and/or kinematic methods. Aims. We update the catalogs of Galactic HII regions, GMCs, and 6.7 GHz methanol masers, and then outline the spiral structure of the Milky Way. Methods. We collected data for more than 2500 known HII regions, 1300 GMCs, and 900 6.7 GHz methanol masers. If the photometric or trigonometric distance was not yet available, we determined the kinematic distance using a Galaxy rotation curve with the current IAU standard, R 0 = 8.5 kpc and Θ 0 = 220 km s −1 , and the most recent updated values of R 0 = 8.3 kpc and Θ 0 = 239 km s −1 , after velocities of tracers are modified with the adopted solar motions. With the weight factors based on the excitation parameters of HII regions or the masses of GMCs, we get the distributions of these spiral tracers.Results. The distribution of tracers shows at least four segments of arms in the first Galactic quadrant, and three segments in the fourth quadrant. The Perseus Arm and the Local Arm are also delineated by many bright HII regions. The arm segments traced by massive star forming regions and GMCs are able to match the HI arms in the outer Galaxy. We found that the models of three-arm and four-arm logarithmic spirals are able to connect most spiral tracers. A model of polynomial-logarithmic spirals is also proposed, which not only delineates the tracer distribution, but also matches the observed tangential directions.

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“…In these galaxies SFR is also assumed to be higher in the arms and to change as a function of arm phase (e.g., Knapen et al 1992Knapen et al , 1996, making the determination of the SFR and the SFR surface density (ΣSFR) from star counts quite complicated. Nevertheless, the application of the simple conversion of Eq.…”

Section: A2 the Star Formation Rate In Ngc 1566mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hierarchical star formation across the grand-design spiral NGC 1566

Gouliermis

Elmegreen²,

Elmegreen

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We investigate how star formation is spatially organized in the grand-design spiral NGC 1566 from deep HST photometry with the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). Our contour-based clustering analysis reveals 890 distinct stellar conglomerations at various levels of significance. These star-forming complexes are organized in a hierarchical fashion with the larger congregations consisting of smaller structures, which themselves fragment into even smaller and more compact stellar groupings. Their size distribution, covering a wide range in length-scales, shows a power-law as expected from scale-free processes. We explain this shape with a simple "fragmentation and enrichment" model. The hierarchical morphology of the complexes is confirmed by their mass-size relation which can be represented by a powerlaw with a fractional exponent, analogous to that determined for fractal molecular clouds. The surface stellar density distribution of the complexes shows a log-normal shape similar to that for supersonic non-gravitating turbulent gas. Between 50 and 65 per cent of the recentlyformed stars, as well as about 90 per cent of the young star clusters, are found inside the stellar complexes, located along the spiral arms. We find an age-difference between young stars inside the complexes and those in their direct vicinity in the arms of at least 10 Myr. This timescale may relate to the minimum time for stellar evaporation, although we cannot exclude the in situ formation of stars. As expected, star formation preferentially occurs in spiral arms. Our findings reveal turbulent-driven hierarchical star formation along the arms of a grand-design galaxy.

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Star formation efficiency patterns in the spiral arms of M51

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence

Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence

The observed spiral structure of the Milky Way

Hierarchical star formation across the grand-design spiral NGC 1566

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