Resumen
Regions of disc galaxies with widespread star formation tend to be both gravitationally unstable and self-shielded against ionizing radiation, whereas extended outer discs with little or no star formation tend to be stable and unshielded on average. We explore what drives the transition between these two regimes, specifically whether discs first meet the conditions for selfshielding (parametrized by dust optical depth, τ) or gravitational instability (parametrized by a modified version of Toomre's instability parameters, Qthermal, which quantifies the stability of a gas disc that is thermally supported at T = 104 K).We first introduce a new metric formed by the product of these quantities, Qthermalτ, which indicates whether the conditions for disc instability or self-shielding are easier to meet in a given region of a galaxy, and we discuss how Qthermalτ can be constrained even in the absence of direct gas information. We then analyse a sample of 13 galaxies with resolved gas measurements and find that on average galaxies will reach the threshold for disc instabilities (Qthermal < 1) before reaching the threshold for self-shielding (τ > 1). Using integral field spectroscopic observations of a sample of 236 galaxies from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey, we find that the value of Qthermalτ in star-forming discs is consistent with similar behaviour. These results support a scenario where disc fragmentation and collapse occurs before self-shielding, suggesting that gravitational instabilities are the primary condition for widespread star formation in galaxy discs. Our results support similar conclusions based on recent galaxy simulations.
| Idioma original | English |
|---|---|
| Páginas (desde-hasta) | 2323-2333 |
| Número de páginas | 11 |
| Publicación | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
| Volumen | 474 |
| N.º | 2 |
| DOI | |
| Estado | Published - feb 21 2018 |
Nota bibliográfica
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 The Author(s).
Financiación
We thank our anonymous referee for constructive feedback that greatly improved this work. We would also like to thank Christy Tremonti and Eric Emsellem for useful discussions. This work was supported by World Premier International Research Centre Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan. MB acknowledges NSF-AST-1517006. A-MW acknowledges support of a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. DB acknowledges support from RSF grant RSCF-14-50-00043. MEO was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1144469. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the centre for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org. SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Instituto de Astrof\u00EDsica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut f\u00FCr Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut f\u00FCr Astronomie (MPIA, Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut f\u00FCr Astrophysik (MPA, Garching), Max-Planck-Institut f\u00FCr Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observat \u00E1rio Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00F3noma de M\u00E9xico, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University. We thank our anonymous referee for constructive feedback that greatly improved this work. We would also like to thank Christy Tremonti and Eric Emsellem for useful discussions. This work was supported by World Premier International Research Centre Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan. MB acknowledges NSF-AST-1517006. A-MW acknowledges support of a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. DB acknowledges support from RSF grant RSCF-14-50-00043. MEO was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1144469. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the centre for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org. SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Instituto de Astrof?sica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut f?r Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut f?r Astronomie (MPIA, Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut f?r Astrophysik (MPA, Garching), Max-Planck-Institut f?r Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observat ?rio Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de M?xico, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University.
| Financiadores | Número del financiador |
|---|---|
| The Pennsylvania State University | |
| Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | |
| Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam | |
| Instituto de Astrof?sica de Canarias | |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | |
| World Premier International Research Centre Initiative | |
| WPI Initiative | |
| The Johns Hopkins University | |
| Leverhulme Trust | |
| Ohio Water Resources Center, Ohio State University | |
| IPMU | |
| University of Utah Health | |
| Max-Planck-Institut f?r Astrophysik | |
| U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory U.S. Department of Energy National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center | |
| Mellon College of Science, Carnegie Mellon University | |
| Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | |
| University of Colorado Boulder | |
| Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) | |
| Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie | |
| University of Northern Arizona | |
| Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility, University of Notre Dame | |
| Alfred P Sloan Foundation | |
| Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe | |
| Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | |
| University of Portsmouth | |
| Yale University | |
| The George Washington University | |
| New Mexico State University, New York University | |
| Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford | |
| University of Tokyo | |
| Vanderbilt Digestive Diseases Research Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center | |
| National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences | |
| Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology | NSF-AST-1517006 |
| Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology | |
| U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China | 1517006, 1144469 |
| U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China | |
| Russian Science Foundation | RSCF-14-50-00043 |
| Russian Science Foundation |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science
Huella
Profundice en los temas de investigación de 'SDSS-IV MaNGA: Constraints on the conditions for star formation in galaxy discs'. En conjunto forman una huella única.Citar esto
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