Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 745, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/745/2/183
Keywords
galaxies: general; galaxies: ISM; galaxies: spiral; galaxies: star formation; ISM: molecules
Categories
Funding
- NSF [AST-0838178, AST-0955836]
- Research Corporation for Science Advancement
- NASA
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [0955836] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [0838226] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We present an analysis of the relationship between molecular gas and current star formation rate surface density at sub-kiloparsec and kiloparsec scales in a sample of 14 nearby star-forming galaxies. Measuring the relationship in the bright, high molecular gas surface density (Sigma(H2) greater than or similar to 20 M-circle dot pc(-2)) regions of the disks to minimize the contribution from diffuse extended emission, we find an approximately linear relation between molecular gas and star formation rate surface density, N-mol similar to 0.96 +/- 0.16, with a molecular gas depletion time, tau(mol)(dep) similar to 2.30 +/- 1.32 Gyr. We show that in the molecular regions of our galaxies there are no clear correlations between tau(mol)(dep) and the free-fall and effective Jeans dynamical times throughout the sample. We do not find strong trends in the power-law index of the spatially resolved molecular gas star formation law or the molecular gas depletion time across the range of galactic stellar masses sampled (M-* similar to 10(9.7)-10(11.5) M-circle dot). There is a trend, however, in global measurements that is particularly marked for low-mass galaxies. We suggest that this trend is probably due to the low surface brightness CO J = 1-0, and it is likely associated with changes in CO-to-H-2 conversion factor.
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