Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 782, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/782/2/114
Keywords
galaxies: individual (Milky Way); stars: formation
Categories
Funding
- NSF [AST-1109116]
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1109116] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1302978] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We test some ideas for star formation relations against data on local molecular clouds. On a cloud by cloud basis, the relation between the surface density of star formation rate and surface density of gas divided by a free-fall time, calculated from the mean cloud density, shows no significant correlation. If a crossing time is substituted for the free-fall time, there is even less correlation. Within a cloud, the star formation rate volume and surface densities increase rapidly with the corresponding gas densities, faster than predicted by models using the free-fall time defined from the local density. A model in which the star formation rate depends linearly on the mass of gas above a visual extinction of 8 mag describes the data on these clouds, with very low dispersion. The data on regions of very massive star formation, with improved star formation rates based on free-free emission from ionized gas, also agree with this linear relation.
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