The ALMaQUEST Survey - V. The non-universality of kpc-scale star formation relations and the factors that drive them

Using a sample of similar to 15000 kpc-scale star-forming spaxels in 28 galaxies drawn from the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, we investigate the galaxy-to-galaxy variation of the 'resolved' Schmidt-Kennicutt relation (rSK; -Sigma(SFR)), the 'resolved' star-forming main sequence (rSFMS; Sigma(star)-Sigma(SFR)), and the 'resolved' molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS; Sigma(star)-). The rSK relation, rSFMS, and rMGMS all show significant galaxy-to-galaxy variation in both shape and normalization, indicating that none of these relations is universal between galaxies. The rSFMS shows the largest galaxy-to-galaxy variation and the rMGMS the least. By defining an 'offset' from the average relations, we compute a Delta rSK, Delta rSFMS, Delta rMGMS for each galaxy, to investigate correlations with global properties. We find the following correlations with at least 2 sigma significance: The rSK is lower (i.e. lower star formation efficiency) in galaxies with higher M-star, larger Sersic index, and lower specific SFR (sSFR); the rSFMS is lower (i.e. lower sSFR) in galaxies with higher M-star and larger Sersic index; and the rMGMS is lower (i.e. lower gas fraction) in galaxies with lower sSFR. In the ensemble of all 15000 data points, the rSK relation and rMGMS show equally tight scatters and strong correlation coefficients, compared with a larger scatter and weaker correlation in the rSFMS. Moreover, whilst there is no correlation between Delta rSK and Delta rMGMS in the sample, the offset of a galaxy's rSFMS does correlate with both of the other two offsets. Our results therefore indicate that the rSK and rMGMS are independent relations, whereas the rSFMS is a result of their combination.

Automated summary

By analyzing a sample of around 15000 star-forming spaxels from 28 galaxies, it was found that the galaxy-to-galaxy variation in the resolved Schmidt-Kennicutt relation, star-forming main sequence, and molecular gas main sequence is significant. The star-forming main sequence shows the largest variation, while the molecular gas main sequence shows the least.