Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

CCAPP Seminar: "Star Formation Efficiency per Free Fall Time in Nearby Galaxies" Dyas Utomo (OSU Astronomy)

ccapp logo
Tue, June 26, 2018
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
PRB 4138

Star formation process is slow and inefficient, meaning that the star formation timescale (the depletion time) is much longer than the free fall time, and only a very small fraction of gas is converted to stars per free fall time. In this talk, I will present estimations of the star formation efficiency per gravitational free fall time from observations of 14 nearby galaxies, with resolution matched to the typical size of a Giant Molecular Cloud. This quantity is theoretically important but so far has only been measured for the Milky Way clouds or inferred indirectly in a few other galaxies. By assuming a constant thickness of the molecular gas layer (100 pc), the median value of efficiency per free fall time in the sample is 0.7%, slightly smaller than the general consensus of 1%. Individual galaxies show different values of efficiency per free fall time, ranging from 0.3% to 2.6%. Higher efficiency per free fall time is observed in low mass galaxies, reflecting both long free-fall times and short depletion times, though both measurements are subject to biases. The dominant uncertainties of these measurements are the estimated line-of-sight depth through the molecular gas layer and the choice of star formation tracers. This study has been conducted using new, high resolution CO imaging from the PHANGS-ALMA survey.

Filed in: