Star forming cloud-giant molecular cloud complexes Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Lee E.J.
  2. Miville-Deschenes M.-A.
  3. Murray N.W.
  4. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Star formation on galactic scales is known to be a slow process, but whether it is slow on smaller scales is uncertain. We cross-correlate 5469 giant molecular clouds (GMCs) from a new all-sky catalog with 256 star-forming complexes (SFCs) to build a sample of 191 SFC-GMC complexes-collections of multiple clouds each matched to 191 SFCs. The total mass in stars harbored by these clouds is inferred from WMAP free-free fluxes. We measure the GMC mass, the virial parameter, the star formation efficiency {epsilon} and the star formation rate per freefall time {epsilon}_ff_. Both {epsilon} and {epsilon}_ff_ range over 3-4 orders of magnitude. We find that 68.3% of the clouds fall within {sigma}_log{epsilon}_=0.79+/-0.22dex and {sigma}_log{epsilon}_ff__=0.91+/-0.22dex about the median. Compared to these observed scatters, a simple model with a time-independent {epsilon}_ff_ that depends on the host GMC properties predicts {sigma}_log{epsilon}_ff__=0.12-0.24. Allowing for a time-variable {epsilon}_ff_, we can recover the large dispersion in the rate of star formation. This strongly suggests that star formation in the Milky Way is a dynamic process on GMC scales. We also show that the surface star formation rate profile of the Milky Way correlates well with the molecular gas surface density profile.

Keywords
  1. molecular-clouds
  2. galaxy-kinematics
  3. co-line-emission
  4. interstellar-medium
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2016ApJ...833..229L
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/833/229
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/833/229
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18330229

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/833/229
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/833/229
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/833/229
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/833/229/sfcs?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/833/229/sfcs?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/833/229/sfcs?
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/833/229/table1?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/833/229/table1?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/833/229/table1?

History

2017-06-12T12:02:58Z
Resource record created
2017-06-12T12:02:58Z
Created
2017-07-17T11:40:25Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr