Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Young galaxies are clumpy, gas-rich, and highly turbulent. Star formation appears to occur by gravitational instabilities in galactic disks. The high dispersion makes the clumps massive and the disks thick. The star formation rate should be comparable to the gas accretion rate of the whole galaxy, because star formation is usually rapid and the gas would be depleted quickly otherwise. The empirical laws for star formation found locally hold at redshifts around 2, although the molecular gas consumption time appears to be smaller, and mergers appear to form stars with a slightly higher efficiency than the majority of disk galaxies.
Source: EAS Publications Series
DOI: 10.1051/eas/1151005
Author: B.G. Elmegreen
Institution: IBM Research - Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1995359547