GLOBAL STAR FORMATION REVISITED
- Physics Department, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH (United Kingdom)
- Physics Department, Johns Hopkins University, 2400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
A general treatment of disk star formation is developed from a dissipative multiphase model, with the dominant dissipation due to cloud collisions. The Schmidt-Kennicutt (SK) law emerges naturally for star-forming disks and starbursts. We predict that there should be an inverse correlation between Tully-Fisher law and SK law residuals. The model is extended to include a multiphase treatment of supernova feedback that leads to a turbulent pressure-regulated generalization of the star formation law and is applicable to gas-rich starbursts. Enhanced pressure, as expected in merger-induced star formation, enhances star formation efficiency. An upper limit is derived for the disk star formation rate in starbursts that depends on the ratio of global ISM to cloud pressures. We extend these considerations to the case where the interstellar gas pressure in the inner galaxy is dominated by outflows from a central active galactic nucleus (AGN). During massive spheroid formation, AGN-driven winds trigger star formation, resulting in enhanced supernova feedback and outflows. The outflows are comparable to the AGN-boosted star formation rate and saturate in the super-Eddington limit. Downsizing of both SMBH and spheroids is a consequence of AGN-driven positive feedback. Bondi accretion feeds the central black hole with a specific accretion rate that is proportional to the black hole mass. AGN-enhanced star formation is mediated by turbulent pressure and relates spheroid star formation rate to black hole accretion rate. The relation between black hole mass and spheroid velocity dispersion has a coefficient (Salpeter time to gas consumption time ratio) that provides an arrow of time. Highly efficient, AGN-boosted star formation can occur at high redshift.
- OSTI ID:
- 21313894
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 700, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/700/1/262; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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