THE MASS-INDEPENDENCE OF SPECIFIC STAR FORMATION RATES IN GALACTIC DISKS
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, The University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova (Italy)
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8582 (Japan)
The slope of the star formation rate/stellar mass relation (the SFR {sup M}ain Sequence{sup ;} SFR-M {sub *}) is not quite unity: specific star formation rates (SFR/M {sub *}) are weakly but significantly anti-correlated with M {sub *}. Here we demonstrate that this trend may simply reflect the well-known increase in bulge mass-fractions—portions of a galaxy not forming stars—with M {sub *}. Using a large set of bulge/disk decompositions and SFR estimates derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we show that re-normalizing SFR by disk stellar mass (sSFR{sub disk} ≡ SFR/M {sub *,} {sub disk}) reduces the M {sub *} dependence of SF efficiency by ∼0.25 dex per dex, erasing it entirely in some subsamples. Quantitatively, we find log sSFR{sub disk}-log M {sub *} to have a slope β{sub disk} in [ – 0.20, 0.00] ± 0.02 (depending on the SFR estimator and Main Sequence definition) for star-forming galaxies with M {sub *} ≥ 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉} and bulge mass-fractions B/T ≲ 0.6, generally consistent with a pure-disk control sample (β{sub control} = –0.05 ± 0.04). That (SFR/M {sub *,} {sub disk}) is (largely) independent of host mass for star-forming disks has strong implications for aspects of galaxy evolution inferred from any SFR-M {sub *} relation, including manifestations of ''mass quenching'' (bulge growth), factors shaping the star-forming stellar mass function (uniform dlog M {sub *}/dt for low-mass, disk-dominated galaxies), and diversity in star formation histories (dispersion in SFR(M {sub *}, t)). Our results emphasize the need to treat galaxies as composite systems—not integrated masses—in observational and theoretical work.
- OSTI ID:
- 22365890
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 785, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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