COLD GASS, an IRAM Legacy Survey of Molecular Gas in Massive Galaxies: II. The non-universality of the Molecular Gas Depletion Timescale

Abstract

We study the relation between molecular gas and star formation in a volume-limited sample of 222 galaxies from the COLD GASS survey, with measurements of the CO(1-0) line from the IRAM 30m telescope. The galaxies are at redshifts 0.025<z<0.05 and have stellar masses in the range 10.0<log(M*/Msun)<11.5. The IRAM measurements are complemented by deep Arecibo HI observations and homogeneous SDSS and GALEX photometry. A reference sample that includes both UV and far-IR data is used to calibrate our estimates of star formation rates from the seven optical/UV bands. The mean molecular gas depletion timescale, tdep(H2), for all the galaxies in our sample is 1 Gyr, however tdep(H2) increases by a factor of 6 from a value of ~0.5 Gyr for galaxies with stellar masses of 10^10 Msun to ~3 Gyr for galaxies with masses of a few times 10^11 Msun. In contrast, the atomic gas depletion timescale remains contant at a value of around 3 Gyr. This implies that in high mass galaxies, molecular and atomic gas depletion timescales are comparable, but in low mass galaxies, molecular gas is being consumed much more quickly than atomic gas. The strongest dependences of tdep(H2) are on the stellar mass of the galaxy (parameterized as log tdep(H2)= (0.36+/-0.07)(log M* - 10.70)+(9.03+/-0.99)), and on the specific star formation rate. A single tdep(H2) versus sSFR relation is able to fit both "normal" star-forming galaxies in our COLD GASS sample, as well as more extreme starburst galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs), which have tdep(H2) < 10^8 yr. Normal galaxies at z=1-2 are displaced with respect to the local galaxy population in the tdep(H2) versus sSFR plane and have molecular gas depletion times that are a factor of 3-5 times longer at a given value of sSFR due to their significantly larger gas fractions.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 19 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Theory of Star Formation
• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• The Resolved Properties of Extragalactic Giant Molecular Clouds
• Dynamical Properties of z~2 Star Forming Galaxies and a Universal Star Formation Relation
• The Global Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds. I: Model Formulation and Quasi-Equilibrium Behavior
• Evidence of enhanced star formation efficiency in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• The Atomic to Molecular Transition and its Relation to the Scaling Properties of Galaxy Disks in the Local Universe
• WSRT Ultra-Deep Neutral Hydrogen Imaging of Galaxy Clusters at z=0.2, a Pilot Survey of Abell 963 and Abell 2192
• A Pilot Survey of HI in Field Galaxies at Redshift z~0.2
• Exploring the evolutionary paths of the most massive galaxies since z~2
• Observations of Dense Molecular Gas in a Quasar Host Galaxy at z=6.42: Further Evidence for a Non-Linear Dense Gas - Star Formation Relation at Early Cosmic Times
• Ultraviolet, Optical, and Infrared Constraints on Models of Stellar Populations and Dust Attenuation
• Rotational Widths for Use in the Tully-Fisher Relation. II. The Impact of Surface Brightness

Cited by in corpus (163)

• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• The KMOS^3D Survey: design, first results, and the evolution of galaxy kinematics from 0.7<z<2.7
• xCOLD GASS: the complete IRAM-30m legacy survey of molecular gas for galaxy evolution studies
• Cool Outflows in Galaxies and their Implications
• The Evolution of the Star-forming Interstellar Medium across Cosmic Time
• The Cosmic Baryon and Metal Cycles
• A z=0 Multi-wavelength Galaxy Synthesis I: A WISE and GALEX Atlas of Local Galaxies
• Molecular and atomic gas along and across the main sequence of star-forming galaxies
• The PHANGS-MUSE survey -- Probing the chemo-dynamical evolution of disc galaxies
• The impact of interactions, bars, bulges, and AGN on star formation efficiency in local massive galaxies
• Clumpy Galaxies in CANDELS. I. The Definition of UV Clumps and the Fraction of Clumpy Galaxies at 0.5<z<3
• The cold interstellar medium of galaxies in the Local Universe
• High-redshift star formation in the ALMA era
• The ATLAS3D Project - XXVIII. Dynamically-driven star formation suppression in early-type galaxies
• Cloud Scale ISM Structure and Star Formation in M51
• Stellar structures, molecular gas, and star formation across the PHANGS sample of nearby galaxies
• Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. Paper I: Non-Starbursting Galaxies
• Automated Mining of the ALMA Archive in the COSMOS Field (A3COSMOS): II. Cold Molecular Gas Evolution out to Redshift 6
• Two Conditions for Galaxy Quenching: Compact Centres and Massive Haloes
• Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. II. Starbursts and the Combined Global Schmidt Law
• Molecular gas in the Herschel-selected strongly lensed submillimeter galaxies at z~2-4 as probed by multi-J CO lines
• The main sequence of star forming galaxies I. The local relation and its bending
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: Molecular gas budget in the Early Universe as traced by [CII]
• The equilibrium view on dust and metals in galaxies: Galactic outflows drive low dust-to-metal ratios in dwarf galaxies
• Atomic and molecular gas in IllustrisTNG galaxies at low redshift
• PHIBSS2: survey design and z=0.5-0.8 results. Molecular gas reservoirs during the winding-down of star formation
• Dust continuum emission as a tracer of gas mass in galaxies
• Gas accretion and galactic fountain flows in the Auriga cosmological simulations: angular momentum and metal re-distribution
• Galaxy environment in the 3D-HST fields. Witnessing the onset of satellite quenching at z ~ 1-2
• ALLSMOG: an APEX Low-redshift Legacy Survey for MOlecular Gas. I - molecular gas scaling relations, and the effect of the CO/H2 conversion factor
• Gas Fraction and Depletion Time of Massive Star Forming Galaxies at z~3.2: No Change in Global Star Formation Process out to z>3
• SDSS IV MaNGA - The spatially resolved transition from star formation to quiescence
• The evolution of the cold interstellar medium in galaxies following a starburst
• Star Formation Laws and Efficiencies across 80 Nearby Galaxies
• Molecular gas content in strongly-lensed z~1.5-3 star-forming galaxies with low IR luminosities
• Numerical Simulations of Turbulent, Molecular Clouds Regulated by Radiation Feedback Forces I: Star Formation Rate and Efficiency
• Physical Properties of Molecular Clouds at 2 parsec Resolution in the Low-Metallicity Dwarf Galaxy NGC 6822 and the Milky Way
• Quantifying the role of bars in the build-up of central mass concentrations in disk galaxies
• Disruption of giant molecular clouds and formation of bound star clusters under the influence of momentum stellar feedback
• ALMA Observations of Gas-Rich Galaxies in z~1.6 Galaxy Clusters: Evidence for Higher Gas Fractions in High-Density Environments
• Mapping the average AGN accretion rate in the SFR-M* plane for Herschel selected galaxies at 0<z<2.5
• WISDOM Project - II: Molecular gas measurement of the supermassive black hole mass in NGC4697
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey-XX: Molecular Gas in Nearby Hard X-ray Selected AGN Galaxies
• LLAMA: Normal star formation efficiencies of molecular gas in the centres of luminous Seyfert galaxies
• The Gas-Star Formation Cycle in Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies I. Assessment of Multi-scale Variations
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: III. Scatter in the resolved star forming main sequence is primarily due to variations in star formation efficiency
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: V. The non-universality of kpc-scale star formation relations and the factors that drive them
• The ISM scaling relations in DustPedia late-type galaxies: A benchmark study for the Local Universe
• The MASSIVE survey - XI. What drives the molecular gas properties of early-type galaxies
• The Variation in Molecular Gas Depletion Time among Nearby Galaxies: What are the Main Parameter Dependencies?
• The regulation of galaxy growth along the size-mass relation by star-formation, as traced by H$\alpha$ in KMOS${}^{3D}$ galaxies at 0.7 < z < 2.7
• The final data release of ALLSMOG: a survey of CO in typical local low-M* star-forming galaxies
• The high molecular gas content, and the efficient conversion of neutral into molecular gas, in jellyfish galaxies
• A 33 GHz Survey of Local Major Mergers: Estimating the Sizes of the Energetically Dominant Regions from High Resolution Measurements of the Radio Continuum
• The resolved star-formation relation in nearby active galactic nuclei
• Resolved star formation and molecular gas properties of green valley galaxies: a first look with ALMA and MaNGA
• A panchromatic spatially resolved analysis of nearby galaxies -- II. The main sequence - gas relation at sub-kpc scale in grand-design spirals
• Physical drivers of galaxies' cold-gas content: exploring environmental and evolutionary effects with DARK SAGE
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: exploring the role of the molecular gas on the galaxy star formation quenching
• The Interstellar Medium of Quiescent Galaxies and its Evolution With Time
• An ALMA CO(2-1) Survey of Nearby Palomar-Green Quasars
• Scaling relations and baryonic cycling in local star-forming galaxies: II. Gas content and star-formation efficiency
• WISDOM Project -- X. The morphology of the molecular ISM in galaxy centres and its dependence on galaxy structure
• Star-formation rates from young-star counts and the structure of the ISM across the NGC346/N66 complex in the SMC
• Extremely Low Molecular Gas Content in a Compact, Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.522
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: II. What drives central starbursts at z~0?
• Extreme gas fractions in clumpy, turbulent disk galaxies at z~0.1
• GRUMPY: a simple framework for realistic forward-modelling of dwarf galaxies
• A diversity of starburst-triggering mechanisms in interacting galaxies and their signatures in CO emission
• The CO(3-2)/CO(1-0) luminosity line ratio in nearby star-forming galaxies and AGN from xCOLD GASS, BASS and SLUGS
• The Infrared Emission and Vigorous Star Formation of Low-redshift Quasars
• What Drives Galaxy Quenching? Resolving Molecular Gas and Star Formation in the Green Valley
• The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Exploring the Star Formation Law through Variable Selection
• High gas fraction in a CO-selected main-sequence galaxy at $z>3$
• A model for the onset of self-gravitation and star formation in molecular gas governed by galactic forces: II. the bottleneck to collapse set by cloud-environment decoupling
• Molecular Cloud-scale Star Formation in NGC 300
• From giant clumps to clouds I: the impact of gas fraction evolution on the stability of galactic discs
• A unified model for age-velocity dispersion relations in Local Group galaxies: Disentangling ISM turbulence and latent dynamical heating
• Spiral Structure Boosts Star Formation in Disk Galaxies
• Detection of a Substantial Molecular Gas Reservoir in a brightest cluster galaxy at z = 1.7
• CO observations of major merger pairs at z=0: Molecular gas mass and star formation
• AlFoCS + Fornax3D: resolved star formation in the Fornax cluster with ALMA and MUSE
• The kiloparsec-scale gas kinematics in two star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 1.47$ seen with ALMA and VLT-SINFONI
• Origins of Scatter in the Relationship Between HCN 1-0 and Dense Gas Mass in the Galactic Center
• The variation in molecular gas depletion time among nearby galaxies: II the impact of galaxy internal structures
• The JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey -- XI. -- Environmental Variations in the Atomic and Molecular Gas Radial Profiles of Nearby Spiral Galaxies
• Dust temperature uncertainties hamper the inference of dust and molecular gas masses from the dust continuum emission of quiescent high-redshift galaxies
• CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING): VI. Radial variations in star formation efficiency
• A Detection of Molecular Gas Emission in the Host Galaxy of GRB 080517
• SMT CO (2-1) Observations of Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies
• The role of molecular gas in galaxy transition in compact groups
• VERTICO III: The Kennicutt-Schmidt relation in Virgo cluster galaxies
• CO-CAVITY pilot survey: Molecular gas and star formation in void galaxies
• Two Orders of Magnitude Variation in the Star Formation Efficiency Across the Pre-Merger Galaxy NGC 2276
• VERTICO IV: Environmental Effects on the Gas Distribution and Star Formation Efficiency of Virgo Cluster Spirals
• Cosmic evolution of dust in galaxies: Methods and preliminary results
• The interplay between feedback, accretion, transport and winds in setting gas-phase metal distribution in galaxies
• S2COSMOS: Evolution of Gas Mass with Redshift Using Dust Emission
• Gas Content and Kinematics in Clumpy, Turbulent Star-forming Disks
• HIghMass - High HI Mass, HI-rich Galaxies at z~0: High-Resolution VLA Imaging of UGC 9037 and UGC 12506
• Coevolution of metallicity and star formation in galaxies to z=3.7: II. A theoretical model
• Suppressed or enhanced central star formation rates in late-type barred galaxies
• From haloes to galaxies -- II. The fundamental relations in star formation and quenching
• Resolved HI Imaging of a Population of Massive HI-Rich Galaxies with Suppressed Star Formation
• ALMA reveals the molecular gas properties of 5 star-forming galaxies across the main sequence at 3 < z < 3.5
• A controlled study of cold dust content in galaxies from $z=0-2$
• The GOGREEN Survey: Constraining the Satellite Quenching Timescale in Massive Clusters at $\mathbf{z}\gtrsim 1$
• Molecular Gas Content of HI Monsters and Implications to Cold Gas Content Evolution in Galaxies
• Molecular gas and star formation within 12 strong galactic bars observed with IRAM-30m
• HYPERION. Coevolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies at $z>6$ and the build-up of massive galaxies
• Early Science with the Large Millimeter Telescope: Exploring the Effect of AGN Activity on the Relationships Between Molecular Gas, Dust, and Star Formation
• New empirical constraints on the cosmological evolution of gas and stars in galaxies
• Two interacting galaxies hiding as one, revealed by MaNGA
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: The resolved star formation efficiency and local physical conditions
• Do Galaxy Morphologies Really Affect the Efficiency of Star Formation during the Phase of Galaxy Transition?
• The Lyman Alpha Reference Sample XI: Efficient Turbulence Driven Lyα Escape and the Analysis of IR, CO and [C II]158 μm
• HIghMass - High HI Mass, HI-Rich Galaxies at $z\sim 0$: Combined HI and H${}_2$ Observations
• PHANGS-ALMA: Arcsecond CO(2-1) Imaging of Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Bluedisk Survey: molecular gas distribution and scaling relations in the context of galaxy evolution
• WISDOM project -- XI. Star Formation Efficiency in the Bulge of the AGN-host Galaxy NGC 3169 with SITELLE and ALMA
• Linking star formation thresholds and truncations in the thin and thick disks of the low-mass galaxy UGC 7321
• The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: Constraining the Molecular Content at $\log (M_{\ast }/M_{\odot })\sim 9.5$ with CO stacking of MUSE detected $z\sim 1.5$ Galaxies
• The Subtle Effects of Mergers on Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies
• Theoretical modelling of two-component molecular discs in spiral galaxies
• Extremely weak CO emission in IZw 18
• Close Major Merger Pairs at $z=0$: Bulge-to-Total Ratio and Star Formation Enhancement
• The Arizona Molecular ISM Survey with the SMT: Survey Overview and Public Data Release
• Connecting the Cosmic Star Formation Rate with the Local Star Formation
• A low-luminosity type-1 QSO sample: IV. Molecular gas contents and conditions of star formation in three nearby Seyfert galaxies
• An Empirical Determination of the Dependence of the Circumgalactic Mass Cooling Rate and Feedback Mass Loading Factor on Galactic Stellar Mass
• MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) VII. A NOEMA pilot program to probe molecular gas in galaxies with measured circumgalactic gas flows
• Dying of the Light: An X-ray Fading Cold Quasar at z ~ 0.405
• Further evidence for a quasar-driven jet impacting its neighbour galaxy: The saga of HE0450-2958 continues
• From haloes to galaxies. III. The gas cycle of local galaxy populations
• Do bulges stop stars forming?
• SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Observational Evidence of Low Ongoing Star Formation Rates in Gas-Rich Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Constraint on the inflow/outflow rates in star-forming galaxies at z~1.4 from molecular gas observations
• Evolution of Cosmic Molecular Gas Mass Density From z ~ 0 to z = 1 -1.5
• Dark-ages reionization and galaxy formation simulation - IX. Economics of reionizing galaxies
• Molecular gas in super spiral galaxies
• ALMA Observations for CO Emission from Luminous Lyman-break Galaxies at $z=6.0293$-$6.2037$
• Metallicity-PAH Relation of MIR-selected Star-forming Galaxies in AKARI North Ecliptic Pole-wide Survey
• ALPINE: A Large Survey to Understand Teenage Galaxies
• The properties and environment of very young galaxies in the local Universe
• The interstellar medium in Andromeda's dwarf spheroidal galaxies: II. Multi-phase gas content and ISM conditions
• Exploring the interplay of dust and gas phases in DustPedia star-forming galaxies
• Massive molecular gas reservoir in a luminous sub-millimeter galaxy during cosmic noon
• Star formation across cosmic time
• Properties of Molecular Gas in Galaxies in Early and Mid Stages of Interaction. III. Resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt Law
• Galaxy Manifold: Characterizing and understanding galaxies with two parameters
• Exploring extreme conditions for star formation: a deep search for molecular gas in the Leo ring
• Cosmic evolution of molecular gas mass density from an empirical relation between ${\mathrm{L}}_{1.4GHz}$ and ${\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{CO}}^{\prime }$
• Stellar initial mass function variation in massive early-type galaxies: the potential role of the deuterium abundance
• What determines the maximum stellar surface density of galaxies?
• Estimating the evolution and the content fractions of baryonic gas for Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• CO-CHANGES II: spatially resolved IRAM 30M CO line observations of 23 nearby edge-on spiral galaxies
• The LEGA-C galaxy survey: multiple quenching channels for quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 1$
• Gamma Analytical Modeling Evolution (GAME) I: The physical implications of deriving the stellar mass functions from z=0 to z=8
• The link between star formation and gas in nearby galaxies
• Post-starburst galaxies in the centers of intermediate redshift clusters
• On the scale-height of the molecular gas disc in Milky Way-like galaxies
• Now you see it, now you don't: Star formation truncation precedes the loss of molecular gas by ~100 Myr in massive post-starburst galaxies at z~0.6
• Resolved molecular gas and star-formation in massive unquenched spirals : I. UGC 8179