Kiloparsec-Scale Simulations of Star Formation in Disk Galaxies. IV. Regulation of Galactic Star Formation Rates by Stellar Feedback

Abstract

Star formation from the interstellar medium of galactic disks is a basic process controlling the evolution of galaxies. Understanding the star formation rate in a local patch of a disk with a given gas mass is thus an important challenge for theoretical models. Here we simulate a kiloparsec region of a disk, following the evolution of self-gravitating molecular clouds down to subparsec scales, as they form stars that then inject feedback energy by dissociating and ionizing UV photons and supernova explosions. We assess the relative importance of each feedback mechanism. We find that ${\mathrm{H}}_2$-dissociating feedback results in the largest absolute reduction in star formation compared to the run with no feedback. Subsequently adding photoionization feedback produces a more modest reduction. Our fiducial models that combine all three feedback mechanisms yield, without fine-tuning, star formation rates that are in excellent agreement with observations, with ${\mathrm{H}}_2$-dissociating photons playing a crucial role. Models that only include supernova feedback---a common method in galaxy evolution simulations---settle to similar star formation rates, but with very different temperature and chemical states of the gas, and with very different spatial distributions of young stars.

27 pages, 18 figures, accepted to ApJ

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• SILCC-ZOOM: The early impact of ionizing radiation on forming molecular clouds
• SILCC VII -- Gas kinematics and multiphase outflows of the simulated ISM at high gas surface densities
• Impact of galactic shear and stellar feedback on star formation
• The challenge of simulating the star cluster population of dwarf galaxies with resolved interstellar medium
• Impact of the reduced speed of light approximation on the post-overlap neutral hydrogen fraction in numerical simulations of the epoch of reionization
• Photoionising feedback in spiral arm molecular clouds
• The Interstellar Medium and Star Formation of Galactic Disks. I. ISM and GMC properties with Diffuse FUV and Cosmic Ray Backgrounds
• Kinematics of the OVI Circumgalactic Medium: Halo Mass Dependence and Outflow Signatures
• Factories of CO-dark gas: molecular clouds with limited star formation efficiencies by FUV feedback
• Ionised gas kinematics in bipolar H II regions
• How D-type HII region expansion depends on numerical resolution
• Impact of radiation feedback on the assembly of star clusters in galactic context
• Supernovae and photoionizing feedback in spiral arm molecular clouds