Characteristic scale of star formation. I. Clump formation efficiency on local scales

Abstract

We have used the ratio of column densities (CDR) derived independently from the 850-$\mu$m continuum JCMT Plane Survey (JPS) and the ${}^{13}$CO/C${}^{18}$O $(J=3-2)$ Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey (CHIMPS) to produce maps of the dense-gas mass fraction (DGMF) in two slices of the Galactic Plane centred at $\ell$=30${}^{\circ }$ and $\ell$=40${}^{\circ }$. The observed DGMF is a metric for the instantaneous clump-formation efficiency (CFE) in the molecular gas. We split the two fields into velocity components corresponding to the spiral arms that cross them, and a two-dimensional power-spectrum analysis of the spiral arm DGMF maps reveals a break in slope at the approximate size scale of molecular clouds. We interpret this as the characteristic scale of the amplitude of variations in the CFE and a constraint on the dominant mechanism regulating the CFE and, hence, the star-formation efficiency in CO-traced clouds.

arXiv comment21 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (86)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming Galaxies
• The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory
• An atomic and molecular database for analysis of submillimetre line observations
• The Stellar IMF from Turbulent Fragmentation
• The Star Formation Rate and Dense Molecular Gas in Galaxies
• Clouds, filaments and protostars: the Herschel Hi-GAL Milky Way
• The Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey
• MAMBO Mapping of Spitzer c2d Small Clouds and Cores
• SCUBA-2: The 10000 pixel bolometer camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
• Velocity Modification of HI Power Spectrum
• On the Star Formation Efficiency of Turbulent Magnetized Clouds
• ATLASGAL --- properties of a complete sample of Galactic clumps
• Turbulent molecular clouds
• Connecting Dense Gas Tracers of Star Formation in our Galaxy to High-z Star Formation
• SCUBA-2: iterative map-making with the Sub-Millimetre User Reduction Facility
• One-Point Probability Distribution Functions of Supersonic Turbulent Flows in Self-Gravitating Media
• Star Formation Rates in Molecular Clouds and the Nature of the Extragalactic Scaling Relations
• A Parallax-based Distance Estimator for Spiral Arm Sources
• The Aquila prestellar core population revealed by Herschel
• The Formation of Stellar Clusters: Gaussian Cloud Conditions I
• Hi-GAL, the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey: photometric maps and compact source catalogues. First data release for Inner Milky Way: +68°> l > -70°
• Planck 2015 results. VIII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Calibration and maps
• Kinematic Distances to Molecular Clouds identified in the Galactic Ring Survey
• ATLASGAL --- towards a complete sample of massive star forming clumps
• Supersonic turbulence in the ISM: stellar extinction determinations as probes of the structure and dynamics of dark clouds
• Properties of Hi-GAL clumps in the inner Galaxy]{The Hi-GAL compact source catalogue. I. The physical properties of the clumps in the inner Galaxy ($-71.0^{\circ }<\ell <67.0^{\circ }$)
• From Massive Protostars to a Giant HII Region: Submillimeter Imaging of the Galactic Mini-starburst W43
• Star formation relations and CO SLEDs across the J-ladder and redshift
• Multi-temperature mapping of dust structures throughout the Galactic Plane using the PPMAP tool with Herschel Hi-GAL data
• Giant Molecular Filaments in the Milky Way
• Velocity Modification of Power Spectrum from Absorbing Medium
• FellWalker - a Clump Identification Algorithm
• The Two States of Star Forming Clouds
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. VII. Characterizing the Properties of Massive Star-Forming Regions
• W43: the closest molecular complex of the Galactic Bar?
• Temperature as a third dimension in column-density mapping of dusty astrophysical structures associated with star formation
• The Earliest Phases of Star Formation (EPoS): A Herschel Key Program - The precursors to high-mass stars and clusters
• The Luminosity Functions and Timescales of MYSOs and Compact HII regions
• SEDIGISM: Structure, excitation, and dynamics of the inner Galactic interstellar medium
• The Milky Way Project: A statistical study of massive star formation associated with infrared bubbles
• CHIMPS: the ${}^{13}$CO/C${}^{18}$O (J=3-2) Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey
• ATLASGAL -- A Galaxy-wide sample of dense filamentary structures
• ATLASGAL --- Complete compact source catalogue: 280\degr\ $<\ell <$ 60\degr
• ATLASGAL-selected massive clumps in the inner Galaxy III. Dust Continuum Characterization of an Evolutionary Sample
• Is atomic carbon a good tracer of molecular gas in metal-poor galaxies?
• A Turbulent Origin for Flocculent Spiral Structure in Galaxies
• Mapping the column density and dust temperature structure of IRDCs with Herschel
• Star formation in Galactic spiral arms and the inter-arm regions
• Approximations for modelling CO chemistry in GMCs: a comparison of approaches
• The Dense Gas Mass Fraction of Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way
• There are no starless massive proto-clusters in the first quadrant of the Galaxy
• The ATLASGAL survey: distribution of cold dust in the Galactic plane. Combination with Planck data
• Herschel Observations of the W43 "mini-starburst"
• Scaling Relations of Compressible MHD Turbulence
• Star formation towards the Scutum tangent region and the effects of Galactic environment
• Observational Diagnostics of Self-Gravitating MHD Turbulence in Giant Molecular Clouds
• Flux Calibration of Broadband Far Infrared and Submillimetre Photometric Instruments: Theory and Application to Herschel-SPIRE
• Dust and gas power-spectrum in M33 (HERM33ES)
• Probing interstellar turbulence in cirrus with deep optical imaging: no sign of energy dissipation at 0.01 pc scale
• The SEDIGISM survey: Molecular clouds in the inner Galaxy
• Structure analysis of interstellar clouds: I. Improving the Delta-variance method
• The Stellar Mass Spectrum in Warm and Dusty Gas: Deviations from Salpeter in the Galactic Centre and in Circum-Nuclear Starburst Regions
• The Effect of Spiral Arms on Star Formation in the Galaxy
• The Turbulence Power Spectrum in Optically Thick Interstellar Clouds
• Using CO line ratios to trace the physical properties of molecular clouds
• The JCMT Plane Survey: early results from the l = 30 degree field
• CHIMPS: Physical properties of molecular clumps across the inner Galaxy
• The JCMT Plane Survey: First complete data release - emission maps and compact source catalogue
• The almost ubiquitous association of 6.7 GHz methanol masers with dust
• The statistics of triggered star formation: an overdensity of massive YSOs around Spitzer bubbles
• Fragmentation and Evolution of Molecular Clouds. II: The Effect of Dust Heating
• CO line ratios in molecular clouds: the impact of environment
• Interpretation of the Spatial Power Spectra of Neutral Hydrogen in the Galaxy and in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Star formation scales and efficiency in Galactic spiral arms
• The Multi-phase Turbulence Density Power Spectra in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
• Spatial distribution of star formation related to ionized regions throughout the inner Galactic plane
• SEDIGISM-ATLASGAL: Dense Gas Fraction and Star Formation Efficiency Across the Galactic Disk
• The Gas Properties of the W3 GMC: A HARP study
• Ionized Gas Towards Molecular Clumps: Physical Properties of Massive Star Forming Regions
• An 80 pc Long Massive Molecular Filament in the Galactic Mid-Plane
• Extreme star formation in the Milky Way: Luminosity distributions of young stellar objects in W49A and W51
• The CARMA-NRO Orion Survey: Statistical Signatures of Feedback in the Orion A Molecular Cloud
• Star formation in IRDC G31.97+0.07
• Dust in the Eye of Andromeda

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Large-scale Velocity-coherent Filaments in the SEDIGISM Survey: Association with Spiral Arms and Fraction of Dense Gas
• Solenoidal turbulent modes and star formation efficiency in Galactic-plane molecular clouds
• Investigating the physical properties and fragmentation of the AFGL 333-Ridge