VERTICO III: The Kennicutt-Schmidt relation in Virgo cluster galaxies

Abstract

In this VERTICO science paper we aim to study how the star formation process depends on galactic environment and gravitational interactions in the context of galaxy evolution. We explore the scaling relation between the star formation rate (SFR) surface density and the molecular gas surface density, also known as the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation, in a subsample of Virgo cluster spiral galaxies. We use new ACA and TP observations from the VERTICO-ALMA Large Program at 720pc resolution to resolve the molecular gas content, as traced by the 12CO(2-1) transition, across the disks of 37 spiral galaxies in the Virgo cluster. In combination with archival observations, we estimate the parameters of the KS relation for the entire ensemble of galaxies, and within individual galaxies. We find the KS slope for the entire population to be N=0.97+/-0.07, with a characteristic molecular gas depletion time of 1.86Gyr for our full sample, in agreement with previous work in isolated star-forming galaxies. In individual galaxies, we find KS slopes ranging between 0.69 and 1.40, and typical star formation efficiencies (SFE) that can vary from galaxy to galaxy by a factor of ~4. These galaxy-to-galaxy variations account for ~0.20dex in scatter in the ensemble KS relation, which is characterized by a 0.42dex scatter. We find that the HI-deficient galaxies in the Virgo cluster show a steeper resolved KS relation and lower molecular gas efficiencies than HI-normal cluster galaxies. While the molecular gas content in Virgo cluster galaxies appears to behave similarly to that in isolated galaxies, our VERTICO sample shows that cluster environments play a key role in regulating star formation. The environmental mechanisms affecting the HI galaxy content also have a direct impact in the SFE of molecular gas in cluster galaxies, leading to longer depletion times in HI-deficient members.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

References in corpus (127)

• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming Galaxies
• The Galaxy Evolution Explorer: A Space Ultraviolet Survey Mission
• Theory of Star Formation
• The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor
• The Star Formation Efficiency in Nearby Galaxies: Measuring Where Gas Forms Stars Effectively
• The Star Formation Law in Nearby Galaxies on Sub-Kpc Scales
• The reversal of the star formation-density relation in the distant universe
• THINGS: The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey
• Rotating Nuclear Rings and Extreme Starbursts in Ultraluminous Galaxies
• SINGS: The SIRTF Nearby Galaxies Survey
• The Star Formation Rate and Dense Molecular Gas in Galaxies
• A Study of the Gas-Star Formation Relation over Cosmic Time
• Environmental Effects on Late-Type Galaxies in Nearby Clusters
• On the Star Formation Rates in Molecular Clouds
• Different star formation laws for disks versus starbursts at low and high redshifts
• The Atlas3D project - XV. Benchmark for early-type galaxies scaling relations from 260 dynamical models: mass-to-light ratio, dark matter, Fundamental Plane and Mass Plane
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIII. SBF Distance Catalog and the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Virgo Cluster
• The Relationship Between Gas Content and Star Formation in Molecule-Rich Spiral Galaxies
• Molecular Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Disk Galaxies
• HERACLES: The HERA CO-Line Extragalactic Survey
• The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor and Dust-to-Gas Ratio on Kiloparsec Scales in Nearby Galaxies
• Star Formation in NGC 5194 (M51a). II. The Spatially-Resolved Star Formation Law
• A Molecular Star Formation Law in the Atomic Gas Dominated Regime in Nearby Galaxies
• Galactic-Field IMFs of Massive Stars
• Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study
• Common-Resolution Convolution Kernels for Space- and Ground-Based Telescopes
• COLD GASS, an IRAM Legacy Survey of Molecular Gas in Massive Galaxies: II. The non-universality of the Molecular Gas Depletion Timescale
• The HI Content of Spirals. II. Gas Deficiency in Cluster Galaxies
• Variations in the Galactic star formation rate and density thresholds for star formation
• Virgo Galaxies with Long One-Sided HI Tails
• Star Formation Rates in Molecular Clouds and the Nature of the Extragalactic Scaling Relations
• The Metallicity Dependence of the CO-to-H${}_2$ Conversion Factor from Observations of Local Group Galaxies
• A z=0 Multi-wavelength Galaxy Synthesis I: A WISE and GALEX Atlas of Local Galaxies
• The metallicity dependence of the CO {\rightarrow} H_2 conversion factor in z>1 star forming galaxies
• Halpha Morphologies and Environmental Effects in Virgo Cluster Spiral Galaxies
• Molecular and atomic gas along and across the main sequence of star-forming galaxies
• Ram Pressure Stripping in High-Density Environments
• The PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS): Environmental Dependence of Giant Molecular Cloud Properties in M51
• Gas Stripping in Simulated Galaxies with a Multiphase ISM
• Cloud-Scale Molecular Gas Properties in 15 Nearby Galaxies
• The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey. VIII. Final Data Release -- The Effect of Group Environment on the Gas Content of Massive Galaxies
• The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies
• Nobeyama CO Atlas of Nearby Spiral Galaxies: Distribution of Molecular Gas in Barred and Non-barred Spiral Galaxies
• The Scale Dependence of the Molecular Gas Depletion Time in M33
• The Spatially Resolved Star Formation Law from Integral Field Spectroscopy: VIRUS-P Observations of NGC 5194
• The ATLAS3D Project - XXVIII. Dynamically-driven star formation suppression in early-type galaxies
• PHANGS-ALMA Data Processing and Pipeline
• The Plateau de Bure + 30m Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey reveals a thick disk of diffuse molecular gas in the M51 galaxy
• On the origin of the faint-end of the red sequence in high density environments
• The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Interferometric Observations of 126 Galaxies with CARMA
• Variations in the Star Formation Efficiency of the Dense Molecular Gas across the Disks of Star-Forming Galaxies
• The physics and the structure of the quasar-driven outflow in Mrk 231
• Ram pressure stripping of disc galaxies orbiting in clusters. I. Mass and radius of the remaining gas disc
• Cold gas properties of the Herschel Reference Survey. III. Molecular gas stripping in cluster galaxies
• Molecular Gas Properties on Cloud Scales Across the Local Star-forming Galaxy Population
• Comparing the relation between star formation and galaxy mass in different environments
• Molecular outflows in local galaxies: Method comparison and a role of intermittent AGN driving
• Abundant molecular gas and inefficient star formation in intracluster regions: Ram pressure stripped tail of the Norma galaxy ESO137-001
• The Spectral Energy Distribution of CO lines in M82
• A Search for Kinematic Evidence of Radial Gas Flows in Spiral Galaxies
• Stellar structures, molecular gas, and star formation across the PHANGS sample of nearby galaxies
• The Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) I. ALMA images of dusty molecular tori in Seyfert galaxies
• The Different Physical Mechanisms that Drive the Star-Formation Histories of Giant and Dwarf Galaxies
• A complete 12CO 2-1 map of M51 with HERA: I. Radial averages of CO, HI, and radio continuum
• EMPIRE: The IRAM 30-m Dense Gas Survey of Nearby Galaxies
• The Star Formation Efficiency per Free Fall Time in Nearby Galaxies
• Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. Paper I: Non-Starbursting Galaxies
• Molecular hydrogen deficiency in HI-poor galaxies and its implications for star formation
• New Constraints on the ${}^{12}$CO(2-1)/(1-0) Line Ratio Across Nearby Disc Galaxies
• What FIREs Up Star Formation: the Emergence of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law from Feedback
• A History of HI Stripping in Virgo: A Phase-space View of VIVA Galaxies
• Completing HI observations of galaxies in the Virgo cluster
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: The molecular gas main sequence and the origin of the star forming main sequence
• Molecular Cloud Populations in the Context of Their Host Galaxy Environments: A Multiwavelength Perspective
• Low-J CO Line Ratios From Single Dish CO Mapping Surveys and PHANGS-ALMA
• The JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey I. Star Forming Molecular Gas in Virgo Cluster Spiral Galaxies
• NGC 4654: gravitational interaction or ram pressure stripping?
• Halpha surface photometry of galaxies in nearby clusters. V: the survey completion
• CARMA Survey Toward Infrared-bright Nearby Galaxies (STING) II: Molecular Gas Star Formation Law and Depletion Time Across the Blue Sequence
• The ALMA Fornax Cluster Survey I: stirring and stripping of the molecular gas in cluster galaxies
• Molecular Gas Dominated 50 kpc Ram Pressure Stripped Tail of the Coma Galaxy D100
• The effect of ram pressure on the molecular gas of galaxies: three case studies in the Virgo cluster
• Star formation scaling relations at ~100 pc from PHANGS: Impact of completeness and spatial scale
• Probability Distribution Functions OF 12CO(J = 1-0) Brightness and Integrated Intensity in M51: The PAWS View
• AGNIFS survey of local AGN: GMOS-IFU data and outflows in 30 sources
• Evidence for a non-universal Kennicutt-Schmidt relationship using hierarchical Bayesian linear regression
• 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
• ALMA [CI]${}^3{P}_1{-}^3{P}_0$ observations of NGC6240: a puzzling molecular outflow, and the role of outflows in the global ${\alpha }_{\mathrm{CO}}$ factor of (U)LIRGs
• CARMA Survey Toward Infrared-bright Nearby Galaxies (STING): Molecular Gas Star Formation Law in NGC4254
• GASP. XXII The molecular gas content of the JW100 jellyfish galaxy at z~0.05: does ram pressure promote molecular gas formation?
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: Variations in the Molecular Gas Depletion Time in Local Galaxies
• Ram pressure stripping of the multiphase ISM and star formation in the Virgo spiral galaxy NGC 4330
• The Effect of Galaxy Interactions on Molecular Gas Properties
• Ram pressure stripping of disc galaxies orbiting in clusters. II. Galactic wakes
• VERTICO: The Virgo Environment Traced In CO Survey
• Galaxy pairs in the SDSS - XIII. The connection between enhanced star formation and molecular gas properties in galaxy mergers
• Pre-peak ram pressure stripping in the Virgo cluster spiral galaxy NGC 4501
• The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Central molecular gas depletion in AGN host galaxies -- a smoking gun for quenching?
• 12CO(1-0) observations of NGC 4848: a Coma galaxy after stripping
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: The local and global relations between ${\Sigma }_{\ast }$ , ${\Sigma }_{SFR}$ and ${\Sigma }_{mol}$ that regulate star-formation
• The relationship between gas content and star formation rate in spiral galaxies. Comparing the local field with the Virgo cluster
• A panchromatic spatially resolved analysis of nearby galaxies -- II. The main sequence - gas relation at sub-kpc scale in grand-design spirals
• A blind ATCA HI survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster: properties of the HI detections
• Mid-IR emission of galaxies in the Virgo cluster and in the Coma supercluster.IV. The nature of the dust heating sources
• Indications of a sub-linear and non-universal Kennicutt-Schmidt relationship
• Ram Pressure Stripping in the Virgo Cluster
• The JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey X. Environmental Effects on the Molecular Gas and Star Formation Properties of Spiral Galaxies
• VERTICO II: effects of HI-identified environmental mechanisms on molecular gas
• ALMA evidence for ram pressure compression and stripping of molecular gas in the Virgo cluster galaxy NGC 4402
• Dual Effects of Ram Pressure on Star Formation in Multi-phase Disk Galaxies with Strong Stellar Feedback
• Studying the spatially resolved Schmidt-Kennicutt law in interacting galaxies: the case of Arp 158
• The ALMaQUEST Survey X: What powers merger induced star formation?
• Spatially Resoved 12CO(2-1)/12CO(1-0) in the Starburst Galaxy NGC 253: Assessing Optical Depth to Constrain the Molecular Mass Outflow Rate
• The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey VI : The Virgo Cluster (II)
• The star-formation law at GMC scales in M33, the Triangulum Galaxy
• AlFoCS + Fornax3D: resolved star formation in the Fornax cluster with ALMA and MUSE
• The ALMA Detection of Extraplanar 13CO in a Ram-pressure-stripped Galaxy and Its Implication
• The JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey -- XI. -- Environmental Variations in the Atomic and Molecular Gas Radial Profiles of Nearby Spiral Galaxies
• VERTICO IV: Environmental Effects on the Gas Distribution and Star Formation Efficiency of Virgo Cluster Spirals
• The organization of cloud-scale gas density structure: high resolution CO vs. 3.6 $\mu$m brightness contrasts in nearby galaxies
• Dusty spirals versus gas kinematics in the inner kiloparsec of Four Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• Gas compression and stellar feedback in the tidally interacting and ram-pressure stripped Virgo spiral galaxy NGC 4654
• Variations in the slope of the resolved star-forming main sequence: a tool for constraining the mass of star-forming regions
• 2D kinematic study of the central region of NGC 4501
• Low star formation efficiency due to turbulent adiabatic compression in the Taffy bridge

Cited by in corpus (8)

• PHANGS-MeerKAT and MHONGOOSE HI observations of nearby spiral galaxies: physical drivers of the molecular gas fraction, $R_{\mathrm{mol}}$
• VERTICO V: The environmentally driven evolution of the inner cold gas discs of Virgo cluster galaxies
• VERTICO VI: Cold-gas asymmetries in Virgo cluster galaxies
• Star formation drivers across the M33 disk
• The ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST survey: spatially resolved star formation relations at $z\sim 5$
• Kennicutt-Schmidt relation of galaxies over 13 billion years in the COLIBRE hydrodynamical simulations
• Atomic Hydrogen Shows its True Colours: Correlations between HI and Galaxy Colour in Simulations
• VERTICO IX: Signatures of environmental processing of the gas in Virgo cluster spiral galaxies through mapping of CO isotopologues