Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies

By Robert C. Kennicutt Jr., N. Evans II. 2012

2,056 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We review progress over the past decade in observations of large-scale star formation, with a focus on the interface between extragalactic and Galactic studies. Methods of measuring gas contents and star-formation rates are discussed, and updated prescriptions for calculating star-formation rates are provided. We review relations between star formation and gas on scales ranging from entire galaxies to individual molecular clouds.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spectroscopy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a59d8cf0a0b788647c26695f1901235e540de59f

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Citations in the corpus

COMBINED CO AND DUST SCALING RELATIONS OF DEPLETION TIME AND MOLECULAR GAS FRACTIONS WITH COSMIC TIME, SPECIFIC STAR-FORMATION RATE, AND STELLAR MASS (2014, background): “However, this approach has since come under criticism (e.g. Ostriker & Shetty 2011, Kennicutt & Evans 2012, Krumholz, Dekel & McKee 2012) on the grounds that the resulting smaller depletion time scales then immediately introduce a bi-modal, and thus probably unphysical gas-star formation relation.”
The assembly of ‘normal’ galaxies at z ∼ 7 probed by ALMA (2015, methodology): “…tracing molecular gas in a galaxy, must be associated to a certain SFR. Assuming, for instance, that the observed line is CO(4-3) at z=1 and conservatively assuming the S-K law observed for local galaxies (Kennicutt & Evans 2012), one expects that the host galaxy should have a SFR ≈ 25M yr−1.”
The big problems in star formation: The star formation rate, stellar clustering, and the initial mass function (2014, background): “…is not true in present-day spirals with tdep ∼ 1 Gyr,2 or even for large star-forming galaxies up to z ∼ 3 (Saintonge et al. 2013), though it 2However, Kennicutt & Evans (2012) point out that even the Milky might have been true for their progenitors at even higher redshift (Krumholz & Dekel 2012).”
The lifecycle of molecular clouds in nearby star-forming disc galaxies (2019, methodology): “Beyond this definition, an important advantage of the method used here is that the measured time-scales do not explicitly depend on the αCO conversion factor, which is uncertain in extragalactic environments (see e.g. Kennicutt & Evans 2012; Bolatto et al. 2013).”
Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars (2014, background): “Since massive stars have short lifetimes, their ultraviolet (UV) radiation (reprocessed in various forms) is the most observable tracer of star formation and is used to calculate the star formation rates (Kennicutt 1998, Kennicutt & Evans 2012).”
A HIGHLY CONSISTENT FRAMEWORK FOR THE EVOLUTION OF THE STAR-FORMING “MAIN SEQUENCE” FROM z ∼ 0–6 (2014, background): “…al. 2009; Conroy et al. 2009; Conroy & Gunn 2010) and improved global diagnostics of galactic star formation (Murphy et al. 2011; Hao et al. 2011; Kennicutt & Evans 2012 (KE12), and references within) have enabled the determination of key physical quantities of galaxies from these data:…”
A unified multiwavelength model of galaxy formation (2015, background): “These tracers are all sensitive to high-mass star formation only, although the stellar mass range depends o the tracer, varying fromm & 5M⊙ for far-UV and far-IR, to m & 8M⊙ for non-thermal radio, andm & 20M⊙ for Hα (see Kennicutt & Evans 2012 for a recent review).”
The DESI Experiment Part I: Science,Targeting, and Survey Design (2016, background): “6, respectively, which lies below the ‘knee’ of the star formation rate function of galaxies at these redshifts [213, 214].”
The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor (2013, background): “Consequently, H2 plays a central role in the evolution of galaxies and stellar systems (see the recent review by Kennicutt & Evans 2012).”
The HDUV Survey: A Revised Assessment of the Relationship between UV Slope and Dust Attenuation for High-redshift Galaxies (2017, methodology): “…includes binary evolution and an IMF extending to 300M predicts a factor of ≈ 3 larger Hα luminosity per solar mass of star formation after 100 Myr of constant star formation relative to that computed using the Kennicutt & Evans (2012) relation, which assumes a solar metallicity Starburst99 model.”
ATLASGAL — towards a complete sample of massive star forming clumps ⋆ (2014, background): “…Milky Way, we are generally restricted to studies of global star formation properties integrated over entire star-forming complexes or even groups of complexes, which render it impossible to study either feedback processes or the environmental dependence of star formation (Kennicutt & Evans 2012).”
Turbulent molecular clouds (2012, methodology): “Direct comparisons with SFR inferred from observations (e.g. Heiderman et al. 2010, Kennicutt and Evans, 2012) have been performed but given the relatively large scatter of the data, it seems hard to draw firm conclusions.”
THE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF LOCAL GROUP DWARF GALAXIES. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/WIDE FIELD PLANETARY CAMERA 2 OBSERVATIONS (2014, background): “Most constraints on star formation efficiency for low mass galaxies come from studies of recent star formation (e.g., Hα, UV, 24 µm) and current gas content (e.g., Leroy et al. 2008; Salim et al. 2007; Kennicutt et al. 2008; Lee et al. 2011; Kennicutt & Evans 2012).”
Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way (2015, background): “…and Astrophysics and elsewhere that discuss the molecular ISM in relation to star formation (McKee & Ostriker 2007, Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012, Kennicutt & Evans 2012, Krumholz 2014); interstellar turbulence (Scalo & Elmegreen 2004, Elmegreen & Scalo 2004); cold, dark clouds (Bergin & Tafalla…”
The applicability of far-infrared fine-structure lines as star formation rate tracers over wide ranges of metallicities and galaxy types (2014, methodology): “Up to the present day, the most widely used SFR diagnostics have been based on continuum bands and optical/near-IR emission lines (see Kennicutt 1998; and Kennicutt & Evans 2012, for a detailed overview).”
An ALMA [C ii] Survey of 27 Quasars at z > 5.94 (2018, methodology): “For the dust-based SFR estimates, we follow Kennicutt & Evans (2012): = ´ - - ( ) M L L SFR yr 1.49 10 .”
Evidence of Environmental Dependencies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by Local H$\alpha$ (2013, background): “(see Kennicutt & Evans 2012, especially section 2.2, for a detailed discussion of H ii regions and their clumpiness).”