Estimate Star Formation Rate: Kennicutt-Schmidt Law

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on estimating the star formation rate (SFR) in plasma clouds using the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law. The formula presented is SFR ∼ ε · MH · tdyn-1, where ε represents the efficiency factor, typically around 0.1, and tdyn is the dynamical time. The conversation highlights the empirical nature of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law and seeks original references for more detailed analytical approaches beyond order of magnitude estimates.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law
  • Familiarity with molecular-gas dynamics
  • Knowledge of star formation processes
  • Basic grasp of astrophysical efficiency factors
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the empirical foundations of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law
  • Explore methods for calculating dynamical time in astrophysical contexts
  • Investigate the role of efficiency factors in star formation rate estimates
  • Review original research papers on star formation rates in plasma clouds
USEFUL FOR

Astronomers, astrophysicists, and researchers interested in star formation processes and the dynamics of molecular gas in galaxies.

Sagar_C
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How does one analytically estimate star formation rate in a plasma cloud? Could someone lead me to original references? Kennicutt-Schmidt Law, I guess, is empirical.
 
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I'm not familiar with any work that does this in more than order of magnitude sense. The general idea is to estimate the star formation rate as the molecular-gas infall rate - with some efficiency factor, e.g.

\rm{SFR} \sim \epsilon \cdot M_{H} \cdot t_\rm{dyn}^{-1}

Where \epsilon is the efficiency factor (maybe ~0.1), and t_\rm{dyn} is the dynamical time.
 

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