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arXiv 0810.1656astro-ph
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Milky Way盘中恒星形成的Schmidt-Kennicutt定律

A Schmidt-Kennicutt law for star formation in the Milky Way disk

B. Fuchs, H. Jahreiss, C. Flynn

摘要:

我们使用一种新的方法来追溯银河系盘的恒星形成历史,使用一个样本的M矮星在太阳附近,这是整个太阳圈的代表。使用M星是因为它们在特定的年龄之前都有H_alpha发射,这是它们绝对星等的一个很好的校准函数。这使我们能够重建盘星在大约一半的盘寿命中诞生的速率。我们的恒星形成率与使用其他独立方法获得的结果一致,似乎排除了恒星形成率恒定的可能性。这项研究的主要结果是表明,施密特-肯尼卡特型(其中涉及恒星形成率的星系盘的星际气体含量)的关系已在银河系盘在过去5 Gyr。我们从M矮星和星际气体含量的磁盘中获得的恒星形成率可以推断为时间的函数,从磁盘的化学富集模型,这是很好地约束的观测表明,银河系磁盘的金属量在所涉及的时间尺度上几乎保持不变。我们证明了过去5个Gyr的恒星形成率和气体表面密度可以用指数为Gamma = 1.45(+0.22,-0.09)的Schmidt-Kennicutt定律精确描述。在统计不确定性范围内,这与其他星系的值相同。

英文摘要:

We use a new method to trace backwards the star formation history of the Milky Way disk, using a sample of M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood which is representative for the entire solar circle. M stars are used because they show H_alpha emission until a particular age which is a well calibrated function of their absolute magnitudes. This allows us to reconstruct the rate at which disk stars have been born over about half the disk's lifetime. Our star formation rate agrees well with those obtained by using other, independent, methods and seems to rule out a constant star formation rate. The principal result of this study is to show that a relation of the Schmidt-Kennicut type (which relates the star formation rate to the interstellar gas content of galaxy disks) has pertained in the Milky Way disk during the last 5 Gyr. The star formation rate we derive from the M dwarfs and the interstellar gas content of the disk can be inferred as a function of time from a model of the chemical enrichment of the disk, which is well constrained by the observations indicating that the metallicity of the Galactic disk has remained nearly constant over the timescales involved. We demonstrate that the star formation rate and gas surface densities over the last 5 Gyrs can be accurately described by a Schmidt-Kennicutt law with an index of Gamma = 1.45 (+0.22,-0.09). This is, within statistical uncertainties, the same value found for other galaxies.

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