Date/Time
Date(s) - 13/04/2011
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Title: The HERACLES and THINGS View of Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies

Speaker: Dr. Adam Leroy, NRAO

Institute:

Location: ABB 102

Description:

I will describe what we have learned about the relationship between star formation and gas in nearby galaxies from the combination of new ISM surveys (IRAM HERACLES, VLA THINGS) with shorter-wavelength literature data (SINGS, LVL, the GALEX NGS, and optical data). I will discuss the different relations among HI, H2, and star formation in galaxies, highlighting a new method to extract very sensitive CO measurements using HI priors. I will then discuss scalings between CO and star formation tracers in detail, highlighting breakdowns for low-metallicity galaxies, starbursts, and at cloud scales. Finally, I will show how variations in the H2-to-HI ratio — which have been previously identified as a star formation threshold — depend on environmental factors like ISM density, dust abundance, and gravitational instability.