%0 Generic %1 orr2017fires %A Orr, Matthew %A Hayward, Chris %A Hopkins, Philip %A Chan, T. K. %A Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André %A Feldmann, Robert %A Kereš, Dušan %A Murray, Norman %A Quataert, Eliot %D 2017 %K KS formation law simulation star %T What FIREs Up Star Formation: the Emergence of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law from Feedback %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01788 %X We present an analysis of the global and spatially-resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt star formation relation in the FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) suite of cosmological simulations, including halos with $z = 0$ masses ranging from $10^10$ -- $10^13$ M$_ødot$. We show that the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation emerges robustly due to the effects of feedback on local scales, independent of the particular small-scale star formation prescriptions employed. This is true for the KS relation measured using all of the gas and using only the dense (molecular) gas. We demonstrate that the time-averaged KS relation is relatively independent of redshift and spatial averaging scale, and that the star formation rate surface density is weakly dependent on metallicity ($Z^1/4$). Finally, we show that on scales larger than individual giant molecular clouds, the primary condition that determines whether star formation occurs is whether a patch of the galactic disk is thermally Toomre-unstable (not whether it is self-shielding): once a patch can no longer be thermally stabilized against fragmentation, it collapses, becomes self-shielding, cools, and forms stars.

@misc{orr2017fires, abstract = {We present an analysis of the global and spatially-resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt star formation relation in the FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) suite of cosmological simulations, including halos with $z = 0$ masses ranging from $10^{10}$ -- $10^{13}$ M$_{\odot}$. We show that the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation emerges robustly due to the effects of feedback on local scales, independent of the particular small-scale star formation prescriptions employed. This is true for the KS relation measured using all of the gas and using only the dense (molecular) gas. We demonstrate that the time-averaged KS relation is relatively independent of redshift and spatial averaging scale, and that the star formation rate surface density is weakly dependent on metallicity ($\propto Z^{1/4}$). Finally, we show that on scales larger than individual giant molecular clouds, the primary condition that determines whether star formation occurs is whether a patch of the galactic disk is thermally Toomre-unstable (not whether it is self-shielding): once a patch can no longer be thermally stabilized against fragmentation, it collapses, becomes self-shielding, cools, and forms stars.}, added-at = {2017-01-10T10:02:29.000+0100}, author = {Orr, Matthew and Hayward, Chris and Hopkins, Philip and Chan, T. K. and Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André and Feldmann, Robert and Kereš, Dušan and Murray, Norman and Quataert, Eliot}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/209df7b1aa7e36cc7058d1fcd968eb116/miki}, description = {[1701.01788] What FIREs Up Star Formation: the Emergence of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law from Feedback}, interhash = {cfa83a5d1126a7eb3e7fd093d5ce0972}, intrahash = {09df7b1aa7e36cc7058d1fcd968eb116}, keywords = {KS formation law simulation star}, note = {cite arxiv:1701.01788Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS}, timestamp = {2017-01-10T10:02:29.000+0100}, title = {What FIREs Up Star Formation: the Emergence of the Kennicutt-Schmidt Law from Feedback}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01788}, year = 2017 }