| Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 51, 2011
Star Formation in the Local Universe – EES2010
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 59 - 71 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas/1151005 | |
| Published online | 16 November 2011 | |
C. Charbonnel and T. Montmerle (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 51 (2011) 59–71
Star Formation During Galaxy Formation
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Road, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA
e-mail: bge@us.ibm.com
Young galaxies are clumpy, gas-rich, and highly turbulent. Star formation appears to occur by gravitational instabilities in galactic disks. The high dispersion makes the clumps massive and the disks thick. The star formation rate should be comparable to the gas accretion rate of the whole galaxy, because star formation is usually rapid and the gas would be depleted quickly otherwise. The empirical laws for star formation found locally hold at redshifts around 2, although the molecular gas consumption time appears to be smaller, and mergers appear to form stars with a slightly higher efficiency than the majority of disk galaxies.
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2011