Star Formation Rates in Disks

Class providing models of the star formation rate (in \(\mathrm{M}_\odot\) Gyr\(^{-1}\)) in the disk component of a galaxy. The star formation rate typically depends on the available cold gas mass, the disk surface density, and the dynamical state of the disk. Implementations may integrate over surface density profiles, apply empirical Schmidt-Kennicutt type relations, or use dynamical instability thresholds to determine where and how quickly stars form.

Default implementation: starFormationRateDisksIntgrtdSurfaceDensity

Methods

rate → double precision

Returns the rate (in units of \(\mathrm{M}_\odot\) Gyr\(^{-1}\)) for star formation in the disk component of node.

  • type(treeNode), intent(inout), target :: node

starFormationRateDisksCentralsOnly

A star formation rate in galactic disks which sets rates in satellites to zero.

starFormationRateDisksFixed

A star formation rate class for galactic disks that returns a constant, user-specified rate regardless of the disk’s gas content, mass, or dynamical properties. The fixed rate of star formation is set by the [starFormationRate] parameter in units of \(\mathrm{M}_\odot \hbox{Gyr}^{-1}\).

Parameters

  • [rateStarFormation] (real; default 1.0d9) — The rate of star formation in units of \(\mathrm{M}_\odot \hbox{Gyr}^{-1}\).

starFormationRateDisksIntgrtdSurfaceDensity

A star formation rate in galactic disks which computes the rate by integrating a star formation rate over the disk. Specifically, the star formation rate is given by

\[\dot{M}_\star = \int_0^\infty 2 \pi r \dot{\Sigma}_\star(r) \mathrm{d}r,\]

where \(\dot{\Sigma}_\star(r)\) is the surface density of star formation rate.

(Default implementation)

Parameters

  • [tolerance] (real; default 1.0d-3) — Relative tolerance to use when integrating star formation rate surface densities over the disk.

starFormationRateDisksTimescale

A star formation rate in galactic disks which computes the rate by integrating a star formation rate over the disk.