2021/06/09 by Ezequiel Lozano, Lozano, Ezequiel, Cecilia Scannapieco +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2106.05054
openalex publication_date 2021/06/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a new model to describe the star formation process in galaxies, which includes the description of the different gas phases -- molecular, atomic, and ionized -- together with its metal content. The model, which will be coupled to cosmological simulations of galaxy formation, will be used to investigate the relation between the star formation rate (SFR) and the formation of molecular hydrogen. The model follows the time evolution of the molecular, atomic and ionized phases in a gas cloud and estimates the amount of stellar mass formed, by solving a set of five coupled differential equations. As expected, we find a positive, strong correlation between the molecular fraction and the initial gas density, which manifests in a positive correlation between the initial gas density and the SFR of the cloud.