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Hauptverfasser: Williams, Thomas G., Belfiore, Francesco, Bureau, Martin, Barnes, Ashley T., Bigiel, Frank, Choi, Woorak, Chown, Ryan, Colombo, Dario, Dale, Daniel A., Davis, Timothy A., Elford, Jacob, Gensior, Jindra, Glover, Simon C. O., Groves, Brent, Klessen, Ralf S., Liang, Fu-Heng, Pan, Hsi-An, Ruffa, Ilaria, Saito, Toshiki, Sánchez-Blázquez, Patricia, Sarzi, Marc, Schinnerer, Eva
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17440
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author Williams, Thomas G.
Belfiore, Francesco
Bureau, Martin
Barnes, Ashley T.
Bigiel, Frank
Choi, Woorak
Chown, Ryan
Colombo, Dario
Dale, Daniel A.
Davis, Timothy A.
Elford, Jacob
Gensior, Jindra
Glover, Simon C. O.
Groves, Brent
Klessen, Ralf S.
Liang, Fu-Heng
Pan, Hsi-An
Ruffa, Ilaria
Saito, Toshiki
Sánchez-Blázquez, Patricia
Sarzi, Marc
Schinnerer, Eva
author_facet Williams, Thomas G.
Belfiore, Francesco
Bureau, Martin
Barnes, Ashley T.
Bigiel, Frank
Choi, Woorak
Chown, Ryan
Colombo, Dario
Dale, Daniel A.
Davis, Timothy A.
Elford, Jacob
Gensior, Jindra
Glover, Simon C. O.
Groves, Brent
Klessen, Ralf S.
Liang, Fu-Heng
Pan, Hsi-An
Ruffa, Ilaria
Saito, Toshiki
Sánchez-Blázquez, Patricia
Sarzi, Marc
Schinnerer, Eva
contents Understanding how and why star formation varies between galaxies is fundamental to our comprehension of galaxy evolution. In particular, the star-formation efficiency (SFE; star-formation rate or SFR per unit cold gas mass) has been shown to vary substantially both across and within galaxies. Early-type galaxies (ETGs) constitute an extreme case, as about a quarter have detectable molecular gas reservoirs but little to no detectable star formation. In this work, we present a spatially-resolved view of the SFE in ten ETGs, combining state-of-the-art Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations. Optical spectroscopic line diagnostics are used to identify the ionized emission regions dominated by star-formation, and reject regions where the ionization arises primarily from other sources. We identify very few regions where the ionization is consistent with pure star formation. Using ${\rm H}α$ as our SFR tracer, we find that previous integrated measurements of the star-formation rate based on UV and 22$μ$m emission are systematically higher than the SFR measured from ${\rm H}α$. However, for the small number of regions where ionization is primarily associated with star formation, the SFEs are around 0.4 dex higher than those measured in star-forming galaxies at a similar spatial resolution (with depletion times ranging from $10^8$ to $10^{10}$ yr). Whilst the SFE of ETGs is overall low, we find that the SFEs of individual regions within ETGs can be similar to, or higher than, similar sized regions within star-forming galaxies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_17440
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The resolved star-formation efficiency of early-type galaxies
Williams, Thomas G.
Belfiore, Francesco
Bureau, Martin
Barnes, Ashley T.
Bigiel, Frank
Choi, Woorak
Chown, Ryan
Colombo, Dario
Dale, Daniel A.
Davis, Timothy A.
Elford, Jacob
Gensior, Jindra
Glover, Simon C. O.
Groves, Brent
Klessen, Ralf S.
Liang, Fu-Heng
Pan, Hsi-An
Ruffa, Ilaria
Saito, Toshiki
Sánchez-Blázquez, Patricia
Sarzi, Marc
Schinnerer, Eva
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Understanding how and why star formation varies between galaxies is fundamental to our comprehension of galaxy evolution. In particular, the star-formation efficiency (SFE; star-formation rate or SFR per unit cold gas mass) has been shown to vary substantially both across and within galaxies. Early-type galaxies (ETGs) constitute an extreme case, as about a quarter have detectable molecular gas reservoirs but little to no detectable star formation. In this work, we present a spatially-resolved view of the SFE in ten ETGs, combining state-of-the-art Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations. Optical spectroscopic line diagnostics are used to identify the ionized emission regions dominated by star-formation, and reject regions where the ionization arises primarily from other sources. We identify very few regions where the ionization is consistent with pure star formation. Using ${\rm H}α$ as our SFR tracer, we find that previous integrated measurements of the star-formation rate based on UV and 22$μ$m emission are systematically higher than the SFR measured from ${\rm H}α$. However, for the small number of regions where ionization is primarily associated with star formation, the SFEs are around 0.4 dex higher than those measured in star-forming galaxies at a similar spatial resolution (with depletion times ranging from $10^8$ to $10^{10}$ yr). Whilst the SFE of ETGs is overall low, we find that the SFEs of individual regions within ETGs can be similar to, or higher than, similar sized regions within star-forming galaxies.
title The resolved star-formation efficiency of early-type galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17440