Molecular gas and star formation in GASP jellyfish galaxies

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Moretti, A., Paladino, R., Bacchini, C., Marasco, A., Giunchi, E., Poggianti, B. M., Hunt, L. K., Deb, T., Vulcani, B., Gullieuszik, M., Lassen, A., Wolter, A., Gitti, M., Radovich, M., Fritz, J., Tomicic, N.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866914397932224512
author Moretti, A.
Paladino, R.
Bacchini, C.
Marasco, A.
Giunchi, E.
Poggianti, B. M.
Hunt, L. K.
Deb, T.
Vulcani, B.
Gullieuszik, M.
Lassen, A.
Wolter, A.
Gitti, M.
Radovich, M.
Fritz, J.
Tomicic, N.
author_facet Moretti, A.
Paladino, R.
Bacchini, C.
Marasco, A.
Giunchi, E.
Poggianti, B. M.
Hunt, L. K.
Deb, T.
Vulcani, B.
Gullieuszik, M.
Lassen, A.
Wolter, A.
Gitti, M.
Radovich, M.
Fritz, J.
Tomicic, N.
contents Several studies have reported a nearly linear correlation between the molecular gas and star formation rate surface density, the so-called Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) law. We aim to retrieve the KS relation for a sample of four star-forming galaxies located in nearby clusters, disturbed by the effects of the ram pressure stripping, as testing this law in galaxies subject to different environmental conditions can provide key information on the physics of star formation. To perform our analysis, we used ALMA band 6 and band 3 data coupled with MUSE data at spatial resolution of ~1 kpc. Moreover, we analyzed data of star-forming complexes detected through their Hαionized gas emission. We also derived the star formation efficiencies of the star-forming regions nested in these big complexes using the star formation rates derived from spatially resolved HST images and various recipes for the corresponding cold gas phase. We find that ram-pressure-stripped galaxies show normal-to-low star formation efficiencies, depending on the position within the galaxy and on the local gas density: the inner dense regions in the disk show higher efficiencies with respect to the outer regions, including the gaseous tails. The global relation between the star formation rate density and the molecular gas surface density is superlinear, likely suggesting the shortening of the depletion times at high gas mass densities caused by the ram pressure. Within the star-forming complexes, the star formation efficiency is very similar to the one observed at 1 kpc scale in undisturbed star-forming disks. Interestingly, this result holds also for the star-forming complexes located in the stripped gas tails. The analysis of HST resolved clumps suggests that the molecular gas is not uniformly distributed within the star-forming complexes, but its density distribution follows a steeper profile.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15239
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Molecular gas and star formation in GASP jellyfish galaxies
Moretti, A.
Paladino, R.
Bacchini, C.
Marasco, A.
Giunchi, E.
Poggianti, B. M.
Hunt, L. K.
Deb, T.
Vulcani, B.
Gullieuszik, M.
Lassen, A.
Wolter, A.
Gitti, M.
Radovich, M.
Fritz, J.
Tomicic, N.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Several studies have reported a nearly linear correlation between the molecular gas and star formation rate surface density, the so-called Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) law. We aim to retrieve the KS relation for a sample of four star-forming galaxies located in nearby clusters, disturbed by the effects of the ram pressure stripping, as testing this law in galaxies subject to different environmental conditions can provide key information on the physics of star formation. To perform our analysis, we used ALMA band 6 and band 3 data coupled with MUSE data at spatial resolution of ~1 kpc. Moreover, we analyzed data of star-forming complexes detected through their Hαionized gas emission. We also derived the star formation efficiencies of the star-forming regions nested in these big complexes using the star formation rates derived from spatially resolved HST images and various recipes for the corresponding cold gas phase. We find that ram-pressure-stripped galaxies show normal-to-low star formation efficiencies, depending on the position within the galaxy and on the local gas density: the inner dense regions in the disk show higher efficiencies with respect to the outer regions, including the gaseous tails. The global relation between the star formation rate density and the molecular gas surface density is superlinear, likely suggesting the shortening of the depletion times at high gas mass densities caused by the ram pressure. Within the star-forming complexes, the star formation efficiency is very similar to the one observed at 1 kpc scale in undisturbed star-forming disks. Interestingly, this result holds also for the star-forming complexes located in the stripped gas tails. The analysis of HST resolved clumps suggests that the molecular gas is not uniformly distributed within the star-forming complexes, but its density distribution follows a steeper profile.
title Molecular gas and star formation in GASP jellyfish galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15239