Dr Thomas Williams

Abstract:

We compare measurements of star formation efficiency to cloud-scale gas properties across the PHANGS– ALMA sample. Dividing 67 galaxies into 1.5 kpc scale regions, we calculate the molecular gas depletion time τdepmol=Σmol/ΣSFR and the star formation efficiency per freefall time ϵffmol=τff/τdepmol for each region. Then we test how τdepmol and ϵffmol vary as functions of the regional mass-weighted mean molecular gas properties on cloud scales (60–150 pc): gas surface density, 〈Σmolcloud〉 , velocity dispersion, 〈σmolcloud〉 , virial parameter, 〈αvircloud〉 , and gravitational freefall time, 〈τffcloud〉 . 〈τffcloud〉 and τdepmol correlate positively, consistent with the expectation that gas density plays a key role in setting the rate of star formation. Our fiducial measurements suggest τdepmol∝〈τffcloud〉0.5 and ϵffmol≈0.34% , though the exact numbers depend on the adopted fitting methods. We also observe anticorrelations between τdepmol and 〈Σmolcloud〉 and between τdepmol and 〈σmolcloud〉 . All three correlations may reflect the same underlying link between density and star formation efficiency combined with systematic variations in the degree to which self-gravity binds molecular gas in galaxies. We highlight the τdepmol – 〈σmolcloud〉 relation because of the lower degree of correlation between the axes. Contrary to theoretical expectations, we observe an anticorrelation between τdepmol and 〈αvircloud〉 and no significant correlation between ϵffmol and 〈αvircloud〉 . Our results depend sensitively on the adopted CO-to-H2 conversion factor, with corrections for excitation and emissivity effects in inner galaxies playing an important role. We emphasize that our simple methodology and clean selection allow for easy comparison to numerical simulations and highlight this as a logical next direction.

Abstract:

Early-type galaxies (ETGs) are known to harbour dense spheroids of stars with scarce star formation (SF). Approximately a quarter of these galaxies have rich molecular gas reservoirs yet do not form stars efficiently. These gas-rich ETGs have properties similar to those of bulges at the centres of spiral galaxies. We use spatially resolved observations (⁠∼ 100 pc resolution) of warm ionized-gas emission lines (H𝛽, [OIII], [NII], H𝛼 and [SII]) from the imaging Fourier transform spectrograph SITELLE at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope and cold molecular gas [¹²CO(2–1) or ¹²CO(3–2)] from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to study the SF properties of eight ETGs and bulges. We use the ionized-gas emission lines to classify the ionization mechanisms and demonstrate a complete absence of regions dominated by SF ionization in these ETGs and bulges, despite abundant cold molecular gas. The ionization classifications also show that our ETGs and bulges are dominated by old stellar populations. We use the molecular gas surface densities and H -derived SF rates (in spiral galaxies outside of the bulges) or upper limits (in ETGs and bulges) to constrain the depletion times (inverse of the SF efficiencies), suggesting again suppressed SF in our ETGs and bulges. Finally, we use the molecular gas velocity fields to measure the gas kinematics, and show that bulge dynamics, particularly the strong shear due to the deep and steep gravitational potential wells, is an important SF regulation mechanism for at least half of our sample galaxies.

Abstract:

The earliest stages of star and cluster formation are hidden within dense cocoons of gas and dust, limiting their detection at optical wavelengths. With the unprecedented infrared capabilities of JWST, we can now observe dust-enshrouded star formation with ∼10 pc resolution out to ∼20 Mpc. Early findings from PHANGS-JWST suggest that 3.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission can identify star clusters in their dust-embedded phases. Here, we extend this analysis to 19 galaxies from the PHANGS-JWST Cycle 1 Treasury survey, providing the first characterization of compact sources exhibiting 3.3 μm PAH emission across a diverse sample of nearby star-forming galaxies. We establish a selection criteria based on a median color threshold of F300M − F335M = 0.67 at F335M = 20 and identify 1816 sources. These sources are predominantly located in dust lanes, spiral arms, rings, and galaxy centers, with ∼87% showing concentration indices (CIs) similar to optically detected star clusters. Comparison with the PHANGS-HST catalogs suggests that PAH emission fades within ∼3 Myr. The Hα equivalent width of PAH emitters is 1–2.8 times higher than that of young PHANGS-HST clusters, providing evidence that PAH emitters are on average younger. Analysis of the bright portions of luminosity functions (which should not suffer from incompleteness) shows that young dusty clusters may increase the number of optically visible ≤3 Myr old clusters in PHANGS-HST by a factor between ∼1.8× and 8.5×.

Abstract:

Combining Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array CO(2–1) mapping and JWST near- and mid-infrared imaging, we characterize the relationship between CO(2–1) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission at ≈100 pc resolution in 70 nearby star-forming galaxies. Leveraging a new Cycle 2 JWST Treasury program targeting nearby galaxies, we expand the sample size by more than an order of magnitude compared to previous ≈100 pc resolution CO–PAH comparisons. In regions of galaxies where most of the gas is likely to be molecular, we find strong correlations between CO(2–1) and 3.3 μm, 7.7 μm, and 11.3 μm PAH emission, estimated from JWST’s F335M, F770W, and F1130W filters. We derive power-law relations between CO(2–1) and PAH emission, with indices in the range 0.8–1.3, implying relatively weak variations in the observed CO-to-PAH ratios across our sample. We find that CO-to-PAH ratios and scaling relationships near H ii regions are similar to those in diffuse sight lines. The main difference between the two types of regions is that sight lines near H ii regions show higher intensities in all tracers. Galaxy centers show higher overall intensities and enhanced CO-to-PAH ratios compared to galaxy disks. Individual galaxies show 0.19 dex scatter in the normalization of CO at fixed IPAH, and this normalization anticorrelates with specific star formation rate and correlates with stellar mass. We provide a prescription that accounts for galaxy-to-galaxy variations, representing our best current empirical predictor to estimate CO(2–1) intensity from PAH emission, allowing one to take advantage of JWST’s excellent sensitivity and resolution to trace cold gas.