Star Formation in Galaxy Mergers Scaling up a universal process or a violent mode of SF

I briefly review some measures of star formation rates in galaxies and discuss their respective uncertainties before outlining the range of star formation rates encountered in starbursts from isolated dwarf through massive gas-rich interacting systems. I p

STARFORMATIONINGALAXYMERGERS:

ScalingupauniversalprocessoraviolentmodeofSF?

arXiv:astro-ph/0407360v1 16 Jul 2004UTAFRITZE–V.ALVENSLEBENUniversit¨atssternwarteG¨ottingen,Geismarlandstr.11,37083G¨ottingen,GermanyIbrie yreviewsomemeasuresofstarformationratesingalaxiesanddiscusstheirrespectiveuncertaintiesbeforeoutliningtherangeofstarformationratesencounteredinstarburstsfromisolateddwarfthroughmassivegas-richinteractingsystems.Ipresentourcurrentunderstand-ingofmolecularcloudmassesandstructuresandonstarformationprocessesande cienciesinstarburstandinteractinggalaxies.Starclusterformationisanimportantmodeofstarformation,inparticularinstrongstarformationregimes.Idiscusstheroleofstarclustersandtheirpropertiesinhelpingusassessthequestionifstarformationisauniversalprocessallowingforconsiderablescalingorifthere’stwodi erentregimesfornormalandviolentSF.

Keywords:Stars:formation,Galaxies:evolution,formation,interactions,ISM,starburst,starclusters,globularclusters:general,openclustersandassociations:general

1Motivation

Despiteconsiderablee ortsbymanyresearchersovermorethan30yr,thequestionifStarFormation(SF)isbasicallydescribedbyoneuniversalprocessthatcanbescaledupanddownconsiderablyfromlowestlevelsindwarfandlowsurfacebrightnessgalaxiestoextremelyhighlevelsobservedinmassivegas-richinteractinggalaxies,ULIRGs,andSCUBAgalaxiesorif,ontheotherhand,therearetwofundamentallydi erentmodesorprocessesofSF–violentasopposedtonormalSF–stillisoneofthemajorunresolvedissuesinastrophysics.

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