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Date of Award
9-2011
Access Type
Campus Access
Document type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Astronomy
First Advisor
Daniela Calzetti
Second Advisor
Min S. Yun
Third Advisor
Mark H. Heyer
Subject Categories
Astrophysics and Astronomy
Abstract
Despite the well-established global Schmidt-Kennicutt (S-K) law which already serves as an essential prescription for large scale star formation in modeling and simulating galaxy formation and evolution, its local, spatially resolved version remains a frontier and more fundamental research topic. In this dissertation, the local S-K law has been explored both within individual nearby galaxies and amongst different galaxies. We have investigated the shape and universality of the S-K law, studied the dependence of its properties on the sampling scale, and tested it in the high density regime. In addition to its relation with the molecular gas, we have also studied the statistical properties of H II regions in terms of their luminosity function, size distribution, dust extinction and dust geometry.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/5686170
Recommended Citation
Liu, Guilin, "Exploring The Scaling Laws Of Star Formation" (2011). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 321.
https://doi.org/10.7275/5686170
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/321