{
  "abstract": "The Andromeda galaxy (M31) exhibits a systematically low star formation efficiency (SFE) compared to other star-forming galaxies. Star formation is thought to be regulated by the mass of gravitationally bound gas. To investigate whether the low SFE in M31 originates from a scarcity of such bound gas, we analyze the dynamical state of its giant molecular cloud (GMC) population by estimating their virial parameters ( α vir ). Using a James Clerk Maxwell Telescope SCUBA2 850 μ m dust-continuum GMC catalog as the parent sample, we combine it with IRAM 30 m CO(1–0) data to define a working sample of 173 GMCs and derive their kinematic properties. Most analyzed GMCs exhibit high α vir , indicating that they are predominantly gravitationally unbound at the ∼86 pc resolution of our observations. While no statistically significant global correlation is found between SFE and α vir for the full cloud sample, the upper quantiles of the SFE distribution show progressively stronger negative trends with increasing α vir . This upper-tail trend may arise from the combined effects of the virial parameter limiting the upper range of SFE values accessible to the GMC population and feedback-driven disruption reducing the number of high-SFE, high- α vir CO-bright clouds in the observed sample. The substantial scatter in the SFE- α vir plane likely reflects the diverse evolutionary stages of GMCs, the temporal mismatch between gas and star formation tracers, and the limitations of a cloud-averaged virial parameter as a tracer of internal dynamical structure, making a simple one-to-one correspondence between α vir and instantaneous SFE difficult to recover for individual GMCs.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Chinese Academy of Sciences",
    "Chinese Academy of Sciences",
    "Max Planck Institute for Astronomy",
    "Department of Physics",
    "National Taiwan Normal University",
    "New Cornerstone Science Laboratory",
    "Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik",
    "Beijing Normal University",
    "Guangxi University",
    "Nanjing University",
    "Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics",
    "Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute",
    "National Astronomical Observatory of Japan"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 17,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Fangyuan Deng",
      "orcid": "0009-0003-9223-2297"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Sihan Jiao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9151-1388"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Hauyu Baobab Liu",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2300-2626"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jingwen Wu",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7808-3756"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Henrik Beuther"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Fanyi Meng"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Caroline Gieser",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8120-1765"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Yuxin Lin",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9299-5479"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Di Li"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        7,
        0
      ],
      "name": "Chao-Wei Tsai",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9390-9672"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8
      ],
      "name": "Junzhi Wang",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6106-1171"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9,
        10
      ],
      "name": "Zhi-Yu Zhang",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7299-2876"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Fengwei Xu",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5950-1932"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Jakob den Brok",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8760-6157"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Linjing Feng",
      "orcid": "0009-0003-4821-5502"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        11,
        12
      ],
      "name": "Zongnan Li",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7172-6306"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Yuxiang Liu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6whchzbeqts9y.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3847/1538-4357/aea993",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "6whchzbeqts9y",
  "issns": [
    "0004-637X",
    "1538-4357"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea993",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies"
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  "pdf_url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea993/pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-13",
  "publisher": "American Astronomical Society",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6whchzbeqts9y.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:11Z",
      "native_id": "10.3847/1538-4357/aea993",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea993"
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  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "openalex:3103|Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies",
      "subfield": "stellar"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Low Star Formation Efficiency in M31: Evidence for a Deficit of Bound Gas",
  "title_text": "Low Star Formation Efficiency in M31: Evidence for a Deficit of Bound Gas",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:11Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6whchzbeqts9y",
  "venue": "The Astrophysical Journal",
  "versions": []
}