What sets the star-formation rate in the Milky Way?. II. Comparing the star-forming clumps from simulations and observations

@misc{suin2026what,
  title = {{What sets the star-formation rate in the Milky Way?. II. Comparing the star-forming clumps from simulations and observations}},
  author = {Paolo Suin and Patrick Hennebelle and Georges Abboudeh and Davide Elia and Sergio Molinari and Eugenio Schisano and Noé Brucy and Simon C. O. Glover and Ugo Lebreuilly and Seyma Mercimek and Alice Nucara and Veli-Matti Pelkonen and Juan D. Soler and Alessio Traficante and Ralf S. Klessen and Leonardo Testi},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.36059},
  eprint = {2610.36059},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36059},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - What sets the star-formation rate in the Milky Way?. II. Comparing the star-forming clumps from simulations and observations
AU  - Paolo Suin
AU  - Patrick Hennebelle
AU  - Georges Abboudeh
AU  - Davide Elia
AU  - Sergio Molinari
AU  - Eugenio Schisano
AU  - Noé Brucy
AU  - Simon C. O. Glover
AU  - Ugo Lebreuilly
AU  - Seyma Mercimek
AU  - Alice Nucara
AU  - Veli-Matti Pelkonen
AU  - Juan D. Soler
AU  - Alessio Traficante
AU  - Ralf S. Klessen
AU  - Leonardo Testi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/26
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.36059
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36059
AB  - Context. Linking the star formation (SF) properties of dense clumps to their parent large-scale environment is a key step to interpret Galactic surveys. Achieving a consistent, multi-scale picture of SF requires a comparative analysis of observations and simulations. Aims. We exploit kiloparsec-scale magneto-hydrodynamic simulations designed to reproduce local Milky Way conditions. Leveraging the wide range of scales covered by the simulations (reaching a resolution of 0.03 pc), we aim to compare the properties of the simulated population of star-forming clumps with observational catalogues. Methods. After extracting the star-forming structures with the HOP clump-finding algorithm, we compare their physical (mass and size) and SF properties (SF rate and efficiency) with those of the Hi-GAL compact source catalogue. Results. Despite the different methodologies and the three-dimensional nature of our clump extraction, the simulated clumps show good agreement with the observed sample in their mass and size distributions. We discover a consistently linear relation between mass and SF rate (SFR) for the simulated clumps, which is remarkably independent of the initial conditions of the boxes. Using scaling relations to distinguish between turbulence- and gravity-regulated gas inflow onto the clump scales, we find tentative evidence in favour of a gravity-regulated regime of SF at the probed sub-parsec scales. Key words. methods: numerical - stars: formation - ISM: clouds
ER  -