A clump population framework for star formation across galactic scales
Abstract
Whether star formation across different spatial scales and galactic environments follows universal laws remains poorly understood. We investigate cloud-scale star formation in 30 dwarf and disk galaxies. Molecular clouds are identified using a dendrogram algorithm, and their molecular gas masses (MH2) and star formation rates (SFRs) are derived from integrated CO and mid-infrared emission, respectively. We find a consistent MH2--SFR relation across all galaxies, with little sensitivity to galactic environment. Extending the analysis to Milky Way cloud substructures down to sub-parsec scales and 311 diverse nearby galaxies, we find that this relation persists across ten orders of magnitude in molecular gas mass and SFR. A theoretical model in which star formation occurs within dense clumps embedded in molecular clouds reproduces this observed relation. The weak environmental dependence of star formation at the clump scale provides a possible explanation for the nearly universal MH2--SFR relation across galaxies. This framework establishes an observationally grounded connection between star formation in the Milky Way and external galaxies.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhou2026clump,
title = {{A clump population framework for star formation across galactic scales}},
author = {J. W. Zhou and Sami Dib and Tie Liu and Ralf S. Klessen and Davide Elia and Kee-Tae Kim and Mika Juvela and Pavel Kroupa and Patricio Sanhueza and Médéric Boquien and Keping Qiu and Michele Ginolfi and Dario Colombo and Timothy Davis},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.21623},
eprint = {2610.21623},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.21623},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A clump population framework for star formation across galactic scales
AU - J. W. Zhou
AU - Sami Dib
AU - Tie Liu
AU - Ralf S. Klessen
AU - Davide Elia
AU - Kee-Tae Kim
AU - Mika Juvela
AU - Pavel Kroupa
AU - Patricio Sanhueza
AU - Médéric Boquien
AU - Keping Qiu
AU - Michele Ginolfi
AU - Dario Colombo
AU - Timothy Davis
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.21623
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.21623
AB - Whether star formation across different spatial scales and galactic environments follows universal laws remains poorly understood. We investigate cloud-scale star formation in 30 dwarf and disk galaxies. Molecular clouds are identified using a dendrogram algorithm, and their molecular gas masses (M_H_2) and star formation rates (SFRs) are derived from integrated CO and mid-infrared emission, respectively. We find a consistent M_H_2--SFR relation across all galaxies, with little sensitivity to galactic environment. Extending the analysis to Milky Way cloud substructures down to sub-parsec scales and 311 diverse nearby galaxies, we find that this relation persists across ten orders of magnitude in molecular gas mass and SFR. A theoretical model in which star formation occurs within dense clumps embedded in molecular clouds reproduces this observed relation. The weak environmental dependence of star formation at the clump scale provides a possible explanation for the nearly universal M_H_2--SFR relation across galaxies. This framework establishes an observationally grounded connection between star formation in the Milky Way and external galaxies.
ER -