Simulating the ISM in Global Disk Galaxies

Abstract

Until recently, simulations that modeled entire galaxies were restricted to an isothermal or fixed 2- or 3-phase interstellar medium (ISM). This obscured the full role of the ISM in shaping the observed galactic-scale star formation relations. In particular the Kennicutt relation suggests that star formation rates depend in a simple way on global galactic quantities, such as mean gas mass surface density and dynamical time. Contrary to this, observations of nearby star-forming regions, including images from the Spitzer telescope, show that all the way down to ``local-scales'' ($\sim$ parsecs) star formation is a highly clustered process with the gas existing at a wide range of densities and multiple phases, and seemingly decoupled from the larger-scale Galaxy. Many different physical processes appear to be influencing the star formation rate, including heating and cooling of the gas, ``turbulent'' energy injection from outflows, winds and supernova blastwaves, ionization, and magnetic field support. Here we present results from global simulations of disk galaxy star formation that include a fully multiphase ISM and compare to simpler isothermal models. We also investigate the effect of background heating. We discuss the process of giant molecular cloud formation as one of the possible links between the galactic and local scales of star formation.