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Luminous Stellar Content of the Galaxy: Inferences from Radio and Infrared Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

P. G. Mezger
P. G. Mezger*
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 5300 Bonn 1, F.R.G.

Abstract

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Lyman continuum (Lyc) photon production rates can be estimated from radio free-free emission and used to estimate the star formation rate (SFR) of 0 stars. If this SFR is linked to the total SFR through a constant IMF (m ≳0.1 m⊙) one derives for our Galaxy a present-day SFR of ∼10 m⊙ yr−1, which is close to the average SFR over the age of the galactic disk. This is difficult to reconcile with a formation law of the form SFR φ∝Mgas k with k>0 which yields SFRs which decrease with time. Even more severe is the fact that the mass distribution of the galactic disk cannot be reproduced by the present-day SFR with a constant IMF. Bimodal star formation, however, reduces the rate at which matter is permanently locked up in low mass and dead stars by nearly a factor of three, and gets reasonable agreement between the present-day distribution of stellar mass and lock-up rate. Bimodal star formation means that stars with m >0.1 m⊙ form in the interarm region while in spiral arms induced star formation produces only stars with m >mc ∼2–3 m⊙.

Type
Session 8. Luminous Stellar Content of Galaxies-Integrated Properties-II
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 116: Luminous Stars and Associations in Galaxies , 1986 , pp. 479 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1986 

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