Igniting the Galaxy: The evolution of the star-forming clouds in global galaxy disc simulations (Elizabeth Tasker, McMaster University - Canada)

Almost all the star formation in disc galaxies such as the Milky Way occurs in the Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs); the highly structured entities that form the coldest component of the interstellar medium (ISM). The properties of these stellar nurseries are the environment in which new stars are born and it is their birth, evolution and death that predominantly control the star formation of the disk.

In this talk, I will present high resolution (> 10 pc) simulations of global disc galaxies in which we follow the evolution of the GMCs and look at their star formation properties and the factors governing them. We compare clouds with no star formation (i.e. looking at the evolution without the main destructive forces in play), clouds with star formation but no source of feedback, the effect of including a photoelectric heating term and a preliminary look at the impact of energetic supernovae explosions.