Theory of starbursts in nuclear rings

Abstract

Two new star formation (SF) correlations, one between duration and size of the SF region, and another between region size and the luminosity of the host galaxy, illustrate that starbursts usually occur where the background galactic virial density is high. The time scales for SF are faster in these regions. The origin of the starburst rings in barred galaxies is discussed, and simple theoretical SF rates are given. The SF rate at the threshold density scales with the inverse cube of the orbit time. © Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.