To date the onset of large-scale star formation in galaxies and its link to gravitational stability of the galactic disk have not been fully understood. The nearby face-on spiral galaxy M51 is an ideal target for studying this subject. This paper com
bines CO, dust, HI, and stellar maps of M51 and its companion galaxy to study the H2/HI transition, the gas-to-dust ratios, and the stability of the disk against gravitational collapse. We combine maps of the molecular gas using 12CO 2--1 map HERA/IRAM-30m data and HI VLA data to study the total gas surface density and the phase transition of atomic to molecular gas. The total gas surface density is compared to the dust surface density from 850 micron SCUBA data. Taking into account the velocity dispersions of the molecular and atomic gas, and the stellar surface densities derived from the 2MASS K-band survey, we derive the total Toomre Q parameter of the disk. The gas surface density in the spiral arms is approximately 2-3 higher compared to that of the interarm regions. The ratio of molecular to atomic surface density shows a nearly power-law dependence on the hydrostatic pressure P_hydro. The gas surface density distribution in M51 shows an underlying exponential distribution with a scale length of h_gas=7.6 kpc representing 55% of the total gas mass, comparable to the properties of the exponential dust disk. In contrast to the velocity widths observed in HI, the CO velocity dispersion shows enhanced line widths in the spiral arms compared to the interarm regions. The contribution of the stellar component in the Toomre Q-parameter analysis is significant and lowers the combined Q-parameter Q_tot by up to 70% towards the threshold for gravitational instability. The value of Q_tot varies from 1.5-3 in radial averages. A map of Q_tot shows values around 1 on the spiral arms.
Star formation laws, like i.e. the Schmidt law relating star formation rate and total gas density, have been studied in several spiral galaxies but the underlying physics are not yet well understood. M51, as a nearby face-on, grand design spiral gala
xy studied in many line transitions, is an ideal target to study the connection between physical conditions of the gas and star formation activity. In this contribution we combine molecular, atomic, total gas and stellar surface densities and study the gravitational stability of the gas (Schuster et al.2007, Hitschfeld et al. in prep.). From our IRAM-30m 12 CO2-1 map and complementary HI-, Radio Continuum- and ACS-HST B-band-data we derive maps of the total gas density and the stellar surface density to study the gravitational stability of the gas via the Toomre Q parameter.
