Next Contents Previous

6. SCALABILITY

"Scalability" was a major theme of the conference. It arises from two main concerns: To what extent can we scale local starburst systems to cosmically distant ones? And to what extent can we scale the physics of modest to extreme star formation amplitudes? The evidence, fortunately, is that scalability is good, implying modest rather than fundamental adjustments with changes in environment and scale.

The premier example of scalability is the Schmidt-Kennicutt "law," under which SigmaSFR propto SigmaGAS1.4. The quantities refer to global averages over the surfaces of individual galaxies. The relation applies over a remarkable 6 decades. As noted above, a similar degree of scalability applies to the radio/far-IR correlation for star forming systems.

Other encouraging, if less firmly established, examples of scalability include:

Next Contents Previous