Star Formation, Stellar Feedback, and the Ecology of Galaxies

Star Formation, Stellar Feedback, and the Ecology of Galaxies

How star formation-driven outflows regulate star formation
2025-05-28 , Main Conference Room

Outflowing gas driven by star formation plays a critical role regulating star formation and contributing to the baryon cycle. However the details of this stellar feedback process are still unclear, particularly in starbursting environments. To better constrain feedback models used to understand galaxy evolution, high resolution IFU observations are needed to spatially resolve star formation-driven outflow properties and link these to co-located galaxy properties. I will present results from the DUVET survey of starbursting galaxies observed using the IFU KCWI. We measure outflows in 10 face-on local galaxies with ~1000 lines of sight of individual outflow measurements at 500pc resolution. Using our observations, we are able to discriminate between widely used models of the launching mechanism of the outflow. We derive much needed scaling relations for the relationship between star formation and outflow properties across a range of star-forming environments, and compare these to simulations. We compare to observations from NOEMA, and connect the outflows with location in the resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt relation to find that starburst regions remove more gas via the outflow than they convert into stars. This directly measures how outflows regulate star formation and contribute to the baryon cycle. DUVET's unprecedented sample of resolved outflows provides a new perspective to make ground-breaking constraints on how stellar feedback regulates star formation, contributes to the baryon cycle, and drives galaxy evolution.