vice.singlezone.schmidt

Type : bool

Default : False

If True, the simulation will adopt a gas-dependent scaling of the star formation efficiency timescale \(\tau_\star\). At each timestep, \(\tau_\star\) is determined via:

\[\tau_\star(t) = \tau_{\star,\text{specified}}(t) \left( \frac{M_g}{M_{g,\text{Schmidt}}} \right)^{-\alpha}\]

where \(\tau_{\star,\text{specified}}(t)\) is the user-specified value of the attribute tau_star, \(M_g\) is the mass of the interstellar medium, \(M_{g,\text{Schmidt}}\) is the normalization thereof (attribute MgSchmidt), and \(\alpha\) is the power-law index set by the attribute schmidt_index.

This is an application of the Kennicutt-Schmidt star formation law to the single-zone approximation (Kennicutt 1998 [1]; Schmidt 1959 [2], 1963 [3]).

If False, this parameter does not impact the star formation efficiency that the user has specified.

Note

This attribute is irrelevant when the attribute tau_star is a function of two variables.

See also

  • vice.singlezone.tau_star

  • vice.singlezone.schmidt_index

  • vice.singlezone.MgSchmidt

Example Code

>>> import vice
>>> sz = vice.singlezone(name = "example")
>>> sz.schmidt = True
>>> sz.schmidt = False