The small and the beautiful: how the star formation law affects galactic disc structure

We investigate the influence of different analytical parametrizations and fit functions for the local star formation rate in adaptive mesh refinement simulations of an isolated disc galaxy with the nyx code. Suchparametrizations express the star formation efficiency as function of the local turbulent Mach number and virial parameter. By employing the method of adaptively refined large eddy simulations, we are able to evaluate these physical parameters from the numerically unresolved turbulent energy associated with the grid scale. We consider both single and multi free-fall variants of star formation laws proposed by Padoan & Nordlund, Hennebelle & Chabrier, and Krumholz & McKee, summarized and tested recently with numerical simulations by Federrath & Klessen. We find that the global star formation rate and the relation between the local star formation rate and the gas column density is reproduced in agreement with observational constraints by all multi free-fall models of star formation. Some models with obsolete calibration or a single free-fall time-scale, however, result in an overly clumpy disc that does not resemble the structure of observed spirals.