Abstract
The formation of giant cloud complexes in galaxies is discussed. Spiral galaxies without density waves have approximately the same star formation rates and CO abundances as the average for galaxies with waves. This implies that the primary effect of the wave is to organize the existing molecular clouds into a global spiral pattern. A secondary effect of the wave is to trigger the formation of more molecular clouds and stars, but this triggering may be limited to only the strongest waves, as in M51. Strong waves apparently trigger more cloud formation than weak waves because the gas in a strong wave has time to dissipate and collapse gravitationally before it leaves the spiral arms. Strong waves should also have molecular shock fronts (dust lanes), unlike weak waves.
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Elmegreen, B.G. (1988). Star formation in normal galaxies. In: Lawrence, A. (eds) Comets to Cosmology. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 297. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0118807
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0118807
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