The role of velocity dispersion in the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation
This study investigated whether molecular gas velocity dispersion ($Δv) influences the scatter in the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation, which links star formation rate to molecular gas density. Researchers found that a subset of galaxies (Group B) shows a systematic decrease in star formation efficiency as velocity dispersion increases at fixed gas density. This suggests velocity dispersion acts as an additional hidden parameter regulating how efficiently gas turns into stars in these specific galaxies.