DIISC-II: Unveiling the Connections between Star Formation and Interstellar Medium in the Extended Ultraviolet Disk of NGC 3344

Abstract

Abstract We present our investigation of the extended ultraviolet (XUV) disk galaxy, NGC 3344, conducted as part of Deciphering the Interplay between the Interstellar medium, Stars, and the Circumgalactic medium survey. We use surface and aperture photometry of individual young stellar complexes to study star formation and its effect on the physical properties of the interstellar medium. We measure the specific star formation rate (sSFR) and find it to increase from 10−10 yr−1 in the inner disk to >10−8 yr−1 in the extended disk. This provides evidence for inside-out disk growth. If these sSFRs are maintained, the XUV disk stellar mass can double in ∼0.5 Gyr, suggesting a burst of star formation. The XUV disk will continue forming stars for a long time due to the high gas depletion times (τ dep). The stellar complexes in the XUV disk have high-ΣH I and low-ΣSFR with τ dep ∼ 10 Gyr, marking the onset of a deviation from the traditional Kennicutt–Schmidt law. We find that both far-ultraviolet (FUV) and a combination of FUV and 24 μm effectively trace star formation in the XUV disk. Hα is weaker in general and prone to stochasticities in the formation of massive stars. Investigation of the circumgalactic medium at 29.5 kpc resulted in the detection of two absorbing systems with metal-line species: the stronger absorption component is consistent with gas flows around the disk, most likely tracing inflow, while the weaker component is likely tracing corotating circumgalactic gas.