Star formation and molecular gas observations of NGC 5331 with ALMA and VLA

LIRGs (Luminous Infra-Red Galaxies) make up the brightest objects in the infrared sky and represent an important population to study galaxy evolution. Models predict episodic enhancements of the total star formation of the system as the merger progresses. We know the molecular gas is the fuel for star formation, which explains the empirical correlation seen between the star formation rate and molecular gas surface densities in galaxies, described by the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation: Σ_SFR = Σ_mol., where N∼1.4 (Schmidt 1959, Kennicutt 1998). Most studies of this relation have been done using integrated measurements (Kennicutt 1998, Kennicutt & De Los Reyes 2021), however recent works at sub-kpc scales have found a wide range of values for N (e.g., Leroy et al. 2008, Pereira-Santaella et al. 2016). In this work, we study the K-S relation at 1.2 kpc scales in the nearby LIRG, NGC 5331. We use VLA radio continuum observations (3 GHz) to trace unobscured SF, as opposed to UV and/or Halpha, which suffer greatly from dust obscuration, especially in U/LIRGs, and ALMA CO (1-0) line emission observations to derive the molecular gas properties of this local LIRG.