... ISM[*]
Appendices A and B are only available in electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org
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... from[*]
We changed the factor for the case $\sigma_{0}>1$ from $\ensuremath{-3.75 \times 10^{4}} $ to $\ensuremath{-2.75 \times 10^{4}} $ in order to avoid a discontinuity at $\sigma_{0}=1$.
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... instantaneously[*]
We neglect the short time for the SF process itself. This is motivated by recent observations suggesting that SF occurs on the local crossing time for sound waves in a cloud, a time scale that is shorter than a few  $10~\ensuremath{{\rm Myr}} $ (Elmegreen 2000).
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Copyright ESO 2006