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We identify stellar structures in the PHANGS sample of 74 nearby galaxies andconstruct morphological masks of sub-galactic environments based on Spitzer 3.6micron images. At the simplest level, we distinguish centres, bars, spiralarms, interarm and discs without strong spirals. Slightly more sophisticatedmasks include rings and lenses, publicly released but not explicitly used inthis paper. We examine trends using PHANGS-ALMA CO(2-1) intensity maps andtracers of star formation. The interarm regions and discs without strongspirals dominate in area, whereas molecular gas and star formation are quiteevenly distributed among the five basic environments. We reproduce themolecular Kennicutt-Schmidt relation with a slope compatible with unity withinthe uncertainties, without significant slope differences among environments. Incontrast to early studies, we find that bars are not always deserts devoid ofgas and star formation, but instead they show large diversity. Similarly,spiral arms do not account for most of the gas and star formation in discgalaxies, and they do not have shorter depletion times than the interarmregions. Spiral arms accumulate gas and star formation, without systematicallyboosting the star formation efficiency. Centres harbour remarkably high surfacedensities and on average shorter depletion times than other environments.Centres of barred galaxies show higher surface densities and widerdistributions compared to the outer disc; yet, depletion times are similar tounbarred galaxies, suggesting highly intermittent periods of star formationwhen bars episodically drive gas inflow, without enhancing the central starformation efficiency permanently. In conclusion, we provide quantitativeevidence that stellar structures in galaxies strongly affect the organisationof molecular gas and star formation, but their impact on star formationefficiency is more subtle.

Stellar structures, molecular gas, and star formation across the PHANGS sample of nearby galaxies