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We introduce a new diagnostic for exploring the link between angular momentumand local gravitational instability in galaxy discs. Our diagnosticincorporates the latest developments in disc instability research, is fullyconsistent with approximations that are widely used for measuring the stellarspecific angular momentum, $j_{\star}=J_{\star}/M_{\star}$, and is also verysimple. We show that such a disc instability diagnostic hardly correlates with$j_{\star}$ or $M_{\star}$, and is remarkably constant across spiral galaxiesof any given type (Sa$\!-\!$Sd), stellar mass($M_{\star}=10^{9.5}\!-\!10^{11.5}\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$) and velocitydispersion anisotropy ($\sigma_{z\star}/\sigma_{R\star}=0\!-\!1$). The factthat $M_{\star}$ is tightly correlated with star formation rate($\mathrm{SFR}$), molecular gas mass ($M_{\mathrm{mol}}$), metallicity($12+\log\mathrm{O/H}$) and other fundamental galaxy properties thus impliesthat nearby star-forming spirals self-regulate to a quasi-universal discstability level. This proves the existence of the self-regulation processpostulated by several star formation models, but also raises important caveats.

Angular momentum and local gravitational instability in galaxy discs: does $Q$ correlate with $j$ or $M\,$?