Star formation and feedback in smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations – I. Isolated galaxies

We present an analysis of star formation and feedback recipes appropriate for galactic smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. Using an isolated Milky Way‐like galaxy, we constrain these recipes based on well‐established observational results. Our star formation recipe is based on that of Katz with the additional inclusion of physically motivated supernova feedback recipes. We propose a new feedback recipe in which Type II supernovae are modelled using an analytical treatment of blastwaves. With this feedback mechanism and a tuning of other star formation parameters, the star formation in our isolated Milky Way‐like galaxy follows the slope and normalization of the observed Schmidt law. In addition, we reproduce the low‐density cut‐off and filamentary structure of star formation observed in disc galaxies. Our final recipe will enable better comparison of N ‐body simulations with observations.