2018MNRAS.475..248C

In this work, we present new the Swedish-ESO PI receiver for the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment APEX/SEPIA Band-5 observations targeting the CO (J = 2-1) emission line of 24 Herschel-detected galaxies at z = 0.1-0.2. Combining this sample with our recent new Valparaiso ALMA Line Emission Survey (VALES), we investigate the star formation efficiencies [SFEs = star formation rate (SFR)/M_ H₂] of galaxies at low redshift. We find the SFE of our sample bridges the gap between normal star-forming galaxies and Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs), which are thought to be triggered by different star formation modes. Considering the SFE as the SFR and the L^′^_ CO_ ratio, our data show a continuous and smooth increment as a function of infrared luminosity (or star formation rate) with a scatter about 0.5 dex, instead of a steep jump with a bimodal behaviour. This result is due to the use of a sample with a much larger range of sSFR/sSFR_ms using LIRGs, with luminosities covering the range between normal and ULIRGs. We conclude that the main parameters controlling the scatter of the SFE in star-forming galaxies are the systematic uncertainty of the α_CO conversion factor, the gas fraction, and physical size.