State-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation have reached the point at which their outcomes result in galaxies with ever more realism .
Still , the employed sub-grid models include several free parameters such as the density threshold , n , to localize the star-forming gas .
In this work , we investigate the possibilities to utilize the observed clustered nature of star formation ( SF ) in order to refine SF prescriptions and constrain the density threshold parameter .
To this end , we measure the clustering strength , correlation length and power-law index of the two-point correlation function of young ( \tau < 50 Myr ) stellar particles and compare our results to observations from the HST Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey ( LEGUS ) .
Our simulations reveal a clear trend of larger clustering signal and power-law index and lower correlation length as the SF threshold increases with only mild dependence on galaxy properties such as stellar mass or specific star formation rate .
In conclusion , we find that the observed clustering of SF is inconsistent with a low threshold for SF ( n < 1 cm ^ { -3 } ) and strongly favours a high value for the density threshold of SF ( n > 10 cm ^ { -3 } ) , as for example employed in the NIHAO project .