The integrated bolometric effective surface brightness S _ { e } distributions of starbursts are investigated for samples observed in 1. the rest frame ultraviolet ( UV ) , 2. the far-infrared and H \alpha , and 3 .
21cm radio continuum emission .
For the UV sample we exploit a tight empirical relationship between UV reddening and extinction to recover the bolometric flux .
Parameterizing the S _ { e } upper limit by the 90th percentile of the distribution , we find a mean S _ { e, 90 } = 2.0 \times 10 ^ { 11 } L _ { \odot } { kpc ^ { -2 } } for the three samples , with a factor of three difference between the samples .
This is consistent with what is expected from the calibration uncertainties alone .
We find little variation in S _ { e, 90 } with effective radii for R _ { e } \sim 0.1 - 10 kpc , and little evolution out to redshifts z \approx 3 .
The lack of a strong dependence of S _ { e, 90 } on wavelength , and its consistency with the pressure measured in strong galactic winds , argue that it corresponds to a global star formation intensity limit ( \dot { \Sigma } _ { e, 90 } \sim 45 { \cal M } _ { \odot } { kpc ^ { -2 } yr ^ { -1 } } ) rather than being an opacity effect .
There are several important implications of these results : 1 .
There is a robust physical mechanism limiting starburst intensity .
We note that starbursts have S _ { e } consistent with the expectations of gravitational instability models applied to the solid body rotation portion of galaxies .
2 .
Elliptical galaxies and spiral bulges can plausibly be built with maximum intensity bursts , while normal spiral disks can not .
3 .
The UV extinction of high- z galaxies is significant , implying that star formation in the early universe is moderately obscured .
After correcting for extinction , the observed metal production rate at z \sim 3 agrees well with independent estimates made for the epoch of elliptical galaxy formation .