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Wheels of Fire IV. Star Formation and the Neutral Interstellar Medium in the Ring Galaxy AM0644-741

We combine data from the ATNF and the SEST to investigate the neutral ISM in AM0644-741, a large and robustly star-forming ring galaxy. The galaxy's ISM is concentrated in the 42-kpc diameter starburst ring, but appears dominated by atomic gas, with a global molecular fraction (f_mol) of only 7.9%. Apart from the starburst peak, the gas ring is stable against the growth of gravitational instabilities (Q_gas=2-7). Including stars lowers Q overall, but not enough to make Q<1 everywhere. The ring's global star formation efficiency (SFE) appears somewhat elevated, but varies around the ring by more than an order of magnitude, peaking where star formation is most intense. AM0644-741's star formation law is peculiar: HI follows a Schmidt law while H2 is uncorrelated with SFR/area. Photodissociation models yield low volume densities in the ring, particularly in the starburst quadrant (n~2 cm^-3), implying a warm neutral medium dominated ISM. At the same time, the ring's pressure and ambient far-ultraviolet radiation field lead to the expectation of a predominantly molecular ISM. We argue that the ring's peculiar star formation law, n, SFE, and f_mol result from the ISM's >100 Myr confinement time in the starburst ring, which enhances the destructive effects of embedded massive stars and supernovae. As a result, the ring's molecular ISM becomes dominated by small clouds where star formation is most intense, causing H2 to be underestimated by 12CO line fluxes: in effect X(CO) >> X(Gal) despite the ring's solar metallicity. The observed large HI component is primarily a low density photodissociation product, i.e., a tracer rather than a precursor of massive star formation. Such an "over-cooked" ISM may be a general characteristic of evolved starburst ring galaxies.