We revisit the extensively debated star-forming main sequence (SFMS)—a tight correlation between the star formation rate and stellar mass in both kiloparsec-resolved and integrated galaxies. We statistically explore the fundamental drivers of star formation at global scales, using a large volume-limited sample of 24,954 local star-forming galaxies to overcome the limitations of previous works. Based on the mid-infrared 12 µm luminosity, stellar mass, and g−r color, we estimate the molecular gas mass for the considered sample. At galaxy-wide scales, we establish global relations between the surface densities of the star formation rate (ΣSFR), stellar mass (Σ*), and molecular gas mass (Σmol). These global density relations are connected with and follow similar trends as the resolved SFMS, the Kennicutt–Schmidt (KS) relation, and the molecular gas main sequence (MGMS). Taking advantage of this large catalog, we show that the scatters in the global KS and MGMS relations are smaller than that of the global relation between ΣSFR and Σ*, and their Pearson correlation coefficients are higher. More importantly, multivariate regression and partial correlation analyses demonstrate that the apparent ΣSFR−Σ* correlation is entirely mediated by Σmol, with its best-fit parameters directly derivable from those of the KS and MGMS relations. Overall, our findings suggest that the correlation between stellar mass and molecular gas, as well as that between molecular gas and star formation, are more direct and fundamental. The star-forming main sequence, thus, appears to be a natural by-product of these two tighter relations.
Gao et al. (2026) studied this question.