  Stars in galaxies form in giant molecular clouds that coalesce when the
atomic hydrogen is converted into molecules. There are currently two dominant
models for what property of the galactic disk determines its molecular
fraction: either hydrostatic pressure driven by the gravity of gas and stars,
or a combination of gas column density and metallicity. To assess the validity
of these models, we compare theoretical predictions to the observed atomic gas
content of low-metallicity dwarf galaxies with high stellar densities. The
extreme conditions found in these systems are optimal to distinguish the two
models, otherwise degenerate in nearby spirals. Locally, on scales <100 pc, we
find that the state of the interstellar medium is mostly sensitive to the gas
column density and metallicity rather than hydrostatic pressure. On larger
scales where the average stellar density is considerably lower, both pressure
and shielding models reproduce the observations, even at low metallicity. We
conclude that models based on gas and dust shielding more closely describe the
process of molecular formation, especially at the high resolution that can be
achieved in modern galaxy simulations or with future radio/millimeter arrays.
