scholarly journals Star Formation and Chemical Evolution of Damped Ly-α Systems

2001 ◽  
Vol 204 ◽  
pp. 417-417
Author(s):  
Jun Ma
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Gravitational Instability ◽  
Rotational Velocity ◽  
Mean Value ◽  
Box Model ◽  
Dark Matter Halo ◽  
Circular Velocity ◽  
Metallicity Distribution

In this paper, we investigate the star formation and chemical evolution of damped Lyman-α systems (DLAs) based on the disk galaxy formation model developed by H. J. Mo, S. Mao, & S. D. M. White (1998, MNRAS, 295, 319). We propose that the DLAs are the central galaxies of less massive dark haloes present at redshifts z ~ 3, and that they should inhabit haloes of moderately low circular velocity. We adopt the empirical Schmidt law of star formation rates, and a closed box model of chemical evolution in which an approximation known as instantaneous recycling is assumed. In calculating the predicted distribution of metallicities for DLAs in our models, two cases are considered. One is that, using the closed box model, empirical Schmidt law, and star formation epoch, the distribution of metallicity can be directly calculated. The other is that, when the simple gravitational instability of a thin isothermal gas disk first discussed by A. Toomre (1964, ApJ, 139, 1217) is considered, star formation occurs only in the region where the surface density of gas satisfies the critical value — rather than everywhere in the gas disk. We first obtain the region where star formation can occur by assuming that the disk has a flat rotation curve and that the rotational velocity is equal to the circular velocity of the surrounding dark matter halo. We then calculate the metallicity distribution for case one. We assume that star formation in each DLA lasts for a period of 1 Gyr from redshifts z = 3. There is only one output parameter in our model, i.e., the stellar yield, which relates to the epoch of star formation. It is obtained by normalizing the predicted distribution of metallicity to the mean value of 1/13 Z⊙ as presented by M. Pettini, L. J. Smith, D. L. Kind, & R. W. Hunstead (1997, ApJ, 486, 665). The predicted metallicity distribution is consistent with current (rather limited) observational data. A random distribution of galactic disks is taken into account.

scholarly journals The evolution of massive galaxies in semi-analytical models of galaxy formation

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 191-199
Author(s):  
Carlton M. Baugh
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
Hierarchical Models ◽  
Gravitational Instability ◽  
Stellar Populations ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Massive Galaxies ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Galaxy

AbstractMassive galaxies with old stellar populations have been put forwards as a challenge to models in which cosmic structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. I will explain how the growth of massive galaxies is helped by features of hierarchical models. I give a brief outline of how the galaxy formation process is modelled in hierarchical cosmologies using semi-analytical models, and illustrate how these models can be refined as our understanding of processes such as star formation improves. I then present a brief survey of the current state of play in the modelling of massive galaxies and list some outstanding challenges.

scholarly journals Testing galaxy formation simulations with damped Lyman-α abundance and metallicity evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (2) ◽  
pp. 2835-2846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sultan Hassan ◽  
Kristian Finlator ◽  
Romeel Davé ◽  
Christopher W Churchill ◽  
J Xavier Prochaska
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Star Formation Rate ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Thomson Scattering ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
Rate Functions ◽  
Metallicity Distribution

ABSTRACT We examine the properties of damped Lyman-α absorbers (DLAs) emerging from a single set of cosmological initial conditions in two state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamic simulations: simba and technicolor dawn. The former includes star formation and black hole feedback treatments that yield a good match with low-redshift galaxy properties, while the latter uses multifrequency radiative transfer to model an inhomogeneous ultraviolet background (UVB) self-consistently and is calibrated to match the Thomson scattering optical depth, UVB amplitude, and Ly α forest mean transmission at z > 5. Both simulations are in reasonable agreement with the measured stellar mass and star formation rate functions at z ≥ 3, and both reproduce the observed neutral hydrogen cosmological mass density, $\Omega _{\rm H\, \small{I}}(z)$. However, the DLA abundance and metallicity distribution are sensitive to the galactic outflows’ feedback and the UVB amplitude. Adopting a strong UVB and/or slow outflows underproduces the observed DLA abundance, but yields broad agreement with the observed DLA metallicity distribution. By contrast, faster outflows eject metals to larger distances, yielding more metal-rich DLAs whose observational selection may be more sensitive to dust bias. The DLA metallicity distribution in models adopting an H2-regulated star formation recipe includes a tail extending to [M/H] ≪ −3, lower than any DLA observed to date, owing to curtailed star formation in low-metallicity galaxies. Our results show that DLA observations play an important role in constraining key physical ingredients in galaxy formation models, complementing traditional ensemble statistics such as the stellar mass and star formation rate functions.

scholarly journals Measuring Outer Disk Warps with Optical Spectroscopy

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S254) ◽  
pp. 283-288
Author(s):  
Daniel Christlein ◽  
Joss Bland-Hawthorn
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Optical Spectroscopy ◽  
Column Density ◽  
Rotational Velocity ◽  
Chemical Abundances ◽  
Circular Velocity ◽  
Outer Disk ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Galaxy Disk ◽  
Interesting Alternative

AbstractWarps in the outer gaseous disks of galaxies are a ubiquitous phenomenon, but it is still unclear what generates them. One theory is that warps are generated internally through spontaneous bending instabilities. Other theories suggest that they result from the interaction of the outer disk with accreting extragalactic material. In this case, we expect to find cases where the circular velocity of the warp gas is poorly correlated with the rotational velocity of the galaxy disk at the same radius. Optical spectroscopy presents itself as an interesting alternative to 21-cm observations for testing this prediction, because (i) separating the kinematics of the warp from those of the disk requires a spatial resolution that is higher than what is achieved at 21 cm at low HI column density; (ii) optical spectroscopy also provides important information on star formation rates, gas excitation, and chemical abundances, which provide clues to the origin of the gas in warps. We present here preliminary results of a study of the kinematics of gas in the outer-disk warps of seven edge-on galaxies, using multi-hour VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy.

scholarly journals On the chemical evolution of the Milky Way

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S254) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Prantzos
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Solar Neighborhood ◽  
Satellite Galaxies ◽  
Metallicity Distribution

AbstractI discuss three different topics concerning the chemical evolution of the Milky Way (MW). 1) The metallicity distribution of the MW halo; it is shown that this distribution can be analytically derived in the framework of the hierarchical merging scenario for galaxy formation, assuming that the component sub-haloes had chemical properties similar to those of the progenitors of satellite galaxies of the MW. 2) The age-metallicity relationship (AMR) in the solar neighborhood; I argue for caution in deriving from data with important uncertainties (such as the age uncertainties in the Geneva-Copenhagen Survey) a relationship between average metallicity and age: derived relationships are shown to be systematically flatter than the true ones and should not be directly compared to models. 3) The radial mixing of stars in the disk, which may have important effects on various observables (scatter in AMR, extension of the tails of the metallicity distribution, flatenning of disk abundance profiles). Recent SPH + N-body simulations find considerable radial mixing, but only comparison to observations will ultimately determine the extent of that mixing.

scholarly journals EDGE: the mass–metallicity relation as a critical test of galaxy formation physics

2019 ◽  
Vol 491 (2) ◽  
pp. 1656-1672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Agertz ◽  
Andrew Pontzen ◽  
Justin I Read ◽  
Martin P Rey ◽  
Matthew Orkney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Dwarf Galaxy ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
Dark Matter Halo ◽  
V Band ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Unique Constraint ◽  
Low Mass

ABSTRACT We introduce the ‘Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy Formation’s Edge’ (EDGE) project to study the cosmological formation and evolution of the smallest galaxies in the Universe. In this first paper, we explore the effects of resolution and sub-grid physics on a single low-mass halo ($M_{\rm halo}=10^{9}{\, \rm M}_\odot$), simulated to redshift z = 0 at a mass and spatial resolution of $\sim 20{\, \rm M}_\odot$ and ∼3 pc. We consider different star formation prescriptions, supernova feedback strengths, and on-the-fly radiative transfer (RT). We show that RT changes the mode of galactic self-regulation at this halo mass, suppressing star formation by causing the interstellar and circumgalactic gas to remain predominantly warm (∼104 K) even before cosmic reionization. By contrast, without RT, star formation regulation occurs only through starbursts and their associated vigorous galactic outflows. In spite of this difference, the entire simulation suite (with the exception of models without any feedback) matches observed dwarf galaxy sizes, velocity dispersions, V-band magnitudes, and dynamical mass-to-light-ratios. This is because such structural scaling relations are predominantly set by the host dark matter halo, with the remaining model-to-model variation being smaller than the observational scatter. We find that only the stellar mass–metallicity relation differentiates the galaxy formation models. Explosive feedback ejects more metals from the dwarf, leading to a lower metallicity at a fixed stellar mass. We conclude that the stellar mass–metallicity relation of the very smallest galaxies provides a unique constraint on galaxy formation physics.

scholarly journals EMP stars with high mass IMF and hierarchical galaxy formation

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S265) ◽  
pp. 128-129
Author(s):  
Yutaka Komiya ◽  
Takuma Suda ◽  
Asao Habe ◽  
Masayuki Y. Fujimoto
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Galactic Halo ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Halo Stars ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Metallicity Distribution

AbstractExtremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Galactic halo are stars formed in the very early stage of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In previous study, we proposed that typical mass of EMP stars are massive, based on observations of carbon-enhanced EMP stars. In this study, we build a merger tree of the Galaxy semi-analytically and follow the chemical evolution along the merger tree. We also consider the effect of binary and high-mass initial mass function(IMF). Resultant theoretical metallicity distribution function (MDF) and abundance distribution are compared with observed metal-poor halo stars.

scholarly journals The Formation of Stellar Galactic Nuclei through Dissipative Gas Dynamics

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Bekki
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Gas Dynamics ◽  
Gravitational Instability ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Threshold Value ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Host Galaxies ◽  
Chemical Enrichment

AbstractIt is a long-standing and remarkable problem as to howstellar galactic nuclei (SGN) were formed in the central region of galaxies. In order to elucidate the formation processes of SGN, we numerically investigate gas dynamics, star formation, and chemical evolution in the central 1–1000 pc of gas disks embedded by galactic stellar spheroids. The main results of the present numerical study are: (a) SGN can be formed from dissipative, repeated merging of massive stellar and gaseous clumps that have typical masses of 105–106 M⊙ and are developed from nuclear gaseous spiral arms owing to local gravitational instability. Typically ∼5% of the masses of their host spheroids can be transfered to the central∼50 pc and thus become SGN. (b) SGN have very flattened shapes, and rotational kinematics and central velocity dispersions much smaller than those of their host spheroids. These structural and kinematic characteristics do not depend on model parameters such as masses of spheroids (Msph) and initial gas mass fraction (fg). (c) Stellar populations of SGN can show a wide rage of ages and metallicities, because SGN are formed from massive clumps with different star-formation and chemical-evolution histories. The mean metallicities of SGN can be significantly higher than those of their host spheroids. (d) More massive, higher density SGN can be formed in spheroids with higher surface brightness. Furthermore there can be a threshold value (∼0.2) of fg below which massive SGN are less likely to be formed in the central gas disks of spheroids. (e) More massive spheroids can have more massive, more metal-rich and higher-density SGN, because star formation and chemical enrichment proceed more efficiently owing to the less dramatic suppression of star formation by supernovae feedback effects in more massive spheroids.Based on these results, we discuss correlations between the physical properties of SGN and those of their host galaxies, structural and kinematic properties of SGN of dwarf elliptical galaxies and the origin of very massive star clusters such as ω Cen and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies.

scholarly journals The Iκεα model of feedback-regulated galaxy formation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahavir Sharma ◽  
Tom Theuns
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Star Formation Rate ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
Gas Content ◽  
Dark Matter Halo ◽  
Star Forming

Abstract We present the Iκεα model of galaxy formation, in which a galaxy’s star formation rate is set by the balance between energy injected by feedback from massive stars and energy lost by the deepening of the potential of its host dark matter halo due to cosmological accretion. Such a balance is secularly stable provided that the star formation rate increases with the pressure in the star forming gas. The Iκεα model has four parameters that together control the feedback from star formation and the cosmological accretion rate onto a halo. Iκεα reproduces accurately the star formation rate as a function of halo mass and redshift in the eagle hydrodynamical simulation, even when all four parameters are held constant. It predicts the emergence of a star forming main sequence along which the specific star formation rate depends weakly on stellar mass with an amplitude that increases rapidly with redshift. We briefly discuss the emerging mass-metallicity relation, the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function, and an extension of the model that includes feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). These self-regulation results are independent of the star formation law and the galaxy’s gas content. Instead, star forming galaxies are shaped by the balance between stellar feedback and cosmological accretion, with accurately accounting for energy losses associated with feedback a crucial ingredient.

scholarly journals The stellar-to-halo mass relation over the past 12 Gyr

2020 ◽  
Vol 634 ◽  
pp. A135 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Girelli ◽  
L. Pozzetti ◽  
M. Bolzonella ◽  
C. Giocoli ◽  
F. Marulli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
Dark Matter Halo ◽  
Mass Relation ◽  
Massive Galaxies ◽  
Halo Masses ◽  
Formation Efficiency ◽  
Mass Functions

Aims. Understanding the link between the galaxy properties and the dark matter halos they reside in and their coevolution is a powerful tool for constraining the processes related to galaxy formation. In particular, the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR) and its evolution throughout the history of the Universe provides insights on galaxy formation models and allows us to assign galaxy masses to halos in N-body dark matter simulations. To address these questions, we determine the SHMR throughout the entire cosmic history from z ∼ 4 to the present. Methods. We used a statistical approach to link the observed galaxy stellar mass functions on the COSMOS field to dark matter halo mass functions up to z ∼ 4 from the ΛCDM DUSTGRAIN-pathfinder simulation, which is complete for Mh >  1012.5 M⊙, and extended this to lower masses with a theoretical parameterization. We propose an empirical model to describe the evolution of the SHMR as a function of redshift (either in the presence or absence of a scatter in stellar mass at fixed halo mass), and compare the results with several literature works and semianalytic models of galaxy formation. We also tested the reliability of our results by comparing them to observed galaxy stellar mass functions and to clustering measurements. Results. We derive the SHMR from z = 0 to z = 4, and model its empirical evolution with redshift. We find that M*/Mh is always lower than ∼0.05 and depends both on redshift and halo mass, with a bell shape that peaks at Mh ∼ 1012 M⊙. Assuming a constant cosmic baryon fraction, we calculate the star-formation efficiency of galaxies and find that it is generally low; its peak increases with cosmic time from ∼30% at z ∼ 4 to ∼35% at z ∼ 0. Moreover, the star formation efficiency increases for increasing redshifts at masses higher than the peak of the SHMR, while the trend is reversed for masses lower than the peak. This indicates that massive galaxies (i.e., galaxies hosted at halo masses higher than the SHMR peak) formed with a higher efficiency at higher redshifts (i.e., downsizing effect) and vice versa for low-mass halos. We find a large scatter in results from semianalytic models, with a difference of up to a factor ∼8 compared to our results, and an opposite evolutionary trend at high halo masses. By comparing our results with those in the literature, we find that while at z ∼ 0 all results agree well (within a factor of ∼3), at z >  0 many differences emerge. This suggests that observational and theoretical work still needs to be done. Our results agree well (within ∼10%) with observed stellar mass functions (out to z = 4) and observed clustering of massive galaxies (M* >  1011 M⊙ from z ∼ 0.5 to z ∼ 1.1) in the two-halo regime.

scholarly journals Mapping and resolving galaxy formation at its peak epoch with Mahalo-Subaru and Gracias-ALMA

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S309) ◽  
pp. 255-258
Author(s):  
Tadayuki Kodama ◽  
Masao Hayashi ◽  
Yusei Koyama ◽  
Ken-ichi Tadaki ◽  
Ichi Tanaka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Narrow Band ◽  
Gravitational Instability ◽  
Molecular Gas ◽  
Mass Center ◽  
Galaxy Mergers ◽  
Star Forming ◽  
General Field ◽  
Very High

AbstractMAHALO-Subaru (MApping HAlpha and Lines of Oxygen with Subaru) project aims to investigate how the star forming activities in galaxies are propagated as a function of time, mass, and environment. It employs a unique set of narrow-band filters on MOIRCS/Subaru to search for Ha emitters associated to the proto-clusters or in narrow redshift slices in the general field. We have shown not only filamentary/clumpy structures of all the proto-clusters but also very high star formation activities therein especially at z > 2. HST images from the CANDELS survey have revealed that nearly half of the Hα emitters in the field at z ∼ 2 have clumpy structures. Among them, “red dusty clumps” are preferentially found at or near the mass center of galaxies. Therefore, they are probably linked to the formation of bulge component. To explore physical states and the mode of star formation of those forming galaxies, we have started Gracias-ALMA project in full coordination with the Mahalo-Subaru project. We will resolve molecular gas contents and dusty star formation within these galaxies, and tell whether clumps are formed by gravitational instability of gas rich disks, and whether bulges are formed by clump migration or through galaxy-galaxy mergers.

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