Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Galaxy Formation (galaxy + formation)
Selected AbstractsDisc formation and the origin of clumpy galaxies at high redshiftMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY: LETTERS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009Oscar Agertz ABSTRACT Observations of high-redshift galaxies have revealed a multitude of large clumpy rapidly star-forming galaxies. Their formation scenario and their link to present-day spirals are still unknown. In this Letter, we perform adaptive mesh refinement simulations of disc formation in a cosmological context that are unrivalled in terms of mass and spatial resolution. We find that the so-called ,chain-galaxies' and ,clump-clusters' are a natural outcome of early epochs of enhanced gas accretion from cold dense streams as well as tidally and ram-pressured stripped material from minor mergers and satellites. Through interaction with the hot halo gas, this freshly accreted cold gas settles into a large disc-like system, not necessarily aligned to an older stellar component, that undergoes fragmentation and subsequent star formation, forming large clumps in the mass range 107,109 M,. Galaxy formation is a complex process at this important epoch when most of the central baryons are being acquired through a range of different mechanisms , we highlight that a rapid mass loading epoch is required to fuel the fragmentation taking place in the massive arms in the outskirts of extended discs, an accretion mode that occurs naturally in the hierarchical assembly process at early epochs. [source] Abundances, masses and weak-lensing mass profiles of galaxy clusters as a function of richness and luminosity in ,CDM cosmologiesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2010Stefan Hilbert ABSTRACT We test the concordance , cold dark matter (,CDM) cosmology by comparing predictions for the mean properties of galaxy clusters to observations. We use high-resolution N -body simulations of cosmic structure formation and semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to compute the abundance, mean density profile and mass of galaxy clusters as a function of richness and luminosity, and we compare these predictions to observations of clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) maxBCG catalogue. We discuss the scatter in the mass,richness relation, the reconstruction of the cluster mass function from the mass,richness relation and fits to the weak-lensing cluster mass profiles. The impact of cosmological parameters on the predictions is investigated by comparing results from galaxy models based on the Millennium Simulation (MS) and the WMAP1 simulation to those from the WMAP3 simulation. We find that the simulated weak-lensing mass profiles and the observed profiles of the SDSS maxBCG clusters agree well in shape and amplitude. The mass,richness relations in the simulations are close to the observed relation, with differences ,30 per cent. The MS and WMAP1 simulations yield cluster abundances similar to those observed, whereas abundances in the WMAP3 simulation are two to three times lower. The differences in cluster abundance, mass and density amplitude between the simulations and the observations can be attributed to differences in the underlying cosmological parameters, in particular the power spectrum normalization ,8. Better agreement between predictions and observations should be reached with a normalization 0.722 < ,8 < 0.9 (probably closer to the upper value), i.e. between the values underlying the two simulation sets. [source] An implementation of radiative transfer in the cosmological simulation code gadgetMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2009Margarita Petkova ABSTRACT We present a novel numerical implementation of radiative transfer in the cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation code gadget. It is based on a fast, robust and photon-conserving integration scheme where the radiation transport problem is approximated in terms of moments of the transfer equation and by using a variable Eddington tensor as a closure relation, following the Optically Thin Variable Eddington Tensor suggestion of Gnedin & Abel. We derive a suitable anisotropic diffusion operator for use in the SPH discretization of the local photon transport, and we combine this with an implicit solver that guarantees robustness and photon conservation. This entails a matrix inversion problem of a huge, sparsely populated matrix that is distributed in memory in our parallel code. We solve this task iteratively with a conjugate gradient scheme. Finally, to model photon sink processes we consider ionization and recombination processes of hydrogen, which is represented with a chemical network that is evolved with an implicit time integration scheme. We present several tests of our implementation, including single and multiple sources in static uniform density fields with and without temperature evolution, shadowing by a dense clump and multiple sources in a static cosmological density field. All tests agree quite well with analytical computations or with predictions from other radiative transfer codes, except for shadowing. However, unlike most other radiative transfer codes presently in use for studying re-ionization, our new method can be used on-the-fly during dynamical cosmological simulation, allowing simultaneous treatments of galaxy formation and the re-ionization process of the Universe. [source] Modification of the 21-cm power spectrum by X-rays during the epoch of reionizationMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2009L. Warszawski ABSTRACT We incorporate a contribution to reionization from X-rays within analytic and seminumerical simulations of the 21-cm signal arising from neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization. The relatively long X-ray mean free path (MFP) means that ionizations due to X-rays are not subject to the same density bias as UV ionizations, resulting in a substantive modification to the statistics of the 21-cm signal. We explore the impact that X-ray ionizations have on the power spectrum (PS) of 21-cm fluctuations by varying both the average X-ray MFP and the fractional contribution of X-rays to reionization. In general, prior to the epoch when the intergalactic medium (IGM) is dominated by ionized regions (H ii regions), X-ray-induced ionization enhances fluctuations on spatial scales smaller than the X-ray MFP, provided that X-ray heating does not strongly suppress galaxy formation. Conversely, at later times when H ii regions dominate, small-scale fluctuations in the 21-cm signal are suppressed by X-ray ionization. Our modelling also shows that the modification of the 21-cm signal due to the presence of X-rays is sensitive to the relative scales of the X-ray MFP and the characteristic size of H ii regions. We therefore find that X-rays imprint an epoch and scale-dependent signature on the 21-cm PS, whose prominence depends on fractional X-ray contribution. The degree of X-ray heating of the IGM also determines the extent to which these features can be discerned. We further show that the presence of X-rays smoothes out the shoulder-like signature of H ii regions in the 21-cm PS. For example, a 10 per cent contribution to reionization from X-rays translates to a 20,30 per cent modulation in the 21-cm PS across the scale of H ii regions. We show that the Murchison Widefield Array will have sufficient sensitivity to detect this modification of the PS, so long as the X-ray photon MFP falls within the range of scales over which the array is most sensitive (,0.1 Mpc,1). In cases in which this MFP takes a much smaller value, an array with larger collecting area would be required. As a result, an X-ray contribution to reionization has the potential to substantially complicate analysis of the 21-cm PS. On the other hand, a combination of precision measurements and modelling of the 21-cm PS promises to provide an avenue for investigating the role and contribution of X-rays during reionization. [source] Satellite kinematics , II.MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2009The halo mass, luminosity relation of central galaxies in SDSS ABSTRACT The kinematics of satellite galaxies reflect the masses of the extended dark matter haloes in which they orbit, and thus shed light on the mass,luminosity relation (MLR) of their corresponding central galaxies. In this paper, we select a large sample of centrals and satellites from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and measure the kinematics (velocity dispersions) of the satellite galaxies as a function of the r -band luminosity of the central galaxies. Using the analytical framework presented in More, van den Bosch & Cacciato, we use these data to infer both the mean and the scatter of the MLR of central galaxies, carefully taking account of selection effects and biases introduced by the stacking procedure. As expected, brighter centrals on average reside in more massive haloes. In addition, we find that the scatter in halo masses for centrals of a given luminosity, ,log M, also increases with increasing luminosity. As we demonstrate, this is consistent with ,log L, which reflects the scatter in the conditional probability function P(Lc|M), being independent of halo mass. Our analysis of the satellite kinematics yields ,log L= 0.16 ± 0.04, in excellent agreement with constraints from clustering and group catalogues, and with predictions from a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation. We thus conclude that the amount of stochasticity in galaxy formation, which is characterized by ,log L, is well constrained, independent of halo mass and in a good agreement with current models of galaxy formation. [source] Understanding the halo-mass and galaxy-mass cross-correlation functionsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Eric Hayashi ABSTRACT We use the Millennium Simulation (MS) to measure the cross-correlation between halo centres and mass (or equivalently the average density profiles of dark haloes) in a Lambda cold dark matter (,CDM) cosmology. We present results for radii in the range 10 h,1 kpc < r < 30 h,1 Mpc and for halo masses in the range 4 × 1010 < M200 < 4 × 1014 h,1 M,. Both at z= 0 and at z= 0.76 these cross-correlations are surprisingly well fitted if the inner region is approximated by a density profile of NFW or Einasto form, the outer region by a biased version of the linear mass autocorrelation function, and the maximum of the two is adopted where they are comparable. We use a simulation of galaxy formation within the MS to explore how these results are reflected in cross-correlations between galaxies and mass. These are directly observable through galaxy,galaxy lensing. Here also we find that simple models can represent the simulation results remarkably well, typically to ,10 per cent. Such models can be used to extend our results to other redshifts, to cosmologies with other parameters, and to other assumptions about how galaxies populate dark haloes. Our galaxy formation simulation already reproduces current galaxy,galaxy lensing data quite well. The characteristic features predicted in the galaxy,galaxy lensing signal should provide a strong test of the ,CDM cosmology as well as a route to understanding how galaxies form within it. [source] Is AGN feedback necessary to form red elliptical galaxies?MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008A. Khalatyan ABSTRACT We have used the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code gadget-2 to simulate the formation of an elliptical galaxy in a group-size cosmological dark matter halo with mass Mhalo, 3 × 1012 h,1 M, at z= 0. The use of a stellar population synthesis model has allowed us to compute magnitudes, colours and surface brightness profiles. We have included a model to follow the growth of a central black hole and we have compared the results of simulations with and without feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). We have studied the interplay between cold gas accretion and merging in the development of galactic morphologies, the link between colour and morphology evolution, the effect of AGN feedback on the photometry of early-type galaxies, the redshift evolution in the properties of quasar hosts, and the impact of AGN winds on the chemical enrichment of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We have found that the early phases of galaxy formation are driven by the accretion of cold filamentary flows, which form a disc galaxy at the centre of the dark matter halo. Disc star formation rates in this mode of galaxy growth are about as high as the peak star formation rates attained at a later epoch in galaxy mergers. When the dark matter halo is sufficiently massive to support the propagation of a stable shock, the gas in the filaments is heated to the virial temperature, cold accretion is shut down, and the star formation rate begins to decline. Mergers transform the spiral galaxy into an elliptical one, but they also reactivate star formation by bringing gas into the galaxy. Without a mechanism that removes gas from the merger remnants, the galaxy ends up with blue colours, which are atypical for its elliptical morphology. We have demonstrated that AGN feedback can solve this problem even with a fairly low heating efficiency. Our simulations support a picture where AGN feedback is important for quenching star formation in the remnant of wet mergers and for moving them to the red sequence. This picture is consistent with recent observational results, which suggest that AGN hosts are galaxies in migration from the blue cloud to the red sequence on the colour,magnitude diagram. However, we have also seen a transition in the properties of AGN hosts from blue and star forming at z, 2 to mainly red and dead at z, 0. Ongoing merging is the primary but not the only triggering mechanism for luminous AGN activity. Quenching by AGN is only effective after the cold filaments have dried out, since otherwise the galaxy is constantly replenished with gas. AGN feedback also contributes to raising the entropy of the hot IGM by removing low-entropy tails vulnerable to developing cooling flows. We have also demonstrated that AGN winds are potentially important for the metal enrichment of the IGM a high redshift. [source] Bulges versus discs: the evolution of angular momentum in cosmological simulations of galaxy formationMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Jesus Zavala ABSTRACT We investigate the evolution of angular momentum in simulations of galaxy formation in a cold dark matter universe. We analyse two model galaxies generated in the N -body/hydrodynamic simulations of Okamoto et al. Starting from identical initial conditions, but using different assumptions for the baryonic physics, one of the simulations produced a bulge-dominated galaxy and the other one a disc-dominated galaxy. The main difference is the treatment of star formation and feedback, both of which were designed to be more efficient in the disc-dominated object. We find that the specific angular momentum of the disc-dominated galaxy tracks the evolution of the angular momentum of the dark matter halo very closely: the angular momentum grows as predicted by linear theory until the epoch of maximum expansion and remains constant thereafter. By contrast, the evolution of the angular momentum of the bulge-dominated galaxy resembles that of the central, most bound halo material: it also grows at first according to linear theory, but 90 per cent of it is rapidly lost as pre-galactic fragments, into which gas had cooled efficiently, merge, transferring their orbital angular momentum to the outer halo by tidal effects. The disc-dominated galaxy avoids this fate because the strong feedback reheats the gas, which accumulates in an extended hot reservoir and only begins to cool once the merging activity has subsided. Our analysis lends strong support to the classical theory of disc formation whereby tidally torqued gas is accreted into the centre of the halo conserving its angular momentum. [source] The impact of radio feedback from active galactic nuclei in cosmological simulations: formation of disc galaxiesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Takashi Okamoto ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a new implementation of feedback due to active galactic nuclei (AGN) in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We assume that a fraction of jet energy, which is generated by an AGN, is transferred to the surrounding gas as thermal energy. Combining a theoretical model of mass accretion on to black holes with a multiphase description of star-forming gas, we self-consistently follow evolution of both galaxies and their central black holes. The novelty in our model is that we consider two distinct accretion modes: standard radiatively efficient thin accretion discs and radiatively inefficient accretion flows which we will generically refer to as RIAFs; motivated by theoretical models for jet production in accretion discs, we assume that only the RIAF is responsible for the AGN feedback. The focus of this paper is to investigate the interplay between galaxies and their central black holes during the formation of a disc galaxy. We find that, after an initial episode of bursting star formation, the accretion rate on to the central black hole drops so that the accretion disc switches to a RIAF structure. At this point, the feedback from the AGN becomes efficient and slightly suppresses star formation in the galactic disc and almost completely halts star formation in the bulge. This suppression of the star formation regulates mass accretion on to the black hole and associated AGN feedback. As a result, the nucleus becomes a stochastically fuelled low-luminosity AGN (Seyfert galaxy) with recurrent short-lived episodes of activity after the star bursts. During the ,on' events, the AGN produces reasonably powerful jets (radio-loud state) and is less luminous than the host galaxy, while in the ,off' phase, the nucleus is inactive and ,radio quiet'. Our model predicts several properties of the low-luminosity AGN including the bolometric luminosity, jet powers, the effect on kpc scale of the radio jet and the AGN lifetime, which are in broad agreement with observations of Seyfert galaxies and their radio activity. We also find that the ratios between the central black hole mass and the mass of the host spheroid at z= 0 are ,10,3 regardless of the strength of either supernova feedback or AGN feedback because the radiation drag model directly relates the star formation activity in the Galactic Centre and the mass accretion rate on to the central black hole. [source] Galaxy growth in the concordance ,CDM cosmologyMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Q. Guo ABSTRACT We use galaxy and dark halo data from the public database for the Millennium Simulation to study the growth of galaxies in the De Lucia et al. model for galaxy formation. Previous work has shown this model to reproduce many aspects of the systematic properties and the clustering of real galaxies, both in the nearby universe and at high redshift. It assumes the stellar masses of galaxies to increase through three processes, major mergers, the accretion of smaller satellite systems and star formation. We show the relative importance of these three modes to be a strong function of stellar mass and redshift. Galaxy growth through major mergers depends strongly on stellar mass, but only weakly on redshift. Except for massive systems, minor mergers contribute more to galaxy growth than major mergers at all redshifts and stellar masses. For galaxies significantly less massive than the Milky Way, star formation dominates the growth at all epochs. For galaxies significantly more massive than the Milky Way, growth through mergers is the dominant process at all epochs. At a stellar mass of 6 × 1010 M,, about that of the Milk Way, star formation dominates at z > 1 and mergers at later times. At every stellar mass, the growth rates through star formation increase rapidly with increasing redshift. Specific star formation rates are the decreasing function of stellar mass not only at z= 0 but also at all higher redshifts. For comparison, we carry out a similar analysis of the growth of dark matter haloes. In contrast to the galaxies, growth rates depend strongly on redshift, but only weakly on mass. They agree qualitatively with analytic predictions for halo growth. [source] Generating dark matter halo merger treesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2008Hannah Parkinson ABSTRACT We present a new Monte Carlo algorithm to generate merger trees describing the formation history of dark matter haloes. The algorithm is a modification of the algorithm of Cole et al. used in the galform semi-analytic galaxy formation model. As such, it is based on the Extended Press,Schechter theory and so should be applicable to hierarchical models with a wide range of power spectra and cosmological models. It is tuned to be in accurate agreement with the conditional mass functions found in the analysis of merger trees extracted from the , cold dark matter Millennium N -body simulation. We present a comparison of its predictions not only with these conditional mass functions, but also with additional statistics of the Millennium Simulation halo merger histories. In all cases, we find it to be in good agreement with the Millennium Simulation and thus it should prove to be a very useful tool for semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and for modelling hierarchical structure formation in general. We have made our merger tree generation code and code to navigate the trees available at http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~cole/merger_trees. [source] Black hole growth in hierarchical galaxy formationMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2007Rowena K. Malbon ABSTRACT We incorporate a model for black hole growth during galaxy mergers into the semi-analytical galaxy formation model based on ,CDM proposed by Baugh et al. Our black hole model has one free parameter, which we set by matching the observed zero-point of the local correlation between black hole mass and bulge luminosity. We present predictions for the evolution with redshift of the relationships between black hole mass and bulge properties. Our simulations reproduce the evolution of the optical luminosity function of quasars. We study the demographics of the black hole population and address the issue of how black holes acquire their mass. We find that the direct accretion of cold gas during starbursts is an important growth mechanism for lower mass black holes and at high redshift. On the other hand, the re-assembly of pre-existing black hole mass into larger units via merging dominates the growth of more massive black holes at low redshift. This prediction could be tested by future gravitational wave experiments. As redshift decreases, progressively less massive black holes have the highest fractional growth rates, in line with recent claims of ,downsizing' in quasar activity. [source] Satellite systems around galaxies in hydrodynamic simulationsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2007Noam I. Libeskind ABSTRACT We investigate the properties of satellite galaxies formed in N -body/SPH simulations of galaxy formation in the ,CDM cosmology. The simulations include the main physical effects thought to be important in galaxy formation and, in several cases, produce realistic spiral discs. In total, a sample of nine galaxies of luminosity comparable to the Milky Way was obtained. At magnitudes brighter than the resolution limit, MV=,12, the luminosity function of the satellite galaxies in the simulations is in excellent agreement with data for the Local Group. The radial number density profile of the model satellites, as well as their gas fractions also match observations very well. In agreement with previous N -body studies, we find that the satellites tend to be distributed in highly flattened configurations whose major axis is aligned with the major axis of the (generally triaxial) dark halo. In two out of three systems with sufficiently large satellite populations, the satellite system is nearly perpendicular to the plane of the galactic disc, a configuration analogous to that observed in the Milk Way. The discs themselves are perpendicular to the minor axis of their host haloes in the inner parts, and the correlation between the orientation of the galaxy and the shape of the halo persists even out to the virial radius. However, in one case the disc's minor axis ends up, at the virial radius, perpendicular to the minor axis of the halo. The angular momenta of the galaxies and their host halo tend to be well aligned. [source] The properties of galaxies in voidsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2006Santiago G. Patiri ABSTRACT We present a comparison of the properties of galaxies in the most underdense regions of the Universe, where the galaxy number density is less than 10 per cent of the mean density, with galaxies from more typical regions. We have compiled a sample of galaxies in 46 large nearby voids that were identified using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR4, which provides the largest coverage of the sky. We study the u,r colour distribution, morphology, specific star formation rate (SFR) and radial number density profiles for a total of 495 galaxies fainter than Mr=,20.4 + 5 log h located inside the voids and compare these properties with a control sample of field galaxies. We show that there is an excess of blue galaxies inside the voids. However, inspecting the properties of blue and red galaxies separately, we find that galaxy properties such as colour distribution, bulge-to-total ratios and concentrations are remarkably similar between the void and overall sample. The void galaxies also show the same specific SFR at fixed colour as the control galaxies. We compare our results with the predictions of cosmological simulations of galaxy formation using the Millennium Run semi-analytic galaxy catalogue. We show that the properties of the simulated galaxies in large voids are in reasonably good agreement with those found in similar environments in the real Universe. To summarize, in spite of the fact that galaxies in voids live in the least dense large-scale environment, this environment makes very little impact on the properties of galaxies. [source] Stellar haloes and elliptical galaxy formation: origin of dynamical properties of the planetary nebula systemsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2006Kenji Bekki ABSTRACT Recent spectroscopic observations of planetary nebulae (PNe) in several elliptical galaxies have revealed structural and kinematical properties of the outer stellar halo regions. In order to elucidate the origin of the properties of these planetary nebula systems (PNSs), we consider the merger scenario in which an elliptical galaxy is formed by merging of spiral galaxies. Using numerical simulations, we particularly investigate radial profiles of projected PN number densities, rotational velocities and velocity dispersions of PNSs extending to the outer halo regions of elliptical galaxies formed from major and unequal-mass merging. We find that the radial profiles of the project number densities can be fitted to the power law and the mean number density in the outer haloes of the ellipticals can be more than an order of magnitude higher than that of the original spiral's halo. The PNSs are found to show a significant amount of rotation (V/, > 0.5) in the outer halo regions (R > 5Re) of the ellipticals. Two-dimensional velocity fields of PNSs are derived from the simulations and their dependences on model parameters of galaxy merging are discussed in detail. We compare the simulated kinematics of PNSs with that of the PNS observed in NGC 5128 and thereby discuss advantages and disadvantages of the merger model in explaining the observed kinematics of the PNS. We also find that the kinematics of PNSs in elliptical galaxies are quite diverse depending on the orbital configurations of galaxy merging, the mass ratio of merger progenitor spirals and the viewing angle of the galaxies. This variation translates directly into possible biases by a factor of 2 in observational mass estimation. However, the biases in the total mass estimates can be even larger. The best case systems viewed edge-on can appear to have masses lower than their true mass by a factor of 5, which suggests that current observational studies on PN kinematics of elliptical galaxies can significantly underestimate their real masses. [source] galics, V: Low- and high-order clustering in mock Sloan Digital Sky SurveysMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2006Jérémy Blaizot ABSTRACT We use the galics hybrid model of galaxy formation to explore the nature of galaxy clustering in the local Universe. We bring the theoretical predictions of our model into the observational plane using the momaf software to build mock catalogues which mimic Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) observations. We measure low- and high-order angular clustering statistic from these mock catalogues, after selecting galaxies the same way as for observations, and compare them directly to estimates from the SDSS data. Note that we also present the first measurements of high-order statistics on the SDSS DR1. We find that our model is in general good agreement with observations in the scale/luminosity range where we can trust the predictions. This range is found to be limited (i) by the size of the dark matter simulation used , which introduces finite volume effects at large scales , and by the mass resolution of this simulation , which introduces incompleteness at apparent magnitudes fainter than r, 20. We then focus on the small-scale clustering properties of galaxies and investigate the behaviour of three different prescriptions for positioning galaxies within haloes of dark matter. We show that galaxies are poor tracers of either DM particles or DM substructures, within groups and clusters. Instead, SDSS data tells us that the distribution of galaxies lies somewhat in between these two populations. This confirms the general theoretical expectation from numerical simulations and semi-analytic modelling. [source] The alignment between the distribution of satellites and the orientation of their central galaxyMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2006Xiaohu Yang ABSTRACT We use galaxy groups selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to examine the alignment between the orientation of the central galaxy (defined as the brightest group member) and the distribution of satellite galaxies. By construction, we therefore only address the alignment on scales smaller than the halo virial radius. We find a highly significant alignment of satellites with the major axis of their central galaxy. This is in qualitative agreement with the recent study of Brainerd, but inconsistent with several previous studies who detected a preferential minor-axis alignment. The alignment strength in our sample is strongest between red central galaxies and red satellites. On the contrary, the satellite distribution in systems with a blue central galaxy is consistent with isotropic. We also find that the alignment strength is stronger in more massive haloes and at smaller projected radii from the central galaxy. In addition, there is a weak indication that fainter (relative to the central galaxy) satellites are more strongly aligned. We present a detailed comparison with previous studies, and discuss the implications of our findings for galaxy formation. [source] The NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey , III.MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2006Variations in the stellar populations of red-sequence galaxies from the cluster core to the virial radius ABSTRACT We analyse absorption line-strength indices for ,3000 red-sequence galaxies in 94 nearby clusters to investigate systematic variations of their stellar content with location in the host cluster. The data are drawn from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) Fundamental Plane Survey. Our adopted method is a generalization of that introduced by Nelan et al. to determine the global age,mass and metallicity,mass relations from the same survey. We find strong evidence for a change in galaxy properties, at fixed mass, over a range from the cluster centre to the virial radius, R200. For example, red-sequence galaxies further out in the clusters have weaker Mgb5177 (at ,8, significance) and stronger H, and H, absorption (,3,, ,4,) than galaxies of the same velocity dispersion in the cluster cores. The Fe5270 and Fe5335 indices show only very weak trends with radius. Using a total of 12 indices, the pattern of cluster-centric gradients is considered in light of their different dependences on stellar age and chemical composition. The measured gradients for all 12 indices can be reproduced by a model in which red-sequence galaxies at ,1 R200 have on average younger ages (by 15 ± 4 per cent) and lower ,-element abundance ratios (by 10 ± 2 per cent) than galaxies of the same velocity dispersion but located near the cluster centres. For the total metallicity, Z/H, no significant gradient is found (2 ± 3 per cent larger at R200 than in the cores). There are hints that the age trend may be stronger for galaxies of lower mass and/or for galaxies with more discy morphology. We show, however, that the trends cannot be driven primarily by changes in the morphological mix as a function of radius. The cluster-centric age and [,/Fe] gradients are in the sense expected if galaxies in the cluster core were accreted at an earlier epoch than those at larger radii, and if this earlier accretion contributed to an earlier cessation of star formation. The size of the observed age trend is comparable to predictions from semi-analytic models of hierarchical galaxy formation. [source] Elemental abundance survey of the Galactic thick discMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2006Bacham E. Reddy ABSTRACT We have performed an abundance analysis for F- and G- dwarfs of the Galactic thick-disc component. A sample of 176 nearby (d, 150 pc) thick-disc candidate stars was chosen from the Hipparcos catalogue and subjected to a high-resolution spectroscopic analysis. Using accurate radial velocities combined with the Hipparcos astrometry, kinematics (U, V and W) and Galactic orbital parameters were computed. We estimate the probability for a star to belong to the thin disc, the thick disc or the halo. With a probability P, 70 per cent taken as certain membership, we assigned 95 stars to the thick disc, 13 to the thin disc, and 20 to the halo. The remaining 48 stars in the sample cannot be assigned with reasonable certainty to one of the three components. Abundances of C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Ba, Ce, Nd and Eu have been obtained. The abundances for the thick-disc stars are compared with those for the thin-disc members from Reddy et al. The ratios of ,-elements (O, Mg, Si, Ca and Ti) to iron for thick-disc stars show a clear enhancement compared to thin-disc members in the range ,0.3 < [Fe/H] < ,1.2. There are also other elements , Al, Sc, V, Co, and possibly Zn , which show enhanced ratios to iron in the thick disc relative to the thin disc. The abundances of Na, Cr, Mn, Ni and Cu (relative to Fe) are very similar for thin- and thick-disc stars. The dispersion in abundance ratios [X/Fe] at given [Fe/H] for thick-disc stars is consistent with the expected scatter due to measurement errors, suggesting a lack of ,cosmic' scatter. A few stars classified as members of the thick disc by our kinematic criteria show thin-disc abundances. These stars, which appear older than most thin-disc stars, are also, on average, younger than the thick-disc population. They may have originated early in the thin-disc history, and been subsequently scattered to hotter orbits by collisions. The thick disc may not include stars with [Fe/H] > ,0.3. The observed compositions of the thin and thick discs seem to be consistent with the models of galaxy formation by hierarchical clustering in a Lambda cold dark matter (,CDM) universe. [source] Evidence that powerful radio jets have a profound influence on the evolution of galaxiesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2004Steve Rawlings ABSTRACT The relationships between supermassive black holes and the properties of their associated dark matter haloes imply that outflows from accreting black holes provide a feedback mechanism regulating galaxy formation. Accreting black holes with weak or undetectable radio jets (radio-quiet quasars) outnumber those with powerful jets (radio-loud quasars) by a factor of ,10,100, so powerful-jet outflows are often neglected. However, whenever powerful jets are triggered, there is a dramatic (factor of ,100) step-function increase in the efficiency of feedback. We use a feedback model, together with the measured space density of flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars, to show that a powerful-jet episode probably occurred in every protocluster in the Universe. Before jet triggering, there was time for gravitational collapse to create many (,10,100) surrounding protogalaxies massive enough to host radio-quiet quasars. After triggering, the powerful jet pushes back and heats ionized gas so that it cannot fall on to these protogalaxies and cool. Once neutral/molecular gas reservoirs become exhausted, there is a synchronized shutdown in both star formation and black hole activity throughout the protocluster. These considerations imply that radio-loud quasars have a profound influence on the evolution of all the galaxies seen in clusters today. [source] Entropy injection as a global feedback mechanismMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2003S. Peng Oh ABSTRACT Both pre-heating of the intergalactic medium and radiative cooling of low entropy gas have been proposed to explain the deviation from self-similarity in the cluster LX,TX relation and the observed entropy floor in these systems. However, severe overcooling of gas in groups is necessary for radiative cooling alone to explain the observations. Non-gravitational entropy injection must therefore still be important in these systems. We point out that, on scales of groups and below, gas heated to the required entropy floor cannot cool in a Hubble time, regardless of its subsequent adiabatic compression. Pre-heating therefore shuts off the gas supply to galaxies, and should be an important global feedback mechanism for galaxy formation. Constraints on global gas cooling can be placed from the joint evolution of the comoving star formation rate and neutral gas density. Pre-heating at high redshift can be ruled out; however, the data do not rule out passive gas consumption without inflow as z, 2. Because for pre-heated gas tcool > tdyn, we speculate that pre-heating could play a role in determining the Hubble sequence; at a given mass scale, high , peaks in the density field collapse early to form ellipticals, while low , peaks collapse late and quiescently accrete pre-heated gas to form spirals. The entropy produced by large-scale shock-heating of the intergalatic medium is significant only at late times, z < 1, and cannot produce these effects. [source] Modelling angular-momentum history in dark-matter haloesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2002Ariyeh H. Maller We model the acquisition of spin by dark-matter haloes in semi-analytic merger trees. We explore two different algorithms: one in which halo spin is acquired from the orbital angular momentum of merging satellites, and another in which halo spin is gained via tidal torquing on shells of material while still in the linear regime. We find that both scenarios produce the characteristic spin distribution of haloes found in N -body simulations, namely, a log-normal distribution with mean , 0.04 and standard deviation , 0.5 in the log. A perfect match requires fine-tuning of two free parameters. Both algorithms also reproduce the general insensitivity of the spin distribution to halo mass, redshift and cosmology seen in N -body simulations. The spin distribution can be made strictly constant by physically motivated scalings of the free parameters. In addition, both schemes predict that haloes that have had recent major mergers have systematically larger spin values. These algorithms can be implemented within semi-analytic models of galaxy formation based on merger trees. They yield detailed predictions of galaxy properties that strongly depend on angular momentum (such as size and surface brightness) as a function of merger history and environment. [source] Redshift-space distortions in the PSCz galaxy catalogueMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2001A.N. Taylor We apply a spherical harmonic analysis to the Point Source Redshift Survey (PSCz), to compute the real-space galaxy power spectrum and the degree of redshift distortion caused by peculiar velocities. We employ new parameter eigenvector and hierarchical data compression techniques, allowing a much larger number of harmonic modes to be included, and correspondingly smaller error bars. Using 4644 harmonic modes, compressed to 2278, we find that the IRAS redshift-space distortion parameter is and the amplitude of galaxy clustering on a scale of is . Combining these we find the amplitude of mass perturbations is . While this is compatible with results from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), with a small degree of tilt, it disagrees with the amplitude of matter perturbations estimated from the abundance of clusters by a factor of 2, independent of cosmology. A preliminary model fitting analysis combining the CMB with either the PSCz or cluster abundances shows that the cosmological matter density parameter , and the IRAS bias parameter . However, the cluster abundances suggest that and , while the PSCz requires and . Given the physics of galaxy formation is poorly constrained, we conclude that IRAS galaxies and mass are only partially correlated. [source] Testing the modified Press,Schechter model against N -body simulationsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2001Andreu Raig A modified version of the extended Press,Schechter model for the growth of dark-matter haloes was introduced in two previous papers, with the aim of explaining the mass,density relation shown by haloes in high-resolution cosmological simulations. In this model, major mergers are well separated from accretion, thereby allowing a natural definition of halo formation and destruction. This makes it possible to derive analytic expressions for halo formation and destruction rates, the mass accretion rate and the probability distribution functions of halo formation times and progenitor masses. The stochastic merger histories of haloes can be readily derived and easily incorporated into semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, thus avoiding the usual problems encountered in the construction of Monte Carlo merger trees from the original extended Press,Schechter formalism. Here we show that the predictions of the modified Press,Schechter model are in good agreement with the results of N -body simulations for several scale-free cosmologies. [source] Dwarf elliptical galaxies: structure, star formation and colour,magnitude diagramsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2001Giovanni Carraro The aim of this paper is to cast light on the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies by means of N -body hydrodynamical simulations that include star formation, feedback and chemical evolution. Particular attention is paid to the case of dwarf spheroidals of the Local Group which, thanks to their proximity and modern ground-based and space instrumentation, can be resolved into single stars so that independent determinations of their age and star formation history can be derived. Indeed, the analysis of the colour,magnitude diagram of their stellar content allows us to infer the past history of star formation and chemical enrichment, thus setting important constraints on galactic models. Dwarf galaxies are known to exhibit complicated histories of star formation ranging from a single very old episode to a series of bursts over most of the Hubble time. By understanding the physical process driving star formation in these objects, we might be able to infer the mechanism governing star formation in more massive elliptical galaxies. Given these premises, we start from virialized haloes of dark matter, and follow the infall of gas into the potential wells and the formation of stars. We find that in objects of the same total mass, different star formation histories are possible, if the collapse phase started at different initial densities. We predict the final structure of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, their kinematics, their large-scale distribution of gas and stars, and their detailed histories of the star formation and metal enrichment. Using a population synthesis technique, star formation and metal enrichment rates are then adopted to generate the present colour,magnitude diagrams of the stellar populations hosted by dwarf spheroidal galaxies. The simulations are made assuming the redshift of galaxy formation and varying the cosmological parameters H0 and q0. The resulting colour,magnitude diagrams are then compared with the observational ones for some dwarf spheroidals of the Local Group. [source] The luminosity dependence of clustering and higher order correlations in the PSCz surveyMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2000István Szapudi We investigate the spatial clustering of galaxies in the PSCz galaxy redshift survey, as revealed by the two-point correlation function, the luminosity mark correlations and the moments of counts-in-cells. We construct volume-limited subsamples at different depths and search for a luminosity dependence of the clustering pattern. We find no statistically significant effect in either the two-point correlation function or the mark correlations and so we take each subsample (of different characteristic luminosity) as representing the same statistical process. We then carry out a counts-in-cells analysis of the volume-limited subsamples, including a rigorous error calculation based on the recent theory of Szapudi, Colombi & Bernardeau. In this way, we derive the best estimates to date of the skewness and kurtosis of IRAS galaxies in redshift space. Our results agree well with previous measurements in both the parent angular catalogue and the derived redshift surveys. This is in contrast with smaller, optically selected surveys, where there is a discrepancy between the redshift space and projected measurements. Predictions from cold dark matter theory, obtained using the recent semi-analytical model of galaxy formation of Benson et al., provide an excellent description of our clustering data. [source] The Tully,Fisher relation and its implications for the halo density profile and self-interacting dark matterMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2000H. J. Mo We show that the Tully,Fisher relation observed for spiral galaxies can be explained in the current scenario of galaxy formation without invoking subtle assumptions, provided that galactic-sized dark haloes have low concentrations which do not change significantly with halo circular velocity. This conclusion does not depend significantly on whether haloes have cuspy or flat profiles in the inner region. In such a system, both the disc and the halo may contribute significantly to the maximum rotation of the disc, and the gravitational interaction between the disc and halo components leads to a tight relation between the disc mass and maximum rotation velocity. The model can therefore be tested by studying the Tully,Fisher zero points for galaxies with different disc mass-to-light ratios. With model parameters (such as the ratio between disc and halo mass, the specific angular momentum of disc material, disc formation time) chosen in plausible ranges, the model can well accommodate the zero-point, slope and scatter of the observed Tully,Fisher relation, as well as the observed large range of disc surface densities and sizes. In particular, the model predicts that low surface brightness disc galaxies obey a Tully,Fisher relation very similar to that of normal discs, if the disc mass-to-light ratio is properly taken into account. About half of the gravitational force at maximum rotation comes from the disc component for normal discs, while the disc contribution is lower for galaxies with a lower surface density. The halo profile required by the Tully,Fisher relation is as concentrated as that required by the observed rotation curves of faint discs, but less concentrated than that given by current simulations of cold dark matter (CDM) models. We discuss the implication of such profiles for structure formation in the Universe and for the properties of dark matter. Our results cannot be explained by some of the recent proposals for resolving the conflict between conventional CDM models and the observed rotation-curve shapes of faint galaxies. If dark matter self-interaction (either scattering or annihilation) is responsible for the shallow profile, the observed Tully,Fisher relation requires the interaction cross-section ,X to satisfy ,,X|v|,/mX,10,16 cm3 s,1 GeV,1, where mX is the mass of a dark matter particle. [source] Testing linear-theory predictions of galaxy formationMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2000Ben Sugerman The angular momentum of galaxies is routinely ascribed to a process of tidal torques acting during the early stages of gravitational collapse, and is predicted from the initial mass distribution using second-order perturbation theory and the Zel'dovich approximation. We test this theory for a flat hierarchical cosmogony using a large N -body simulation with sufficient dynamic range to include tidal fields, allow resolution of individual galaxies, and thereby expand on previous studies. The predictions of linear collapse, linear tidal torque, and biased-peaks galaxy formation are applied to the initial conditions and compared with results for evolved bound objects. We find relatively good correlation between the predictions of linear theory and actual galaxy evolution. Collapse is well described by an ellipsoidal model within a shear field, which results primarily in triaxial objects that do not map directly to the initial density field. While structure formation from early times is a complex history of hierarchical merging, salient features are well described by the simple spherical-collapse model. Most notably, we test several methods for determining the turnaround epoch, and find that turnaround is successfully described by the spherical-collapse model. The angular momentum of collapsing structures grows linearly until turnaround, as predicted, and continues quasi-linearly until shell crossing. The predicted angular momentum for well-resolved galaxies at turnaround overestimates the true turnaround and final values by a factor of ,3, with a scatter of ,70 per cent, and only marginally yields the correct direction of the angular momentum vector. We recover the prediction that final angular momentum scales as mass to the 5/3 power. We find that mass and angular momentum also vary proportionally with peak height. In view of the fact that the observed galaxy collapse is a stochastic hierarchical and non-linear process, it is encouraging that the linear theory can serve as an effective predictive and analytic tool. [source] The nature of galaxy bias and clusteringMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2000A. J. Benson We have used a combination of high resolution cosmological N -body simulations and semi-analytic modelling of galaxy formation to investigate the processes that determine the spatial distribution of galaxies in cold dark matter (CDM) models and its relation to the spatial distribution of dark matter. The galaxy distribution depends sensitively on the efficiency with which galaxies form in haloes of different mass. In small mass haloes, galaxy formation is inhibited by the reheating of cooled gas by feedback processes, whereas in large mass haloes, it is inhibited by the long cooling time of the gas. As a result, the mass-to-light ratio of haloes has a deep minimum at the halo mass, ,1012 M,, associated with L* galaxies, where galaxy formation is most efficient. This dependence of galaxy formation efficiency on halo mass leads to a scale-dependent bias in the distribution of galaxies relative to the distribution of mass. On large scales, the bias in the galaxy distribution is related in a simple way to the bias in the distribution of massive haloes. On small scales, the correlation function is determined by the interplay between various effects including the spatial exclusion of dark matter haloes, the distribution function of the number of galaxies occupying a single dark matter halo and, to a lesser extent, dynamical friction. Remarkably, these processes conspire to produce a correlation function in a flat, ,0=0.3, CDM model that is close to a power law over nearly four orders of magnitude in amplitude. This model agrees well with the correlation function of galaxies measured in the automated-plate measurement survey. On small scales, the model galaxies are less strongly clustered than the dark matter, whereas on large scales they trace the occupied haloes. Our clustering predictions are robust to changes in the parameters of the galaxy formation model, provided only those models which match the bright end of the galaxy luminosity function are considered. [source] Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the CFRS and LDSS redshift surveys , IV.MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2000Influence of mergers in the evolution of faint field galaxies from z Hubble Space Telescope images of a sample of 285 galaxies with measured redshifts from the Canada,France Redshift Survey (CFRS) and Autofib,Low Dispersion Spectrograph Survey (LDSS) redshift surveys are analysed to derive the evolution of the merger fraction out to redshifts z,1. We have performed visual and machine-based merger identifications, as well as counts of bright pairs of galaxies with magnitude differences ,m,1.5 mag. We find that the pair fraction increases with redshift, with up to ,20 per cent of the galaxies being in physical pairs at z,0.75,1. We derive a merger fraction varying with redshift as ,(1+z)3.2±0.6, after correction for line-of-sight contamination, in excellent agreement with the merger fraction derived from the visual classification of mergers for which m=3.4±0.6. After correcting for seeing effects on the ground-based selection of survey galaxies, we conclude that the pair fraction evolves as ,(1+z)2.7±0.6. This implies that an average L* galaxy will have undergone 0.8,1.8 merger events from z=1 to z=0, with 0.5 to 1.2 merger events occuring in a 2-Gyr time-span at around z,0.9. This result is consistent with predictions from semi-analytical models of galaxy formation. From the simple coaddition of the observed luminosities of the galaxies in pairs, physical mergers are computed to lead to a brightening of 0.5 mag for each pair on average, and a boost in star formation rate of a factor of 2, as derived from the average [O ii] equivalent widths. Mergers of galaxies are therefore contributing significantly to the evolution of both the luminosity function and luminosity density of the Universe out to z,1. [source] | ||||||||||