We build templates of rotation curves as a function of the I-band luminosity via the mass modeling (by the sum of a thin exponential disk and a cored halo profile) of suitably normalized, stacked ...data from wide samples of local spiral galaxies. We then exploit such templates to determine fundamental stellar and halo properties for a sample of about 550 local disk-dominated galaxies with high-quality measurements of the optical radius Ropt and of the corresponding rotation velocity Vopt. Specifically, we determine the stellar M and halo MH masses, the halo size RH and velocity scale VH, and the specific angular momenta of the stellar j and dark matter jH components. We derive global scaling relationships involving such stellar and halo properties both for the individual galaxies in our sample and for their mean within bins; the latter are found to be in pleasing agreement with previous determinations by independent methods (e.g., abundance matching techniques, weak-lensing observations, and individual rotation curve modeling). Remarkably, the size of our sample and the robustness of our statistical approach allow us to attain an unprecedented level of precision over an extended range of mass and velocity scales, with 1 dispersion around the mean relationships of less than 0.1 dex. We thus set new standard local relationships that must be reproduced by detailed physical models, which offer a basis for improving the subgrid recipes in numerical simulations, that provide a benchmark to gauge independent observations and check for systematics, and that constitute a basic step toward the future exploitation of the spiral galaxy population as a cosmological probe.
We investigate the merging rates of compact binaries in galaxies and the related detection rate of gravitational wave (GW) events with AdvLIGO/Virgo and with the Einstein Telescope. To this purpose, ...we rely on three basic ingredients: (i) the redshift-dependent galaxy statistics provided by the latest determination of the star formation rate functions from UV+far-IR/(sub)millimeter/radio data; (ii) star formation and chemical enrichment histories for individual galaxies, modeled on the basis of observations; and (iii) compact remnant mass distribution and prescriptions for merging of compact binaries from stellar evolution simulations. We present results for the intrinsic birth rate of compact remnants, the merging rates of compact binaries, GW detection rates, and GW counts, attempting to differentiate the outcomes among black hole-black hole, neutron star-neutron star, and black hole-neutron star mergers and to estimate their occurrence in disk and spheroidal host galaxies. We compare our approach with the one based on cosmic star formation rate density and cosmic metallicity, exploited by many literature studies; the merging rates from the two approaches are in agreement within the overall astrophysical uncertainties. We also investigate the effects of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lensing of GW in enhancing the rate of detectable events toward high redshift. Finally, we discuss the contribution of undetected GW emission from compact binary mergers to the stochastic background.
Abstract
In this paper, we study the impact of different galaxy statistics and empirical metallicity scaling relations on the merging rates and properties of compact object binaries. Firstly, we ...analyze the similarities and differences of using the star formation rate functions versus stellar mass functions as galaxy statistics for the computation of cosmic star formation rate density. We then investigate the effects of adopting the Fundamental Metallicity Relation versus a classic Mass Metallicity Relation to assign metallicity to galaxies with given properties. We find that when the Fundamental Metallicity Relation is exploited, the bulk of the star formation occurs at relatively high metallicities, even at high redshift; the opposite holds when the Mass Metallicity Relation is employed, since in this case the metallicity at which most of the star formation takes place strongly decreases with redshift. We discuss the various reasons and possible biases giving rise to this discrepancy. Finally, we show the impact of these different astrophysical prescriptions on the merging rates and properties of compact object binaries; specifically, we present results for the redshift-dependent merging rates and for the chirp mass and time delay distributions of the merging binaries.
ABSTRACT We investigate the coevolution of galaxies and hosted supermassive black holes (BHs) throughout the history of the universe by a statistical approach based on the continuity equation and the ...abundance matching technique. Specifically, we present analytical solutions of the continuity equation without source terms to reconstruct the supermassive BH mass function from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity functions. Such an approach includes physically motivated AGN light curves tested on independent data sets, which describe the evolution of the Eddington ratio and radiative efficiency from slim- to thin-disk conditions. We nicely reproduce the local estimates of the BH mass function, the AGN duty cycle as a function of mass and redshift, along with the Eddington ratio function and the fraction of galaxies with given stellar mass hosting an AGN with given Eddington ratio. We exploit the same approach to reconstruct the observed stellar mass function at different redshift from the ultraviolet and far-IR luminosity functions associated with star formation in galaxies. These results imply that the build-up of stars and BHs in galaxies occurs via in situ processes, with dry mergers playing a marginal role at least for stellar masses and BH masses , where the statistical data are more secure and less biased by systematic errors. In addition, we develop an improved abundance matching technique to link the stellar and BH content of galaxies to the gravitationally dominant dark matter (DM) component. The resulting relationships constitute a testbed for galaxy evolution models, highlighting the complementary role of stellar and AGN feedback in the star formation process. In addition, they may be operationally implemented in numerical simulations to populate DM halos or to gauge subgrid physics. Moreover, they may be exploited to investigate the galaxy/AGN clustering as a function of redshift, mass, and/or luminosity. In fact, the clustering properties of BHs and galaxies are found to be in full agreement with current observations, thus further validating our results from the continuity equation. Finally, our analysis highlights that (i) the fraction of AGNs observed in the slim-disk regime, where most of the BH mass is accreted, increases with redshift; and (ii) already at a substantial amount of dust must have formed over timescales yr in strongly star-forming galaxies, making these sources well within the reach of ALMA surveys in (sub)millimeter bands.
We propose a new mechanism for the growth of supermassive black hole (BH) seeds in the star-forming progenitors of local early-type galaxies (ETGs) at z 1. This envisages the migration and merging of ...stellar compact remnants (neutron stars and stellar-mass BHs) via gaseous dynamical friction toward the central high-density regions of such galaxies. We show that, under reasonable assumptions and initial conditions, the process can build up central BH masses of the order of 104-106 M within some 107 yr, so effectively providing heavy seeds before standard disk (Eddington-like) accretion takes over to become the dominant process for further BH growth. Remarkably, such a mechanism may provide an explanation, alternative to super-Eddington accretion rates, for the buildup of billion-solar-massed BHs in quasar hosts at z 7, when the age of the universe 0.8 Gyr constitutes a demanding constraint; moreover, in more common ETG progenitors at redshift z ∼ 2-6, it can concur with disk accretion to build such large BH masses even at moderate Eddington ratios 0.3 within the short star formation duration Gyr of these systems. Finally, we investigate the perspectives to detect the merger events between the migrating stellar remnants and the accumulating central supermassive BH via gravitational-wave emission with future ground- and space-based detectors such as the Einstein Telescope and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.
We present a set of new analytic solutions aimed at self-consistently describing the spatially averaged time evolution of the gas, stellar, metal, and dust content in an individual star-forming ...galaxy hosted within a dark halo of a given mass and formation redshift. Then, as an application, we show that our solutions, when coupled to specific prescriptions for parameter setting (inspired by in situ galaxy-black hole coevolution scenarios) and merger rates (based on numerical simulations), can be exploited to reproduce the main statistical relationships followed by early-type galaxies and their high-redshift star-forming progenitors. Our analytic solutions allow one to easily disentangle the diverse role of the main physical processes regulating galaxy formation, quickly explore the related parameter space, and make transparent predictions on spatially averaged quantities. As such, our analytic solutions may provide a basis for improving the (subgrid) physical recipes presently implemented in theoretical approaches and numerical simulations and can offer a benchmark for interpreting and forecasting current and future broadband observations of high-redshift star-forming galaxies.
We generalize the analytic solutions presented in Pantoni et al. by including a simple yet effective description of wind recycling and galactic fountains, with the aim of self-consistently ...investigating the spatially averaged time evolution of the gas, stellar, metal, and dust content in disk-dominated late-type galaxies (LTGs). Our analytic solutions, when supplemented with specific prescriptions for parameter setting and with halo accretion rates from N-body simulations, can be exploited to reproduce the main statistical relationships followed by local LTGs; these involve, as a function of the stellar mass, the star formation efficiency, the gas mass fraction, the gas/stellar metallicity, the dust mass, the star formation rate, the specific angular momentum, and the overall mass/metal budget. Our analytic solutions allow us to easily disentangle the diverse role of the main physical processes ruling galaxy formation in LTGs; in particular, we highlight the crucial relevance of wind recycling and galactic fountains in efficiently refurnishing the gas mass, extending the star formation timescale, and boosting the metal enrichment in gas and stars. All in all, our analytic solutions constitute a transparent, handy, and fast tool that can provide a basis for improving the (sub-grid) physical recipes presently implemented in more sophisticated semi-analytic models and numerical simulations, and can serve as a benchmark for interpreting and forecasting current and future spatially averaged observations of local and higher redshift LTGs.
We investigate the astrophysics of radio-emitting star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and elucidate their statistical properties in the radio band, including luminosity functions, ...redshift distributions, and number counts at sub-mJy flux levels, which will be crucially probed by next-generation radio continuum surveys. Specifically, we exploit the model-independent approach by Mancuso et al. to compute the star formation rate functions, the AGN duty cycles, and the conditional probability of a star-forming galaxy to host an AGN with given bolometric luminosity. Coupling these ingredients with the radio emission properties associated with star formation and nuclear activity, we compute relevant statistics at different radio frequencies and disentangle the relative contribution of star-forming galaxies and AGNs in different radio luminosity, radio flux, and redshift ranges. Finally, we highlight that radio-emitting star-forming galaxies and AGNs are expected to host supermassive black holes accreting with different Eddington ratio distributions and to occupy different loci in the galaxy main-sequence diagrams. These specific predictions are consistent with current data sets but need to be tested with larger statistics via future radio data with multiband coverage on wide areas, as will become routinely achievable with the advent of the Square Kilometre Array and its precursors.
ABSTRACT We exploit the continuity equation approach and "main-sequence" star formation timescales to show that the observed high abundance of galaxies with stellar masses a few 1010 M at redshift z ...4 implies the existence of a galaxy population featuring large star formation rates (SFRs) 102 M yr−1 in heavily dust-obscured conditions. These galaxies constitute the high-redshift counterparts of the dusty star-forming population already surveyed for z 3 in the far-IR band by the Herschel Space Observatory. We work out specific predictions for the evolution of the corresponding stellar mass and SFR functions out to z ∼ 10, determining that the number density at z 8 for SFRs 30 M yr−1 cannot be estimated relying on the UV luminosity function alone, even when standard corrections for dust extinction based on the UV slope are applied. We compute the number counts and redshift distributions (including galaxy-scale gravitational lensing) of this galaxy population, and show that current data from the AzTEC-LABOCA, SCUBA-2, and ALMA-SPT surveys are already addressing it. We demonstrate how an observational strategy based on color preselection in the far-IR or (sub-)millimeter band with Herschel and SCUBA-2, supplemented by photometric data from on-source observations with ALMA, can allow us to reconstruct the bright end of the SFR functions out to z 8. In parallel, such a challenging task can be managed by exploiting current UV surveys in combination with (sub-)millimeter observations by ALMA and NIKA2 and/or radio observations by SKA and its precursors.
We aim to provide a holistic view on the typical size and kinematic evolution of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) that encompasses their high-z star-forming progenitors, their high-z quiescent ...counterparts, and their configurations in the local Universe. Our investigation covers the main processes playing a relevant role in the cosmic evolution of ETGs. Specifically, their early fast evolution comprises biased collapse of the low angular momentum gaseous baryons located in the inner regions of the host dark matter halo; cooling, fragmentation, and infall of the gas down to the radius set by the centrifugal barrier; further rapid compaction via clump/gas migration toward the galaxy center, where strong heavily dust-enshrouded star formation takes place and most of the stellar mass is accumulated; and ejection of substantial gas amount from the inner regions by feedback processes, which causes a dramatic puffing-up of the stellar component. In the late slow evolution, passive aging of stellar populations and mass additions by dry merger events occur. We describe these processes relying on prescriptions inspired by basic physical arguments and by numerical simulations to derive new analytical estimates of the relevant sizes, timescales, and kinematic properties for individual galaxies along their evolution. Then we obtain quantitative results as a function of galaxy mass and redshift, and compare them to recent observational constraints on half-light size Re, on the ratio v/ between rotation velocity and velocity dispersion (for gas and stars) and on the specific angular momentum j of the stellar component; we find good consistency with the available multiband data in average values and dispersion, both for local ETGs and for their z ∼ 1-2 star-forming and quiescent progenitors. The outcomes of our analysis can provide hints to gauge sub-grid recipes implemented in simulations, to tune numerical experiments focused on specific processes, and to plan future multiband, high-resolution observations on high-redshift star-forming and quiescent galaxies with next-generation facilities.
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