Aims. We test the validity of comparing simulated field disk galaxies with the empirical properties of systems situated within environments more comparable to loose groups, including the Milky Way’s ...Local Group. Methods. Cosmological simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies have been realised in two different environment samples: in the field and in loose groups environments with similar properties to the Local Group. Apart from the differing environments of the galaxies, the samples are kept as homogeneous as possible with equivalent ranges in last major merger time, halo mass and halo spin. Comparison of these two samples allow for systematic differences in the simulations to be identified. A kinematic decomposition is employed to objectively quantify the spheroid-to-disk ratio and to isolate the disk-star population. Metallicity gradients, disk scale lengths, colours, magnitudes and age-velocity dispersion relations are studied for each galaxy in the suite and the strength of the link between these and environment of the galaxies is studied. Results. Metallicity gradients are consistent with observations of HII regions in spiral galaxies and, in agreement with observations, correlate with total galaxy mass. The bulge-to-disk ratio of the galaxies show that these galaxies are less spheroid dominated than many other simulated galaxies in literature with the majority of both samples being disk dominated. We find that secular evolution and mergers dominate the spread of morphologies and metallicity gradients with no visible differences between the two environment samples. In contrast with this consistency in the two samples there is tentative evidence for a systematic difference in the velocity dispersion-age relations of galaxies in the different environments. Loose group galaxies appear to have more discrete steps in their velocity dispersion-age relations, if this is true it suggests that impulsive heating is more efficient in the stars of galaxies in denser environment than in the field. We conclude that at the current resolution of cosmological galaxy simulations field environment galaxies are sufficiently similar to those in loose groups to be acceptable proxies for comparison with the Milky Way provided that a similar assembly history is considered.
Abstract
We examine the chemical properties of five cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of an M33-like disc galaxy which have been shown previously to be consistent with the morphological ...characteristics and bulk scaling relations expected of late-type spirals. These simulations are part of the Making Galaxies in a Cosmological Context Project, in which stellar feedback is tuned to match the stellar mass-halo mass relationship. Each realization employed identical initial conditions and assembly histories, but differed from one another in their underlying baryonic physics prescriptions, including (a) the efficiency with which each supernova energy couples to the surrounding interstellar medium, (b) the impact of feedback associated with massive star radiation pressure, (c) the role of the minimum shut-off time for radiative cooling of Type II supernovae remnants, (d) the treatment of metal diffusion and (e) varying the initial mass function. Our analysis focusses on the resulting stellar metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) in each simulated (analogous) 'solar neighbourhood' (2-3 disc scalelengths from the galactic centre) and central 'bulge' region. We compare and contrast the simulated MDFs' skewness, kurtosis and dispersion (inter-quartile, inter-decile, inter-centile and inter-tenth-percentile regions) with that of the empirical solar neighbourhood MDF and Local Group dwarf galxies. We find that the MDFs of the simulated discs are more negatively skewed, with higher kurtosis, than those observed locally in the Milky Way and Local Group dwarfs. We can trace this difference to the simulations' very tight and correlated age-metallicity relations (compared with that of the Milky Way's solar neighbourhood), suggesting that these relations within 'dwarf' discs might be steeper than in L
★ discs (consistent with the simulations' star formation histories and extant empirical data), and/or the degree of stellar orbital redistribution and migration inferred locally has not been captured in their entirety, at the resolution of our simulations. The important role of metal diffusion in ameliorating the overproduction of extremely metal-poor stars is highlighted.
We present an analysis of a suite of simulations run with different particle- and grid-based cosmological hydrodynamical codes and compare them with observational data of the Milky Way. This is the ...first study to make comparisons of properties of galaxies simulated with particle- and grid-based codes. Our analysis indicates that there is broad agreement between these different modelling techniques. We study the velocity dispersion-age relation for disc stars at z= 0 and find that four of the simulations are more consistent with observations by Holmberg, Nordstroem & Andersen in which the stellar disc appears to undergo continual/secular heating. Two other simulations are in better agreement with the Quillen & Garnett observations that suggest 'saturation' in the heating profile for young stars in the disc. None of the simulations has thin discs as old as that of the Milky Way. We also analyse the kinematics of disc stars at the time of their birth for different epochs in the galaxies' evolution and find that in some simulations old stars are born cold within the disc and are subsequently heated, while other simulations possess old stellar populations which are born relatively hot. The models which are in better agreement with observations of the Milky Way's stellar disc undergo significantly lower minor-merger/assembly activity after the last major merger, that is, once the disc has formed. All of the simulations are significantly 'hotter' than the Milky Way disc; on top of the effects of mergers, we find a 'floor' in the dispersion that is related to the underlying treatment of the heating and cooling of the interstellar medium, and the low density threshold which such codes use for star formation. This finding has important implications for all studies of disc heating that use hydrodynamical codes.
ABSTRACT
Numerical simulations within a cold dark matter (DM) cosmology form haloes whose density profiles have a steep inner slope (‘cusp’), yet observations of galaxies often point towards a flat ...central ‘core’. We develop a convolutional mixture density neural network model to derive a probability density function (PDF) of the inner density slopes of DM haloes. We train the network on simulated dwarf galaxies from the NIHAO and AURIGA projects, which include both DM cusps and cores: line-of-sight velocities and 2D spatial distributions of their stars are used as inputs to obtain a PDF representing the probability of predicting a specific inner slope. The model recovers accurately the expected DM profiles: $\sim 82{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the galaxies have a derived inner slope within ±0.1 of their true value, while $\sim 98{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ within ±0.3. We apply our model to four Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies and find results consistent with those obtained with the Jeans modelling based code GravSphere: the Fornax dSph has a strong indication of possessing a central DM core, Carina and Sextans have cusps (although the latter with large uncertainties), while Sculptor shows a double peaked PDF indicating that a cusp is preferred, but a core cannot be ruled out. Our results show that simulation-based inference with neural networks provide a innovative and complementary method for the determination of the inner matter density profiles in galaxies, which in turn can help constrain the properties of the elusive DM.
Using cosmological galaxy formation simulations from the MaGICC (Making Galaxies in a Cosmological Context) project, spanning stellar mass from ~10... to 3 x 10... M..., we trace the baryonic cycle ...of infalling gas from the virial radius through to its eventual participation in the star formation process. An emphasis is placed upon the temporal history of chemical enrichment during its passage through the corona and circumgalactic medium. We derive the distributions of time between gas crossing the virial radius and being accreted to the star-forming region (which allows for mixing within the corona), as well as the time between gas being accreted to the star-forming region and then ultimately forming stars (which allows for mixing within the disc). Significant numbers of stars are formed from gas that cycles back through the hot halo after first accreting to the star-forming region. Gas entering high-mass galaxies is pre-enriched in low-mass proto-galaxies prior to entering the virial radius of the central progenitor, with only small amounts of primordial gas accreted, even at high redshift (z ... 5). After entering the virial radius, significant further enrichment occurs prior to the accretion of the gas to the star-forming region, with gas that is feeding the star-forming region surpassing 0.1 Z... by z = 0. Mixing with halo gas, itself enriched via galactic fountains, is thus crucial in determining the metallicity at which gas is accreted to the disc. The lowest mass simulated galaxy (M... ~ 2 x 10... M..., with M... ~ 10... M...), by contrast, accretes primordial gas through the virial radius and on to the disc, throughout its history. Much like the case for classical analytical solutions to the so-called 'G-dwarf problem', overproduction of low-metallicity stars is ameliorated by the interplay between the time of accretion on to the disc and the subsequent involvement in star formation - i.e. due to the inefficiency of star formation. Finally, gas outflow/metal removal rates from star-forming regions as a function of galactic mass are presented. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
The halo shape and evolution of polar disc galaxies Snaith, O. N.; Gibson, B. K.; Brook, C. B. ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
21 September 2012, Letnik:
425, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
We examine the properties and evolution of a simulated polar disc galaxy. This galaxy is composed of two orthogonal discs, one of which contains old stars (old stellar disc) and the other ...both younger stars and cold gas (polar disc). By exploring the shape of the inner region of the dark matter halo, we are able to confirm that the halo shape is an oblate ellipsoid flattened in the direction of the polar disc. We also note that there is a twist in the shape profile, where the innermost 3 kpc of the halo flattens in the direction perpendicular to the old disc and then aligns with the polar disc out until the virial radius. This result is then compared to the halo shape inferred from the circular velocities of the two discs. We also use the temporal information of the simulation to track the system's evolution and identify the processes which give rise to this unusual galaxy type. We confirm the proposal that the polar disc galaxy is the result of the last major merger, where the angular moment of the interaction is orthogonal to the angle of the infalling gas. This merger is followed by the resumption of coherent gas infall. We emphasize that the disc is rapidly restored after the major merger and that after this event the galaxy begins to tilt. A significant proportion of the infalling gas comes from filaments. This infalling gas from the filament gives the gas its angular momentum, and, in the case of the polar disc galaxy, the direction of the gas filament does not change before or after the last major merger.
In order to define criteria for long-term climate change models in Southern Africa, an overview of the available pollen data during the Late Quaternary is needed. Here we reassess the paleo-climatic ...conditions in southern Africa by synthesising available fossil pollen data that can provide new insights in environmental change processes. The data considered here include the latest as well as previously published information that has been difficult to assess. Available calibrated pollen sequences spanning the Late Pleistocene and Holocene were subjected to Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to monitor taxa sensitive to moisture and temperature fluctuations. The PCA values are presented graphically as indicators of climate variability for the region. The results cover different biomes that include the summer-rain region in the north and east, the winter-rain area in the south and the dry zone in the west. The PCA plots directly reflect major changes of terrestrial environments due to variations in temperature and moisture. Mostly sub-humid but fluctuating conditions are indicated during the cold Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2, which were followed by a dry phase soon after the beginning of the Holocene but before the middle Holocene in the northern, central and eastern parts of the sub-continent. Marked but non-parallel moisture changes occurred in different subregions during the Holocene suggesting that climatic forcing was not uniform over the entire region. Some events seemed to have had a more uniform effect over the sub-continent, e.g., a relatively dry summer rain event at c. two thousand years ago, which can possibly be related to the ENSO phenomenon. The role of anthropogenic activities in some of the most recent vegetation shifts is likely.
► Review of Late Quaternary Southern African pollen data published between 1967 and 2011. ► Climate change at different sites compared by curves derived from fossil pollen data. ► Southern Hemisphere changes coeval with LGM, the Younger Dryas and early and late Holocene. ► Clues for the underlying mechanisms of climate change in South Africa revealed. ► Indications of anthropogenic influence on vegetation in South Africa since 2 ka.
Aims. Using a suite of cosmological chemodynamical disc galaxy simulations, we assess how (a) radial metallicity gradients evolve with scaleheight; (b) the vertical metallicity gradients change ...through the thick disc; and (c) the vertical gradient of the stellar rotation velocity varies through the disc. We compare with the Milky Way to search for analogous trends. Methods. We analyse five simulated spiral galaxies with masses comparable to the Milky Way. The simulations span a range of star formation and energy feedback strengths and prescriptions, particle- and grid-based hydrodynamical implementations, as well as initial conditions/assembly history. Disc stars are identified initially via kinematic decomposition, with a posteriori spatial cuts providing the final sample from which radial and vertical gradients are inferred. Results. Consistently, we find that the steeper, negative, radial metallicity gradients seen in the mid-plane flatten with increasing height away from the plane. In simulations with stronger (and/or more spatially-extended) feedback, the negative radial gradients invert, becoming positive for heights in excess of ~1 kpc. Such behaviour is consistent with that inferred from recent observations. Our measurements of the vertical metallicity gradients show no clear correlation with galactocentric radius, and are in good agreement with those observed in the Milky Way’s thick disc (locally). Each of the simulations presents a decline in rotational velocity with increasing height from the mid-plane, although the majority have shallower kinematic gradients than that of the Milky Way. Conclusions. Simulations employing stronger/more extended feedback prescriptions possess radial and vertical metallicity and kinematic gradients more in line with recent observations. The inverted, positive, radial metallicity gradients seen in the simulated thick stellar discs originate in a population of younger, more metal-rich, stars formed in situ, superimposed upon a background population of older migrators from the inner disc; the contrast provided by the former increases radially, due to the inside-out growth of the disc. A similar behaviour may be responsible for the same flattening as seen in the radial gradients with scaleheight in the Milky Way.
By means of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way (MW) like disc galaxies, we conduct an analysis of the associated stellar metallicity distribution functions (MDFs). ...After undertaking a kinematic decomposition of each simulation into spheroid and disc subcomponents, we compare the predicted MDFs to those observed in the solar neighbourhood and the Galactic bulge. The effects of the star formation density threshold are visible in the star formation histories, which show a modulation in their behaviour driven by the threshold. The derived MDFs show median metallicities lower by 0.2-0.3 dex than the MDF observed locally in the disc and in the Galactic bulge. Possible reasons for this apparent discrepancy include the use of low stellar yields and/or centrally concentrated star formation. The dispersions are larger than the one of the observed MDF; this could be due to simulated discs being kinematically hotter relative to the MW. The fraction of low-metallicity stars is largely overestimated, visible from the more negatively skewed MDF with respect to the observational sample. For our fiducial MW analogue, we study the metallicity distribution of the stars born in situ relative to those formed via accretion (from disrupted satellites), and demonstrate that this low-metallicity tail to the MDF is populated primarily by accreted stars. Enhanced supernova and stellar radiation energy feedback to the surrounding interstellar media of these pre-disrupted satellites is suggested as an important regulator of the MDF skewness.
The recently emerging conviction that thick disks are prevalent in disk galaxies, and their seemingly ubiquitous old ages, means that the formation of the thick disk, perhaps more than any other ...component, holds the key to unravelling the evolution of the Milky Way, and indeed all disk galaxies. In Paper I, we proposed that the thick disk was formed in an epoch of gas-rich mergers at high redshift. This hypothesis was based on comparing N-body SPH simulations to a variety of Galactic and extragalactic observations, including stellar kinematics, ages, and chemical properties. Here we examine our thick-disk formation scenario in light of the most recent observations of extragalactic thick disks. In agreement, our simulated thick disks are old and relatively metal rich, with V-I colors that do not vary significantly with distance from the plane. Furthermore, we show that our proposal results in an enhancement of a-elements in thick-disk stars as compared with thin-disk stars, consistent with observations of the relevant populations of the Milky Way. We also find that our scenario naturally leads to the formation of an old, metal-weak, stellar halo population with high a-element abundances.
PDF
