Quenching, the cessation of star formation, is one of the most significant events in the life cycle of galaxies. While quenching is generally thought to be linked to their central regions, the ...mechanism responsible for it is not known and may not even be unique. We show here the first evidence that the Milky Way experienced a generalised quenching of its star formation at the end of its thick-disk formation ~9 Gyr ago. The fossil record imprinted on the elemental abundances of stars studied in the solar vicinity and as part of the APOGEE survey (APOGEE is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III) reveals indeed that in less than ~2 Gyr (from 10 to 8 Gyr ago) the star formation rate in our Galaxy dropped by an order of magnitude. Because of the tight correlation that exists between age and α abundance, the general cessation of the star formation activity reflects in the dearth of stars along the inner-disk sequence in the Fe/H-α/Fe plane. Before this phase, which lasted about 1.5 Gyr, the Milky Way was actively forming stars. Afterwards, the star formation resumed at a much lower level to form the thin disk. These events observed in our Galaxy are very well matched by the latest observation of MW-type progenitors at high redshifts. In late-type galaxies, the quenching mechanism is believed to be related to a long and secular exhaustion of gas. Our results show that in the Milky Way, the shut-down occurred on a much shorter timescale, while the chemical continuity between the stellar populations formed before and after the quenching indicates that it is not the exhaustion of the gas that was responsible for the cessation of the star formation. While quenching is generally associated with spheroids in the literature, our results show that it also occurs in galaxies like the Milky Way, where the classical bulge is thought to be small or non-existent, possibly when they are undergoing a morphological transition from thick to thin disks. Given the demographics of late-type galaxies in the local Universe, in which classical bulges are rare, we suggest further that this may hold true generally in galaxies with mass lower than or approximately of M∗, where quenching could directly be a consequence of thick-disk formation, while quenching may be related to development of spheroids in higher mass galaxies. We emphasize that the quenching phase in the Milky Way could be contemporaneous with, and related to, the formation of the bar, at the end of the thick-disk phase. We sketch a scenario on how a strong bar may inhibit star formation.
We investigate the nature of the double color-magnitude sequence observed in the Gaia DR2 HR diagram of stars with high transverse velocities. The stars in the reddest-color sequence are likely ...dominated by the dynamically hot tail of the thick disk population. Information from Nissen & Schuster and from the APOGEE survey suggests that stars in the blue-color sequence have elemental abundance patterns that can be explained by this population having a relatively low star formation efficiency during its formation. In dynamical and orbital spaces, such as the "Toomre diagram," the two sequences show a significant overlap, but with a tendency for stars on the blue-color sequence to dominate regions with no or retrograde rotation and high total orbital energy. In the plane defined by the maximal vertical excursion of the orbits versus their apocenters, stars of both sequences redistribute into discrete wedges. We conclude that stars that are typically assigned to the halo in the solar vicinity are actually both accreted stars lying along the blue sequence in the HR diagram, and the low rotational velocity tail of the old Galactic disk, possibly dynamically heated by past accretion events. Our results imply that a halo population formed in situ and responsible for the early chemical enrichment prior to the formation of the thick disk has yet to be robustly identified, and that what has been defined as the stars of the in situ stellar halo of the Galaxy may in fact be fossil records of its last significant merger.
Observations and theoretical simulations have established a framework for galaxy formation and evolution in the young Universe. Galaxies formed as baryonic gas cooled at the centres of collapsing ...dark-matter haloes; mergers of haloes and galaxies then led to the hierarchical build-up of galaxy mass. It remains unclear, however, over what timescales galaxies were assembled and when and how bulges and disks--the primary components of present-day galaxies--were formed. It is also puzzling that the most massive galaxies were more abundant and were forming stars more rapidly at early epochs than expected from models. Here we report high-angular-resolution observations of a representative luminous star-forming galaxy when the Universe was only 20% of its current age. A large and massive rotating protodisk is channelling gas towards a growing central stellar bulge hosting an accreting massive black hole. The high surface densities of gas, the high rate of star formation and the moderately young stellar ages suggest rapid assembly, fragmentation and conversion to stars of an initially very gas-rich protodisk, with no obvious evidence for a major merger.
The largest galaxies in the universe reside in galaxy clusters. Using sensitive observations of carbon monoxide, we show that the Spiderweb galaxy—a massive galaxy in a distant protocluster—is ...forming from a large reservoir of molecular gas. Most of this molecular gas lies between the protocluster galaxies and has low velocity dispersion, indicating that it is part of an enriched intergalactic medium. This may constitute the reservoir of gas that fuels the widespread star formation seen in earlier ultraviolet observations of the Spiderweb galaxy. Our results support the notion that giant galaxies in clusters formed from extended regions of recycled gas at high redshift.
Bar quenching in gas-rich galaxies Khoperskov, S.; Haywood, M.; Di Matteo, P. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
01/2018, Letnik:
609
Journal Article
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Galaxy surveys have suggested that rapid and sustained decrease in the star-formation rate (SFR), “quenching”, in massive disk galaxies is frequently related to the presence of a bar. Optical and ...near-IR observations reveal that nearly 60% of disk galaxies in the local universe are barred, thus it is important to understand the relationship between bars and star formation in disk galaxies. Recent observational results imply that the Milky Way quenched about 9–10 Gyr ago, at the transition between the cessation of the growth of the kinematically hot, old, metal-poor thick disk and the kinematically colder, younger, and more metal-rich thin disk. Although perhaps coincidental, the quenching episode could also be related to the formation of the bar. Indeed the transfer of energy from the large-scale shear induced by the bar to increasing turbulent energy could stabilize the gaseous disk against wide-spread star formation and quench the galaxy. To explore the relation between bar formation and star formation in gas rich galaxies quantitatively, we simulated gas-rich disk isolated galaxies. Our simulations include prescriptions for star formation, stellar feedback, and for regulating the multi-phase interstellar medium. We find that the action of stellar bar efficiently quenches star formation, reducing the star-formation rate by a factor of ten in less than 1 Gyr. Analytical and self-consistent galaxy simulations with bars suggest that the action of the stellar bar increases the gas random motions within the co-rotation radius of the bar. Indeed, we detect an increase in the gas velocity dispersion up to 20−35 km s-1 at the end of the bar formation phase. The star-formation efficiency decreases rapidly, and in all of our models, the bar quenches the star formation in the galaxy. The star-formation efficiency is much lower in simulated barred compared to unbarred galaxies and more rapid bar formation implies more rapid quenching.
AGN feedback now appears as an attractive mechanism to resolve some of the outstanding problems with the “standard” cosmological models, in particular those related to massive galaxies. At low ...redshift, evidence is growing that gas cooling and star formation may be efficiently suppressed by mechanical energy input from radio sources. To directly constrain how this may influence the formation of massive galaxies near the peak in the redshift distribution of powerful quasars, $z\sim 2$, we present an analysis of the emission-line kinematics of 3 powerful radio galaxies at $z\sim 2{-}3$ (HzRGs) based on rest-frame optical integral-field spectroscopy obtained with SINFONI on the VLT. The host galaxies of powerful radio-loud AGN are among the most massive galaxies, and thus AGN feedback may have a particularly clear signature in these galaxies. We find evidence for bipolar outflows in all HzRGs, with kinetic energies that are equivalent to 0.2% of the rest-mass of the supermassive black hole. Observed total velocity offsets in the outflows are ~$800{-}1000$ km s-1 between the blueshifted and redshifted line emission, and FWHMs ~ 1000 km s-1 suggest strong turbulence. Line ratios allow to measure electron temperatures, ~104 K from OIII$\lambda\lambda\lambda$4363, 4959, 5007 at $z\sim 2$, electron densities (~500 cm-3) and extinction ($A_V\sim 1{-}4$ mag). Ionized gas masses estimated from the Hα luminosity are of order $10^{10}~M_{\odot}$, similar to the molecular gas content of HzRGs, underlining that these outflows may indicate a significant phase in the evolution of the host galaxy. The total energy release of ~1060 erg during a dynamical time of ~107 yrs corresponds to about the binding energy of a massive galaxy, similar to the prescriptions adopted in galaxy evolution models. Geometry, timescales and energy injection rates of order 10% of the kinetic energy flux of the jet suggest that the outflows are most likely driven by the radio source. The global energy density release of ~1057 erg s-1 Mpc-3 may also influence the subsequent evolution of the HzRG by enhancing the entropy and pressure in the surrounding halo and facilitating ram-pressure stripping of gas in satellite galaxies that may contribute to the subsequent mass assembly of the HzRG through low-dissipation “dry” mergers.
The demonstration of a quantum link between microwave and optical frequencies would be an important step toward the realization of a quantum network of superconducting processors. A major impediment ...to quantum electro-optic transduction in all platforms explored to date is noise added by thermal occupation of modes involved in the transduction process, and it has proved difficult to realize low thermal occupancy concurrently with other desirable features like high duty cycle and high efficiency. In this work, we present an efficient and continuously operating electro-optomechanical transducer whose mechanical mode has been optically sideband cooled to its quantum ground state. The transducer achieves a maximum efficiency of 47% and minimum input-referred added noise of 3.2 photons in upconversion. Moreover, the thermal occupancy of the transducer’s microwave mode is minimally affected by continuous laser illumination with power more than 2 orders of magnitude greater than that required for optomechanical ground-state cooling.
Multi-phase filamentary structures around brightest cluster galaxies (BCG) are likely a key step of AGN-feedback. We observed molecular gas in three cool cluster cores, namely Centaurus, Abell S1101, ...and RXJ1539.5, and gathered ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) and MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) data for 12 other clusters. Those observations show clumpy, massive, and long (3−25 kpc) molecular filaments, preferentially located around the radio bubbles inflated by the AGN. Two objects show nuclear molecular disks. The optical nebula is certainly tracing the warm envelopes of cold molecular filaments. Surprisingly, the radial profile of the Hα/CO flux ratio is roughly constant for most of the objects, suggesting that (i) between 1.2 and 6 times more cold gas could be present and (ii) local processes must be responsible for the excitation. Projected velocities are between 100 and 400 km s−1, with disturbed kinematics and sometimes coherent gradients. This is likely due to the mixing in projection of several thin (and as yet) unresolved filaments. The velocity fields may be stirred by turbulence induced by bubbles, jets, or merger-induced sloshing. Velocity and dispersions are low, below the escape velocity. Cold clouds should eventually fall back and fuel the AGN. We compare the radial extent of the filaments, rfil, with the region where the X-ray gas can become thermally unstable. The filaments are always inside the low-entropy and short-cooling-time region, where tcool/tff < 20 (9 of 13 sources). The range of tcool/tff of 8−23 at rfil, is likely due to (i) a more complex gravitational potential affecting the free-fall time tff (sloshing, mergers, etc.) and (ii) the presence of inhomogeneities or uplifted gas in the ICM, affecting the cooling time tcool. For some of the sources, rfil lies where the ratio of the cooling time to the eddy-turnover time, tcool/teddy, is approximately unity.
We develop a chemical evolution model to study the star formation history of the Milky Way. Our model assumes that the Milky Way has formed from a closed-box-like system in the inner regions, while ...the outer parts of the disc have experienced some accretion. Unlike the usual procedure, we do not fix the star formation prescription (e.g. Kennicutt law) to reproduce the chemical abundance trends. Instead, we fit the abundance trends with age to recover the star formation history of the Galaxy. Our method enables us to recover the star formation history of the Milky Way in the first Gyrs with unprecedented accuracy in the inner (R < 7−8 kpc) and outer (R > 9−10 kpc) discs, as sampled in the solar vicinity. We show that half the stellar mass formed during the thick-disc phase in the inner galaxy during the first 4−5 Gyr. This phase was followed by a significant dip in star formation activity (at 8−9 Gyr) and a period of roughly constant lower-level star formation for the remaining 8 Gyr. The thick-disc phase has produced as many metals in 4 Gyr as the thin-disc phase in the remaining 8 Gyr. Our results suggest that a closed-box model is able to fit all the available constraints in the inner disc. A closed-box system is qualitatively equivalent to a regime where the accretion rate maintains a high gas fraction in the inner disc at high redshift. In these conditions the SFR is mainly governed by the high turbulence of the interstellar medium. By z ~ 1 it is possible that most of the accretion takes place in the outer disc, while the star formation activity in the inner disc is mostly sustained by the gas that is not consumed during the thick-disc phase and the continuous ejecta from earlier generations of stars. The outer disc follows a star formation history very similar to that of the inner disc, although initiated at z ~ 2, about 2 Gyr before the onset of the thin-disc formation in the inner disc.
We present measurements of a topological property, the Chern number (C_{1}), of a closed manifold in the space of two-level system Hamiltonians, where the two-level system is formed from a ...superconducting qubit. We manipulate the parameters of the Hamiltonian of the superconducting qubit along paths in the manifold and extract C_{1} from the nonadiabatic response of the qubit. By adjusting the manifold such that a degeneracy in the Hamiltonian passes from inside to outside the manifold, we observe a topological transition C_{1}=1→0. Our measurement of C_{1} is quantized to within 2% on either side of the transition.
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