297 research outputs found
NIHAO XX: The impact of the star formation threshold on the cusp-core transformation of cold dark matter haloes
We use cosmological hydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations from the
NIHAO project to investigate the impact of the threshold for star formation on
the response of the dark matter (DM) halo to baryonic processes. The fiducial
NIHAO threshold, , results in strong expansion of the DM
halo in galaxies with stellar masses in the range . We find that lower thresholds such as (as employed
by the EAGLE/APOSTLE and Illustris/AURIGA projects) do not result in
significant halo expansion at any mass scale. Halo expansion driven by
supernova feedback requires significant fluctuations in the local gas fraction
on sub-dynamical times (i.e., < 50 Myr at galaxy half-light radii), which are
themselves caused by variability in the star formation rate. At one per cent of
the virial radius, simulations with have gas fractions of
and variations of , while simulations have order of
magnitude lower gas fractions and hence do not expand the halo. The observed DM
circular velocities of nearby dwarf galaxies are inconsistent with CDM
simulations with and , but in reasonable agreement with .
Star formation rates are more variable for higher , lower galaxy masses, and
when star formation is measured on shorter time scales. For example,
simulations with have up to 0.4 dex higher scatter in specific star
formation rates than simulations with . Thus observationally
constraining the sub-grid model for star formation, and hence the nature of DM,
should be possible in the near future.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, accepted to MNRA
The edge of galaxy formation III: The effects of warm dark matter on Milky Way satellites and field dwarfs
In this third paper of the series, we investigate the effects of warm dark
matter with a particle mass of on the smallest
galaxies in our Universe. We present a sample of 21 hydrodynamical cosmological
simulations of dwarf galaxies and 20 simulations of satellite-host galaxy
interaction that we performed both in a Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and Warm Dark
Matter (WDM) scenario. In the WDM simulations, we observe a higher critical
mass for the onset of star formation. Structure growth is delayed in WDM, as a
result WDM haloes have a stellar population on average two Gyrs younger than
their CDM counterparts. Nevertheless, despite this delayed star formation, CDM
and WDM galaxies are both able to reproduce the observed scaling relations for
velocity dispersion, stellar mass, size, and metallicity at . WDM
satellite haloes in a Milky Way mass host are more susceptible to tidal
stripping due to their lower concentrations, but their galaxies can even
survive longer than the CDM counterparts if they live in a dark matter halo
with a steeper central slope. In agreement with our previous CDM satellite
study we observe a steepening of the WDM satellites' central dark matter
density slope due to stripping. The difference in the average stellar age for
satellite galaxies, between CDM and WDM, could be used in the future for
disentangling these two models.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA
Assessing opportunities for physical activity in the built environment of children: interrelation between kernel density and neighborhood scale
BACKGROUND: Built environment studies provide broad evidence that urban characteristics influence physical activity (PA). However, findings are still difficult to compare, due to inconsistent measures assessing urban point characteristics and varying definitions of spatial scale. Both were found to influence the strength of the association between the built environment and PA. METHODS: We simultaneously evaluated the effect of kernel approaches and network-distances to investigate the association between urban characteristics and physical activity depending on spatial scale and intensity measure. We assessed urban measures of point characteristics such as intersections, public transit stations, and public open spaces in ego-centered network-dependent neighborhoods based on geographical data of one German study region of the IDEFICS study. We calculated point intensities using the simple intensity and kernel approaches based on fixed bandwidths, cross-validated bandwidths including isotropic and anisotropic kernel functions and considering adaptive bandwidths that adjust for residential density. We distinguished six network-distances from 500 m up to 2 km to calculate each intensity measure. A log-gamma regression model was used to investigate the effect of each urban measure on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) of 400 2- to 9.9-year old children who participated in the IDEFICS study. Models were stratified by sex and age groups, i.e. pre-school children (2 to <6 years) and school children (6–9.9 years), and were adjusted for age, body mass index (BMI), education and safety concerns of parents, season and valid weartime of accelerometers. RESULTS: Association between intensity measures and MVPA strongly differed by network-distance, with stronger effects found for larger network-distances. Simple intensity revealed smaller effect estimates and smaller goodness-of-fit compared to kernel approaches. Smallest variation in effect estimates over network-distances was found for kernel intensity measures based on isotropic and anisotropic cross-validated bandwidth selection. CONCLUSION: We found a strong variation in the association between the built environment and PA of children based on the choice of intensity measure and network-distance. Kernel intensity measures provided stable results over various scales and improved the assessment compared to the simple intensity measure. Considering different spatial scales and kernel intensity methods might reduce methodological limitations in assessing opportunities for PA in the built environment
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