Observationally Constrained Metal Signatures of Galaxy Evolution in the Stars and Gas of Cosmological Simulations

The halos of galaxies - consisting of gas, stars, and satellite galaxies - are formed and shaped by the most fundamental processes: hierarchical merging and the flow of gas into and out of galaxies. While these processes are hard to disentangle, metals are tied to the gas that fuels star formation and entrained in the wind that the deaths of these stars generate. As such, they can act as important indicators of the star formation, the chemical enrichment, and the outflow histories of galaxies. Thus, this thesis aims to take advantage of such metal signatures in the stars and gas to place observational constraints on current theories of galaxy evolution as implemented in cosmological simulations. The first two chapters consider the metallicities of stars in the stellar halo of the Milky Way and its surviving satellite dwarf galaxies. Chapter 2 pairs an N-body simulation with a semi-analytic model for supernova-driven winds to examine the early environment of a Milky Way-like galaxy. At z=10, progenitors of surviving z=0 satellite galaxies are found to sit preferentially on the outskirts of progenitor halos of the eventual main halo. The consequence of these positions is that main halo progenitors are found to more effectively cross-pollute each other than satellite progenitors. Thus, inhomogeneous cross-pollution as a result of different high-z spatial locations of different progenitors can help to explain observed differences in abundance patterns measured today. Chapter 3 expands this work into the analysis of a cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation of dwarf galaxies in the early universe. We find that simple assumptions for modeling the extent of supernova-driven winds used in Chapter 2 agree well with the simulation whereas the presence of inhomogeneous mixing in the simulation has a large effect on the stellar metallicities. Furthermore, the star-forming halos show both bursty and continuous SFHs, two scenarios proposed by stellar metallicity data. However, the metallicity distribution functions of the simulated halos are both too metal rich and too peaked when compared to the data. This comparison reveals that a complex SFH and a broad metallicity distribution can develop rapidly in the early Universe. The third chapter moves to the present day with a consideration of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) around nearby Milky Way-like galaxies. We compare a cosmological simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy to recent absorption line data and find that a reduced extragalactic ultraviolet background brings the column density predictions into better agreement with the data. Similarly, when the observationally derived physical properties of the gas are compared to the simulation, we find that the simulation gas is always at temperatures approximately 0.5 dex higher. Thus, similar column densities can be produced from fundamentally different gas. Metal-line emission is then considered as a complementary approach to studying the CGM. From the simulations, we find that the brightest emission is less sensitive to the extragalactic background and that it closely follows the fundamental filamentary structure of the halo. This becomes increasingly true as the galaxy evolves from z = 1 to z = 0 and the majority of the gas transitions to a hotter, more diffuse phase. Finally, resolution is a limiting factor for the conclusions we can draw from emission observations but with moderate resolution and reasonable detection limits, upcoming instrumentation should place constraints on the physical properties of the CGM. Future work advancing the techniques in this thesis remain promising for putting new observational constraints on our theories of galaxy evolution

Device to measure axial displacement in a borehole

A device to measure minute displacement in rocks, including anchor deployment means, anchor registration means, and frame release means. Further including anchor units comprising a fixed anchor point, a reversible anchor actuator and a deployable anchor face capable of being deployed with a force of up to 2000 lbs

Clouds and Seasonality on Terrestrial Planets with Varying Rotation Rates

Using an idealised climate model incorporating seasonal forcing, we investigate the impact of rotation rate on the abundance of clouds on an Earth-like aquaplanet, and the resulting impacts upon albedo and seasonality. We show that the cloud distribution varies significantly with season, depending strongly on the rotation rate, and is well explained by the large-scale circulation and atmospheric state. Planetary albedo displays non-monotonic behaviour with rotation rate, peaking at around 1/2$\Omega_E$. Clouds reduce the surface temperature and total precipitation relative to simulations without clouds at all rotation rates, and reduce the dependence of total precipitation on rotation rate, causing non-monotonic behaviour and a local maximum around 1/8$\Omega_E$ ; these effects are related to the impacts of clouds on the net atmospheric and surface radiative energy budgets. Clouds also affect the seasonality. The influence of clouds on the extent of the winter Hadley cell and the intertropical convergence zone is relatively minor at slow rotation rates ($<$1/8$\Omega_E$ ), but becomes more pronounced at intermediate rotation rates, where clouds decrease their maximum latitudes. The timing of seasonal transitions varies with rotation rate, and the addition of clouds reduces the seasonal phase lag.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Figuring Out Gas &amp; Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE). II. Emission from the z=3 Circumgalactic Medium

Observing the circumgalactic medium (CGM) in emission provides 3D maps of the spatial and kinematic extent of the gas that fuels galaxies and receives their feedback. We present mock emission-line maps of highly resolved CGM gas from the FOGGIE project (Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies in Enzo) and link these maps back to physical and spatial properties of the gas. By increasing the spatial resolution alone, the total luminosity of the line emission increases by an order of magnitude. This increase arises in the abundance of dense small-scale structure resolved when the CGM gas is simulated to < 100 pc scales. Current integral field unit instruments like KCWI and MUSE should be able to detect the brightest knots and filaments of such emission, and from this to infer the bulk kinematics of the CGM gas with respect to the galaxy. We conclude that accounting for small-scale structure well below the level of instrument spatial resolution is necessary to properly interpret such observations in terms of the underlying gas structure driving observable emission.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to ApJ. Comments welcom

Figuring Out Gas &amp; Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE). III. The Mocky Way:Investigating Biases in Observing the Milky Way's Circumgalactic Medium

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way is mostly obscured by nearby gas in position-velocity space because we reside inside the Galaxy. Substantial biases exist in most studies on the Milky Way's CGM that focus on easier-to-detect high-velocity gas. With mock observations on a Milky-Way analog from the FOGGIE simulation, we investigate four observational biases related to the Milky Way's CGM. First, QSO absorption-line studies probe a limited amount of the CGM mass: only 35% of the mass is at high Galactic latitudes $|b|>20$ degrees, of which only half is moving at $|v_{\rm LSR}|\gtrsim100$ km s$^{-1}$. Second, the inflow rate ($\dot{M}$) of the cold gas observable in HI 21cm is reduced by a factor of $\sim10$ as we switch from the local standard of rest to the galaxy's rest frame; meanwhile $\dot{M}$ of the cool and warm gas does not change significantly. Third, OVI and NV are promising ions to probe the Milky Way's outer CGM ($r\gtrsim$15 kpc), but CIV may be less sensitive. Lastly, the scatter in ion column density is a factor of 2 higher if the CGM is observed from inside-out than from external views because of the gas radial density profile. Our work highlights that observations of the Milky Way's CGM, especially those using HI 21cm and QSO absorption lines, are highly biased. We demonstrate that these biases can be quantified and calibrated through synthetic observations with simulated Milky-Way analogs.Comment: ApJ in pres