Stellar orbits in cosmological galaxy simulations: the connection to formation history and line-of-sight kinematics

We analyze orbits of stars and dark matter out to three effective radii for 42 galaxies formed in cosmological zoom simulations. Box orbits always dominate at the centers and $z$-tubes become important at larger radii. We connect the orbital structure to the formation histories and specific features (e.g. disk, counter-rotating core, minor axis rotation) in two-dimensional kinematic maps. Globally, fast rotating galaxies with significant recent in situ star formation are dominated by $z$-tubes. Slow rotators with recent mergers have significant box orbit and $x$-tube components. Rotation, quantified by the $\lambda_R$-parameter often originates from streaming motion of stars on $z$-tubes but sometimes from figure rotation. The observed anti-correlation of $h_3$ and $V_0 / \sigma$ in rotating galaxies can be connected to a dissipative formation history leading to high $z$-tube fractions. For galaxies with recent mergers in situ formed stars, accreted stars and dark matter particles populate similar orbits. Dark matter particles have isotropic velocity dispersions. Accreted stars are typically radially biased ($\beta \approx 0.2 - 0.4$). In situ stars become tangentially biased (as low as $\beta \approx -1.0$) if dissipation was relevant during the late assembly of the galaxy. We discuss the relevance of our analysis for integral field surveys and for constraining galaxy formation models.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figure

Galacto-forensic of LMC's orbital history as a probe for the dark matter potential in the outskirt of the Galaxy

The 3D observed velocities of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds(LMC and SMC) provide an opportunity to probe the Galactic potential in the outskirt of the Galactic halo. Based on a canonical NFW model of the Galactic potential, Besla et al.(2007) reconstructed LMC and SMC's orbits and suggested that they are currently on their first perigalacticon passage about the Galaxy. Motivated by several recent revisions of the Sun's motion around the Galactic center, we re-examine the LMC's orbital history and show that it depends sensitively on the dark-matter's mass distribution beyond its present Galactic distance. We utilize results of numerical simulations to consider a range of possible structural and evolutionary models for the Galactic potentials. We find that within the theoretical and observational uncertainties, it is possible for the LMC to have had multiple perigalacticon passages on the Hubble time scale, especially if the Galactic circular velocity at the location of the Sun is greater than $\sim 228$km s$^{-1}$. Based on these models, a more accurate determination of the LMC's motion may be used to determine the dark matter distribution in the outskirt of the Galactic halo.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

The impact of mechanical AGN feedback on the formation of massive early-type galaxies

We employ cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the effects of AGN feedback on the formation of massive galaxies with present-day stellar masses of $M_{stel} = 8.8 \times 10^{10} - 6.0 \times 10^{11} M_{sun}$. Using smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with a pressure-entropy formulation that allows an improved treatment of contact discontinuities and fluid mixing, we run three sets of simulations of 20 halos with different AGN feedback models: (1) no feedback, (2) thermal feedback, and (3) mechanical and radiation feedback. We assume that seed black holes are present at early cosmic epochs at the centre of emerging dark matter halos and trace their mass growth via gas accretion and mergers with other black holes. Both feedback models successfully recover the observed M_BH - sigma relation and black hole-to-stellar mass ratio for simulated central early-type galaxies. The baryonic conversion efficiencies are reduced by a factor of two compared to models without any AGN feedback at all halo masses. However, massive galaxies simulated with thermal AGN feedback show a factor of ~10-100 higher X-ray luminosities than observed. The mechanical/radiation feedback model reproduces the observed correlation between X-ray luminosities and velocity dispersion, e.g. for galaxies with sigma = 200 km/s, the X-ray luminosity is reduced from $10^{42}$ erg/s to $10^{40}$ erg/s. It also efficiently suppresses late time star formation, reducing the specific star formation rate from $10^{-10.5}$ $yr^{-1}$ to $10^{-14}$ $yr^{-1}$ on average and resulting in quiescent galaxies since z=2, whereas the thermal feedback model shows higher late time in-situ star formation rates than observed.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for the publication in MNRA

Why stellar feedback promotes disc formation in simulated galaxies

We study how feedback influences baryon infall onto galaxies using cosmological, zoom-in simulations of haloes with present mass $M_{vir}=6.9\times10^{11} M_{\odot}$ to $1.7\times10^{12} M_{\odot}$. Starting at z=4 from identical initial conditions, implementations of weak and strong stellar feedback produce bulge- and disc-dominated galaxies, respectively. Strong feedback favours disc formation: (1) because conversion of gas into stars is suppressed at early times, as required by abundance matching arguments, resulting in flat star formation histories and higher gas fractions; (2) because 50% of the stars form in situ from recycled disc gas with angular momentum only weakly related to that of the z=0 dark halo; (3) because late-time gas accretion is typically an order of magnitude stronger and has higher specific angular momentum, with recycled gas dominating over primordial infall; (4) because 25-30% of the total accreted gas is ejected entirely before z~1, removing primarily low angular momentum material which enriches the nearby inter-galactic medium. Most recycled gas roughly conserves its angular momentum, but material ejected for long times and to large radii can gain significant angular momentum before re-accretion. These processes lower galaxy formation efficiency in addition to promoting disc formation.Comment: 23 pages, 29 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Dark Halo - Spheroid Conspiracy and the Origin of Elliptical Galaxies

Dynamical modeling and strong lensing data indicate that the total density profiles of early-type galaxies are close to isothermal, i.e., rho_tot ~ r^gamma with gamma approx -2. To understand the origin of this universal slope we study a set of simulated spheroids formed in isolated binary mergers as well as the formation within the cosmological framework. The total stellar plus dark matter density profiles can always be described by a power law with an index of gamma approx -2.1 with a tendency toward steeper slopes for more compact, lower-mass ellipticals. In the binary mergers the amount of gas involved in the merger determines the precise steepness of the slope. This agrees with results from the cosmological simulations where ellipticals with steeper slopes have a higher fraction of stars formed in situ. Each gas-poor merger event evolves the slope toward gamma ~ -2, once this slope is reached further merger events do not change it anymore. All our ellipticals have flat intrinsic combined stellar and dark matter velocity dispersion profiles. We conclude that flat velocity dispersion profiles and total density distributions with a slope of gamma ~ -2 for the combined system of stars and dark matter act as a natural attractor. The variety of complex formation histories as present in cosmological simulations, including major as well as minor merger events, is essential to generate the full range of observed density slopes seen for present-day elliptical galaxies.Comment: Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal, 17 pages, 12 figure

The mass and angular momentum distribution of simulated massive early-type galaxies to large radii

We study the dark and luminous mass distributions, circular velocity curves (CVC), line-of-sight kinematics, and angular momenta for a sample of 42 cosmological zoom simulations of massive galaxies. Using a temporal smoothing technique, we are able to reach large radii. We find that: (i)The dark matter halo density profiles outside a few kpc follow simple power-law models, with flat dark matter CVCs for lower-mass systems, and rising CVCs for high-mass haloes. The projected stellar density distributions at large radii can be fitted by Sersic functions with n>10, larger than for typical ETGs. (ii)The massive systems have nearly flat total CVCs at large radii, while the less massive systems have mildly decreasing CVCs. The slope of the CVC at large radii correlates with v_circ itself. (iii)The dark matter fractions within Re are in the range 15-30% and increase to 40-65% at 5Re. Larger and more massive galaxies have higher dark matter fractions. (iv)The short axes of simulated galaxies and their host dark matter haloes are well aligned and their short-to-long axis ratios are correlated. (v)The stellar vrms(R) profiles are slowly declining, in agreement with planetary nebulae observations in the outer haloes of most ETGs. (vi)The line-of-sight velocity fields v show that rotation properties at small and large radii are correlated. Most radial profiles for the cumulative specific angular momentum parameter lambda(R) are nearly flat or slightly rising, with values in [0.06,0.75] from 2Re to 5Re. (vii)Stellar mass, ellipticity at 5Re, and lambda(5Re) are correlated: the more massive systems have less angular momentum and are rounder, as for observed ETGs. (viii)More massive galaxies with a large fraction of accreted stars have radially anisotropic velocity distributions outside Re. Tangential anisotropy is seen only for galaxies with high fraction of in-situ stars. (Full abstract in PDF)Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted by MNRA

SPHGal: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics with improved accuracy for Galaxy simulations

We present the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics implementation SPHGal, which combines some recently proposed improvements in GADGET. This includes a pressure-entropy formulation with a Wendland kernel, a higher order estimate of velocity gradients, a modified artificial viscosity switch with a modified strong limiter, and artificial conduction of thermal energy. With a series of idealized hydrodynamic tests we show that the pressure-entropy formulation is ideal for resolving fluid mixing at contact discontinuities but performs conspicuously worse at strong shocks due to the large entropy discontinuities. Including artificial conduction at shocks greatly improves the results. In simulations of Milky Way like disk galaxies a feedback-induced instability develops if too much artificial viscosity is introduced. Our modified artificial viscosity scheme prevents this instability and shows efficient shock capturing capability. We also investigate the star formation rate and the galactic outflow. The star formation rates vary slightly for different SPH schemes while the mass loading is sensitive to the SPH scheme and significantly reduced in our favored implementation. We compare the accretion behavior of the hot halo gas. The formation of cold blobs, an artifact of simple SPH implementations, can be eliminated efficiently with proper fluid mixing, either by conduction and/or by using a pressure-entropy formulation.Comment: Replaced with the version accepted by MNRA

Short-lived star-forming giant clumps in cosmological simulations of z~2 disks

Many observed massive star-forming z\approx2 galaxies are large disks that exhibit irregular morphologies, with \sim1kpc, \sim10^(8-10)Msun clumps. We present the largest sample to date of high-resolution cosmological SPH simulations that zoom-in on the formation of individual M*\sim10^(10.5)Msun galaxies in \sim10^(12)Msun halos at z\approx2. Our code includes strong stellar feedback parameterized as momentum-driven galactic winds. This model reproduces many characteristic features of this observed class of galaxies, such as their clumpy morphologies, smooth and monotonic velocity gradients, high gas fractions (f_g\sim50%) and high specific star-formation rates (\gtrsim1Gyr^(-1)). In accord with recent models, giant clumps (Mclump\sim(5x10^8-10^9)Msun) form in-situ via gravitational instabilities. However, the galactic winds are critical for their subsequent evolution. The giant clumps we obtain are short-lived and are disrupted by wind-driven mass loss. They do not virialise or migrate to the galaxy centers as suggested in recent work neglecting strong winds. By phenomenologically implementing the winds that are observed from high-redshift galaxies and in particular from individual clumps, our simulations reproduce well new observational constraints on clump kinematics and clump ages. In particular, the observation that older clumps appear closer to their galaxy centers is reproduced in our simulations, as a result of inside-out formation of the disks rather than inward clump migration.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa