366 research outputs found
The galaxy counterpart of the high-metallicity and 16 kpc impact parameter DLA towards Q0918+1636 - a challenge to galaxy formation models?
The quasar Q0918+1636 (z=3.07) has an intervening high-metallicity Damped
Lyman-alpha Absorber (DLA) along the line of sight, at a redshift of z=2.58.
The DLA is located at a large impact parameter of 16.2 kpc, and has an almost
solar metallicity. It is shown, that a novel type of cosmological galaxy
formation models, invoking a new SNII feedback prescription, the Haardt & Madau
(2012) UVB field and explicit treatment of UVB self-shielding, can reproduce
the observed characteristics of the DLA. UV radiation from young stellar
populations in the galaxy, in particular in the photon energy range 10.36-13.61
eV (relating to Sulfur II abundance), are also considered in the analysis. It
is found that a) for L~L* galaxies (at z=2.58), about 10% of the sight-lines
through the galaxies at impact parameter 16.2 kpc will display a Sulfur II
column density N(SII) 10 cm (the observed value for the
DLA), and b) considering only cases where a near-solar metallicity will be
detected at 16.2 kpc impact parameter, the probability distribution of galaxy
SFR peaks near the value observed for the DLA galaxy counterpart of ~27
Msun/yr. It is argued, that the bulk of the alpha-elements, like Sulfur, traced
by the high metal column density, b=16.2 kpc absorption lines, were produced by
evolving young stars in the inner galaxy, and later transported outward by
galactic winds.Comment: 22 pages, 24 figures, MNRAS in pres
CDM, Feedback and the Hubble Sequence
We have performed TreeSPH simulations of galaxy formation in a standard LCDM
cosmology, including effects of star formation, energetic stellar feedback
processes and a meta-galactic UV field, and obtain a mix of disk, lenticular
and elliptical galaxies. The disk galaxies are deficient in angular momentum by
only about a factor of two compared to observed disk galaxies. The stellar
disks have approximately exponential surface density profiles, and those of the
bulges range from exponential to r^{1/4}, as observed. The bulge-to-disk ratios
of the disk galaxies are consistent with observations and likewise are their
integrated B-V colours, which have been calculated using stellar population
synthesis techniques. Furthermore, we can match the observed I-band
Tully-Fisher (TF) relation, provided that the mass-to-light ratio of disk
galaxies, (M/L_I), is about 0.8. The ellipticals and lenticulars have
approximately r^{1/4} stellar surface density profiles, are dominated by
non-disklike kinematics and flattened due to non-isotropic stellar velocity
distributions, again consistent with observations.Comment: 6 pages, incl. 4 figs. To appear in the proceedings of the
EuroConference "The Evolution of Galaxies: II - Basic Building Blocks", Ile
de La Reunion (France), 16-21 October 2001 (Slightly updated version). A much
more comprehensive paper about this work with links to pictures of some of
the galaxies can be found at http://babbage.sissa.it/abs/astro-ph/020436
A dynamical and kinematical model of the Galactic stellar halo and possible implications for galaxy formation scenarios
We re-analyse the kinematics of the system of blue horizontal branch field
(BHBF) stars in the Galactic halo (in particular the outer halo), fitting the
kinematics with the model of radial and tangential velocity dispersions in the
halo as a function of galactocentric distance r proposed by Sommer-Larsen,
Flynn & Christensen (1994), using a much larger sample (almost 700) of BHBF
stars. The basic result is that the character of the stellar halo velocity
ellipsoid changes markedly from radial anisotropy at the sun to tangential
anisotropy in the outer parts of the Galactic halo (r greater than approx 20
kpc). Specifically, the radial component of the stellar halo's velocity
ellipsoid decreases fairly rapidly beyond the solar circle, from approx 140 +/-
10 km/s at the sun, to an asymptotic value of 89 +/- 19 km/s at large r. The
rapid decrease in the radial velocity dispersion is matched by an increase in
the tangential velocity dispersion, with increasing r.
Our results may indicate that the Galaxy formed hierarchically (partly or
fully) through merging of smaller subsystems - the 'bottom-up' galaxy formation
scenario, which for quite a while has been favoured by most theorists and
recently also has been given some observational credibility by HST observations
of a potential group of small galaxies, at high redshift, possibly in the
process of merging to a larger galaxy (Pascarelle et al 1996).Comment: Latex, 16 pages. 2 postscript figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical
Journal. also available at http://astro.utu.fi/~cflynn/outerhalo.htm
Lyman alpha Resonant Scattering in Young Galaxies - Predictions from Cosmological Simulations
We present results obtained with a 3D, Ly alpha radiative transfer code,
applied to a fully cosmological galaxy formation simulation. The developed
Monte Carlo code is capable of treating an arbitrary distribution of source Ly
alpha emission, neutral hydrogen density, temperature, and peculiar velocity of
the interstellar medium. We investigate the influence of resonant scattering on
the appearance and properties of young galaxies by applying the code to a
simulated "Lyman Break Galaxy" at redshift z = 3.6, and of star formation rate
22 M_sun/yr and total Ly alpha luminosity 2.0 X 10^43 erg/s. It is found that
resonant scattering of Ly alpha radiation can explain that young galaxies
frequently are observed to be more extended on the sky in Ly alpha than in the
optical. Moreover, it is shown that, for the system investigated, due to the
anisotropic escape of the photons, the appearent maximum surface brightness can
differ by a factor of ~15, and the total derived luminosity by a factor of ~4,
depending on the orientation of the system relative to the observer.Comment: Letter updated to match version published in Ap
Reconciling the Metallicity Distributions of Gamma-ray Burst, Damped Lyman-alpha, and Lyman-break Galaxies at z=3
We test the hypothesis that the host galaxies of long-duration gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs) as well as quasar-selected damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems are
drawn from the population of UV-selected star-forming, high-z galaxies
(generally referred to as Lyman-break galaxies). Specifically, we compare the
metallicity distributions of the GRB and DLA populations to simple models where
these galaxies are drawn randomly from the distribution of star-forming
galaxies according to their star-formation rate and HI cross-section
respectively. We find that it is possible to match both observational
distributions assuming very simple and constrained relations between
luminosity, metallicity and HI sizes. The simple model can be tested by
observing the luminosity distribution of GRB host galaxies and by measuring the
luminosity and impact parameters of DLA selected galaxies as a function of
metallicity. Our results support the expectation that GRB and DLA samples, in
contrast to magnitude limited surveys, provide an almost complete census of z=3
star-forming galaxies that are not heavily dust-obscured.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
SImulator of GAlaxy Millimetre/submillimetre Emission (SIGAME): CO emission from massive z=2 main-sequence galaxies
We present SIGAME (SImulator of GAlaxy Millimetre/submillimetre Emission), a
new numerical code designed to simulate the 12CO rotational line emission
spectrum of galaxies. Using sub-grid physics recipes to post-process the
outputs of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations, a molecular gas
phase is condensed out of the hot and partly ionized SPH gas. The gas is
subjected to far-UV radiation fields and cosmic ray ionization rates which are
set to scale with the local star formation rate volume density. Level
populations and radiative transport of the CO lines are solved with the 3-D
radiative transfer code LIME. We have applied SIGAME to cosmological SPH
simulations of three disc galaxies at z=2 with stellar masses in the range
~(0.5-2)x10^11 Msun and star formation rates ~40-140 Msun/yr. Global CO
luminosities and line ratios are in agreement with observations of disc
galaxies at z~2 up to and including J=3-2 but falling short of the few existing
J=5-4 observations. The central 5 kpc regions of our galaxies have CO 3-2/1-0
and 7-6/1-0 brightness temperature ratios of ~0.55-0.65 and ~0.02-0.08,
respectively, while further out in the disc the ratios drop to more quiescent
values of ~0.5 and <0.01. Global CO-to-H2 conversion (alpha_CO) factors are
~=1.5 Msun*pc^2/(K km s/1), i.e. ~2-3 times below typically adopted values for
disc galaxies, and alpha_CO increases with radius, in agreement with
observations of nearby galaxies. Adopting a top-heavy Giant Molecular Cloud
(GMC) mass spectrum does not significantly change the results. Steepening the
GMC density profile leads to higher global line ratios for J_up>=3 and CO-to-H2
conversion factors [~=3.6 Msun*pc^2/(K km/s)].Comment: 28 pages, 20 figures. Accepted for Publication in MNRAS. Substantial
revisions from the previous version, including tests with model galaxies
similar to the Milky Way. Improved figures and added table
Surveying the Inner Halo of the Galaxy with 2MASS-Selected Horizontal Branch Candidates
We use 2MASS photometry to select blue horizontal branch (BHB) candidates
covering the sky |b|>15 deg. A 12.5<J<15.5 sample of BHB stars traces the thick
disk and inner halo to d<9 kpc, with a density comparable to that of M giant
stars. We base our sample selection strategy on the Century Survey Galactic
Halo Project, a survey that provides a complete, spectroscopically-identified
sample of blue stars to a similar depth as the 2MASS catalog. We show that a
-0.20<(J-H)_0<0.10, -0.10<(H-K)_0<0.10 color-selected sample of stars is 65%
complete for BHB stars, and is composed of 47% BHB stars. We apply this
photometric selection to the full 2MASS catalog, and see no spatial
overdensities of BHB candidates at high Galactic latitude |b|>50 deg. We insert
simulated star streams into the data and conclude that the high Galactic
latitude BHB candidates are consistent with having no ~5 deg wide star stream
with density greater than 0.33 objects deg^-2 at the 95% confidence level. The
absence of structure suggests there have been no major accretion events in the
inner halo in the last few Gyr. However, at low Galactic latitudes a two-point
angular correlation analysis reveals structure on angular scales <1 deg. This
structure is apparently associated with stars in the thick disk, and has a
physical scale of 10-100 pc. Interestingly, such structures are expected by
cosmological simulations that predict the majority of the thick disk may arise
from accretion and disruption of satellite mergers.Comment: 11 pages, including figures. Accepted by AJ with minor revision
Reconciling the Metallicity Distributions of Gamma-ray Burst, Damped Lyman-Îą, and Lyman-break Galaxies at z â 3
We test the hypothesis that the host galaxies of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as well as quasar-selected damped Lyman-Îą (DLA) systems are drawn from the population of UV-selected star-forming, high z galaxies (generally referred to as Lyman-break galaxies). Specifically, we compare the metallicity distributions of the GRB and DLA populations against simple disk models where these galaxies are drawn randomly from the distribution of star-forming galaxies according to their star-formation rate and HI cross-section respectively. We find that it is possible to match both observational distributions assuming very simple and constrained relations between luminosity, metallicity, metallicity gradients and HI sizes. The simple model can be tested by observing the luminosity distribution of GRB host galaxies and by measuring the luminosity and impact parameters of DLA selected galaxies as a function of metallicity. Our results support the expectation that GRB and DLA samples, in contrast with magnitude limited surveys, provide an almost complete census of star-forming galaxies at z â
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