SILCC-ZOOM: The early impact of ionizing radiation on forming molecular clouds

As part of the SILCC-ZOOM project we present our first sub-parsec resolution radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of two molecular clouds self-consistently forming from a turbulent, multi-phase ISM. The clouds have similar initial masses of few 10$^4$ M$_{\odot}$, escape velocities of ~5 km s$^{-1}$, and a similar initial energy budget. We follow the formation of star clusters with a sink based model and the impact of radiation from individual massive stars with the tree-based radiation transfer module TreeRay. Photo-ionizing radiation is coupled to a chemical network to follow gas heating, cooling and molecule formation and dissociation. For the first 3 Myr of cloud evolution we find that the overall star formation effciency is considerably reduced by a factor of ~4 to global cloud values of < 10 % as the mass accretion of sinks that host massive stars is terminated after <1 Myr. Despite the low effciency, star formation is triggered across the clouds. Therefore, a much larger region of the cloud is affected by radiation and the clouds begin to disperse. The time scale on which the clouds are dispersed sensitively depends on the cloud substructure and in particular on the amount of gas at high visual extinction. The damage of radiation done to the highly shielded cloud (MC1) is delayed. We also show that the radiation input can sustain the thermal and kinetic energy of the clouds at a constant level. Our results strongly support the importance of ionizing radiation from massive stars for explaining the low observed star formation effciency of molecular cloud

SILCC VII -- Gas kinematics and multiphase outflows of the simulated ISM at high gas surface densities

We present magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the star-forming multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) in stratified galactic patches with gas surface densities $\Sigma_\mathrm{gas} =$ 10, 30, 50, and 100 $\mathrm{M_\odot\,pc^{-2}}$. The SILCC project simulation framework accounts for non-equilibrium thermal and chemical processes in the warm and cold ISM. The sink-based star formation and feedback model includes stellar winds, hydrogen-ionising UV radiation, core-collapse supernovae, and cosmic ray (CR) injection and diffusion. The simulations follow the observed relation between $\Sigma_\mathrm{gas}$ and the star formation rate surface density $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}$. CRs qualitatively change the outflow phase structure. Without CRs, the outflows transition from a two-phase (warm and hot at 1 kpc) to a single-phase (hot at 2 kpc) structure. With CRs, the outflow always has three phases (cold, warm, and hot), dominated in mass by the warm phase. The impact of CRs on mass loading decreases for higher $\Sigma_\mathrm{gas}$ and the mass loading factors of the CR-supported outflows are of order unity independent of $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}$. Similar to observations, vertical velocity dispersions of the warm ionised medium (WIM) and the cold neutral medium (CNM) correlate with the star formation rate as $\sigma_\mathrm{z} \propto \Sigma_\mathrm{SFR}^a$, with $a \sim 0.20$. In the absence of stellar feedback, we find no correlation. The velocity dispersion of the WIM is a factor $\sim 2.2$ higher than that of the CNM, in agreement with local observations. For $\Sigma_\mathrm{SFR} \gtrsim 1.5 \times 10^{-2}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}\,\mathrm{kpc}^{-2}$ the WIM motions become supersonic.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRA

Mergers and Mass Accretion Rates in Galaxy Assembly: The Millennium Simulation Compared to Observations of z~2 Galaxies

Recent observations of UV-/optically selected, massive star forming galaxies at z~2 indicate that the baryonic mass assembly and star formation history is dominated by continuous rapid accretion of gas and internal secular evolution, rather than by major mergers. We use the Millennium Simulation to build new halo merger trees, and extract halo merger fractions and mass accretion rates. We find that even for halos not undergoing major mergers the mass accretion rates are plausibly sufficient to account for the high star formation rates observed in z~2 disks. On the other hand, the fraction of major mergers in the Millennium Simulation is sufficient to account for the number counts of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), in support of observational evidence that these are major mergers. When following the fate of these two populations in the Millennium Simulation to z=0, we find that subsequent mergers are not frequent enough to convert all z~2 turbulent disks into elliptical galaxies at z=0. Similarly, mergers cannot transform the compact SMGs/red sequence galaxies at z~2 into observed massive cluster ellipticals at z=0. We argue therefore, that secular and internal evolution must play an important role in the evolution of a significant fraction of z~2 UV-/optically and submillimeter selected galaxy populations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

The HI Tully-Fisher Relation of Early-Type Galaxies

We study the HI K-band Tully-Fisher relation and the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation for a sample of 16 early-type galaxies, taken from the ATLAS3D sample, which all have very regular HI disks extending well beyond the optical body (> 5 R_eff). We use the kinematics of these disks to estimate the circular velocity at large radii for these galaxies. We find that the Tully-Fisher relation for our early-type galaxies is offset by about 0.5-0.7 magnitudes from the relation for spiral galaxies. The residuals with respect to the spiral Tully-Fisher relation correlate with estimates of the stellar mass-to-light ratio, suggesting that the offset between the relations is mainly driven by differences in stellar populations. We also observe a small offset between our Tully-Fisher relation with the relation derived for the ATLAS3D sample based on CO data representing the galaxies' inner regions (< 1 R_eff). This indicates that the circular velocities at large radii are systematically 10% lower than those near 0.5-1 R_eff, in line with recent determinations of the shape of the mass profile of early-type galaxies. The baryonic Tully-Fisher relation of our sample is distinctly tighter than the standard one, in particular when using mass-to-light ratios based on dynamical models of the stellar kinematics. We find that the early-type galaxies fall on the spiral baryonic Tully-Fisher relation if one assumes M/L_K = 0.54 M_sun/L_sun for the stellar populations of the spirals, a value similar to that found by recent studies of the dynamics of spiral galaxies. Such a mass-to-light ratio for spiral galaxies would imply that their disks are 60-70% of maximal. Our analysis increases the range of galaxy morphologies for which the baryonic Tully-Fisher relations holds, strengthening previous claims that it is a more fundamental scaling relation than the classical Tully-Fisher relation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Cosmological Simulations of Massive Compact High-z Galaxies

In order to investigate the structure and dynamics of the recently discovered massive (M_* > 10^11 M_sun) compact z~2 galaxies, cosmological hydrodynamical/N-body simulations of a proto-cluster region have been undertaken. At z=2, the highest resolution simulation contains ~5800 resolved galaxies, of which 509, 27 and 5 have M_* > 10^10 M_sun, > 10^11 M_sun and > 4x10^11 M_sun, respectively. Effective radii and characteristic stellar densities have been determined for all galaxies. At z=2, for the definitely well resolved mass range of M_* > 10^11 Msun, the mass-size relation is consistent with observational findings for the most compact z~2 galaxies. The very high velocity dispersion recently measured for a compact z~2 galaxy (~510 km/s; van Dokkum et al 2009) can be matched at about the 1-sigma level, although a somewhat larger mass than the estimated M_* ~ 2 x 10^11 M_sun is indicated. For the above mass range, the galaxies have an average axial ratio = 0.64 +/- 0.02 with a dispersion of 0.1, an average rotation to 1D velocity dispersion ratio = 0.46 +/- 0.06 with a dispersion of 0.3, and a maximum value of v/sigma ~ 1.1. Rotation and velocity anisotropy both contribute in flattening the compact galaxies. Some of the observed compact galaxies appear flatter than any of the simulated galaxies. Finally, it is found that the massive compact galaxies are strongly baryon dominated in their inner parts, with typical dark matter mass fractions of order only 20% inside of r=2R_eff.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap

The ATLAS3D project - XXIV. The intrinsic shape distribution of early-type galaxies

We use the ATLAS3D sample to perform a study of the intrinsic shapes of early-type galaxies, taking advantage of the available combined photometric and kinematic data. Based on our ellipticity measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, and additional imaging from the Isaac Newton Telescope, we first invert the shape distribution of fast and slow rotators under the assumption of axisymmetry. Theso-obtained intrinsic shape distribution for the fast rotators can be described with a Gaussian with a mean flattening of q=0.25 and standard deviation σq = 0.14, and an additional tail towards rounder shapes.The slow rotators are much rounder, and are well described with a Gaussian with mean q = 0.63 and σq =0.09. We then checked that our results were consistent when applying a different and independent method to obtain intrinsic shape distributions, by fitting the observed ellipticity distributions directly using Gaussian parametrizations for the intrinsic axis ratios. Although both fast and slow rotators are identified as early-type galaxies in morphological studies, and in many previous shape studies are therefore grouped together, their shape distributions are significantly different, hinting at different formation scenarios. The intrinsic shape distribution of the fast rotators shows similarities with the spiral galaxy population. Including the observed kinematic misalignment in our intrinsic shape study shows that the fast rotators are predominantly axisymmetric, with only very little room for triaxiality. For the slow rotators though there are very strong indications that they are (mildly) triaxial.PostprintPeer reviewe

Connection between dynamically derived initial mass function normalization and stellar population parameters

Date of Acceptance: 10/08/2014We report on empirical trends between the dynamically determined stellar initial mass function (IMF) and stellar population properties for a complete, volume-limited sample of 260 early-type galaxies from the ATLAS3D project. We study trends between our dynamically derived IMF normalization αdyn ≡ (M/L)stars/(M/L)Salp and absorption line strengths, and interpret these via single stellar population-equivalent ages, abundance ratios (measured as [α/Fe]), and total metallicity, [Z/H]. We find that old and alpha-enhanced galaxies tend to have on average heavier (Salpeter-like) mass normalization of the IMF, but stellar population does not appear to be a good predictor of the IMF, with a large range of αdyn at a given population parameter. As a result, we find weak αdyn-[α/Fe] and αdyn -Age correlations and no significant αdyn -[Z/H] correlation. The observed trends appear significantly weaker than those reported in studies that measure the IMF normalization via the low-mass star demographics inferred through stellar spectral analysis.Peer reviewe

The ATLAS3D project - XXVI : H I discs in real and simulated fast and slow rotators

One quarter of all nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs) outside Virgo host a disc/ring of H I with size from a few to tens of kpc and mass up to ∼109 M⊙. Here we investigate whether this H I is related to the presence of a stellar disc within the host making use of the classification of ETGs in fast and slow rotators (FR/SR). We find a large diversity of H I masses and morphologies within both families. Surprisingly, SRs are detected as often, host as much H I and have a similar rate of H I discs/rings as FRs. Accretion of H I is therefore not always linked to the growth of an inner stellar disc. The weak relation between H I and stellar disc is confirmed by their frequent kinematical misalignment in FRs, including cases of polar and counterrotating gas. In SRs the H I is usually polar. This complex picture highlights a diversity of ETG formation histories which may be lost in the relative simplicity of their inner structure and emerges when studying their outer regions. We find that Λ CDM hydrodynamical simulations have difficulties reproducing the H I properties of ETGs. The gas discs formed in simulations are either too massive or too small depending on the star formation feedback implementation. Kinematical misalignments match the observations only qualitatively. The main point of conflict is that nearly all simulated FRs and a large fraction of all simulated SRs host corotating H I. This establishes the H I properties of ETGs as a novel challenge to simulationsPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Grizzly, April 15, 1983

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The Density Profiles of Massive, Relaxed Galaxy Clusters. II. Separating Luminous and Dark Matter in Cluster Cores

We present stellar and dark matter (DM) density profiles for a sample of seven massive, relaxed galaxy clusters derived from strong and weak gravitational lensing and resolved stellar kinematic observations within the centrally-located brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). In Paper I of the series, we demonstrated that the total density profile derived from these data, which span 3 decades in radius, is consistent with numerical DM-only simulations at radii >~ 5-10 kpc, despite the significant contribution of stellar material in the core. Here we decompose the inner mass profiles of these clusters into stellar and dark components. Parametrizing the DM density profile as a power law rho_DM ~ r^{-\beta} on small scales, we find a mean slope = 0.50 +- 0.10 (random) +0.14-0.13 (systematic). Alternatively, cored Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profiles with = 1.14 +- 0.13 (random) +0.14-0.22 (systematic) provide an equally good description. These density profiles are significantly shallower than canonical NFW models at radii <~ 30 kpc, comparable to the effective radii of the BCGs. The inner DM profile is correlated with the distribution of stars in the BCG, suggesting a connection between the inner halo and the assembly of stars in the central galaxy. The stellar mass-to-light ratio inferred from lensing and stellar dynamics is consistent with that inferred using stellar population synthesis models if a Salpeter initial mass function is adopted. We compare these results to theories describing the interaction between baryons and DM in cluster cores, including adiabatic contraction models and the possible effects of galaxy mergers and active galactic nucleus feedback, and evaluate possible signatures of alternative DM candidates.Comment: Updated to matched the published version in Ap