1,889 research outputs found
Milky Way's Thick and Thin disk: Is there distinct thick disk?
This article is based on our discussion session on Milky Way models at the
592 WE-Heraeus Seminar, Reconstructing the Milky Way's History: Spectroscopic
Surveys, Asteroseismology and Chemodynamical models. The discussion focused on
the following question: "Are there distinct thick and thin disks?". The answer
to this question depends on the definition one adopts for thin and thick disks.
The participants of this discussion converged to the idea that there are at
least two different types of disks in the Milky Way. However, there are still
important open questions on how to best define these two types of disks
(chemically, kinematically, geometrically or by age?). The question of what is
the origin of the distinct disks remains open. The future Galactic surveys
which are highlighted in this conference should help us answering these
questions. The almost one-hour debate involving researchers in the field
representing different modelling approaches (Galactic models such as TRILEGAL,
Besancon and Galaxia, chemical evolution models, extended distribution
functions method, chemodynamics in the cosmological context, and
self-consistent cosmological simulations) illustrated how important is to have
all these parallel approaches. All approaches have their advantages and
shortcomings (also discussed), and different approaches are useful to address
specific points that might help us answering the more general question above.Comment: 7 pages, no figure. To appear in Astronomische Nachrichten, special
issue "Reconstruction the Milky Way's History: Spectroscopic surveys,
Asteroseismology and Chemo-dynamical models", Guest Editors C. Chiappini, J.
Montalban, and M. Steffe
High-resolution N-body Simulations of Galactic Cannibalism: The Magellanic Stream
Hierarchical clustering represents the favoured paradigm for galaxy formation
throughout the Universe; due to its proximity, the Magellanic system offers one
of the few opportunities for astrophysicists to decompose the full
six-dimensional phase-space history of a satellite in the midst of being
cannibalised by its host galaxy. The availability of improved observational
data for the Magellanic Stream and parallel advances in computational power has
led us to revisit the canonical tidal model describing the disruption of the
Small Magellanic Cloud and the consequent formation of the Stream. We suggest
improvements to the tidal model in light of these recent advances.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX (gcdv.sty). Refereed contribution to the
5th Galactic Chemodynamics conference held in Swinburne, July 2003. Accepted
for publication in PASA. Version with high resolution figures available at
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/publications.htm
Galactic Cannibalism: the Origin of the Magellanic Stream
We are in a privileged location in the Universe which allows us to observe
galactic interactions from close range -- the merger of our two nearest dwarf
satellite galaxies, the LMC and SMC. It is important to understand the local
merger process before we can have confidence in understanding mergers at high
redshift. We present high resolution Nbody+SPH simulations of the disruption of
the LMC and SMC and the formation of the Magellanic Stream, and discuss the
implications for galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "The Evolution of Galaxies II: Basic
Building Blocks", (2002) ed. M. Sauvage et al. (Kluwer
Simulating a White Dwarf-dominated Galactic Halo
Observational evidence has suggested the possibility of a Galactic halo which
is dominated by white dwarfs (WDs). While debate continues concerning the
interpretation of this evidence, it is clear that an initial mass function
(IMF) biased heavily toward WD precursors (1 < m/Msol < 8), at least in the
early Universe, would be necessary in generating such a halo. Within the
framework of homogeneous, closed-box models of Galaxy formation, such biased
IMFs lead to an unavoidable overproduction of carbon and nitrogen relative to
oxygen (as measured against the abundance patterns in the oldest stars of the
Milky Way). Using a three-dimensional Tree N-body smoothed particle
hydrodynamics code, we study the dynamics and chemical evolution of a galaxy
with different IMFs. Both invariant and metallicity-dependent IMFs are
considered. Our variable IMF model invokes a WD-precursor-dominated IMF for
metallicities less than 5% solar (primarily the Galactic halo), and the
canonical Salpeter IMF otherwise (primarily the disk). Halo WD density
distributions and C,N/O abundance patterns are presented. While Galactic haloes
comprised of ~5% (by mass) of WDs are not supported by our simulations, mass
fractions of ~1-2% cannot be ruled out. This conclusion is consistent with the
present-day observational constraints.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA
Are Red Tidal Features Unequivocal Signatures of Major Dry Mergers?
We use a cosmological numerical simulation to study the tidal features
produced by a minor merger with an elliptical galaxy. We find that the
simulated tidal features are quantitatively similar to the red tidal features,
i.e., dry tidal features, recently found in deep images of elliptical galaxies
at intermediate redshifts. The minor merger in our simulation does not trigger
star formation due to active galactic nuclei heating. Therefore, both the tidal
features and the host galaxy are red, i.e. a dry minor merger. The stellar mass
of the infalling satellite galaxy is about 10^10 Msun, and the tidal debris
reach the surface brightness of mu_R~27 mag arcsec^-2. Thus, we conclude that
tidal debris from minor mergers can explain the observed dry tidal features in
ellipticals at intermediate redshifts, although other mechanisms (such as major
dry mergers) may also be important.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Mapping Substructures in Dark Matter Halos
We present a detailed study of the real and integrals-of-motion space
distributions of a satellite obtained from a self-consistent high-resolution
simulation of a galaxy cluster and re-simulated using various analytical halo
potentials. We found that the disrupted satellite appears as a coherent
structure in integrals-of-motion space in all models (``live'' and analytical
potential) although the distribution is significantly smeared for the live host
halo. Further the primary mechanism for this smearing is the mass growth of the
host, which changes both the energy and angular momentum of the satellite
debris. Hence, this must be considered when searching for (stellar) streams
with future observational experiments such as RAVE and GAIA.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS accepted - minor editing without changing
the conclusions, a high-resolution version of the paper is available from
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~sgill/downloads/downloads.htm
Nonclassical Moments and their Measurement
Practically applicable criteria for the nonclassicality of quantum states are
formulated in terms of different types of moments. For this purpose the moments
of the creation and annihilation operators, of two quadratures, and of a
quadrature and the photon number operator turn out to be useful. It is shown
that all the required moments can be determined by homodyne correlation
measurements. An example of a nonclassical effect that is easily characterized
by our methods is amplitude-squared squeezing.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Galaxy formation with radiative and chemical feedback
Here we introduce GAMESH, a novel pipeline which implements self-consistent
radiative and chemical feedback in a computational model of galaxy formation.
By combining the cosmological chemical-evolution model GAMETE with the
radiative transfer code CRASH, GAMESH can post process realistic outputs of a
N-body simulation describing the redshift evolution of the forming galaxy.
After introducing the GAMESH implementation and its features, we apply the code
to a low-resolution N-body simulation of the Milky Way formation and we
investigate the combined effects of self-consistent radiative and chemical
feedback. Many physical properties, which can be directly compared with
observations in the Galaxy and its surrounding satellites, are predicted by the
code along the merger-tree assembly. The resulting redshift evolution of the
Local Group star formation rates, reionisation and metal enrichment along with
the predicted Metallicity Distribution Function of halo stars are critically
compared with observations. We discuss the merits and limitations of the first
release of GAMESH, also opening new directions to a full implementation of
feedback processes in galaxy formation models by combining semi-analytic and
numerical methods.Comment: This version has coloured figures not present in the printed version.
Submitted to MNRAS, minor revision
Fourteen candidate RR Lyrae star streams in the inner Galaxy
We apply the GC3 stream-finding method to RR Lyrae stars (RRLSs) in the Catalina survey. We find 2 RRLS stream candidates at >4Ï confidence and another 12 at >3.5Ï confidence over the Galactocentric distance range 4 < D/kpc < 26. Of these, only two are associated with known globular clusters (NGC 1261 and Arp2). The remainder are candidate âorphanâ streams, consistent with the idea that globular cluster streams are most visible close to dissolution. Our detections are likely a lower bound on the total number of dissolving globulars in the inner galaxy, since many globulars have few RRLSs, while only the brightest streams are visible over the Galactic RRLS background, particularly given the current lack of kinematical information. We make all of our candidate streams publicly available and provide a new galstreamsPYTHON library for the footprints of all known streams and overdensities in the Milky Way
Orbits of radial migrators and non-migrators around a spiral arm in N-body simulations
Recent numerical N-body simulations of spiral galaxies have shown that spiral arms in N-body simulations do not rotate rigidly as expected in classic density wave theory, but instead seem to rotate at a similar speed to the local rotation speed of the stellar disc material. This in turn yields winding, transient and recurrent spiral structure, whose co-rotating nature gives rise to changes in the angular momentum (radial migration) of star particles close to the spiral arm at many radii. From high resolution N-body simulations, we highlight the evolution of strongly migrating star particles (migrators) and star particles that do not migrate (non-migrators) around a spiral arm. We investigate the individual orbit histories of migrators and non-migrators and find that there are several types of migrator and non-migrator, each with unique radial evolution. We find the important quantities that affect the orbital evolution to be the radial and tangential velocity components in combination with the azimuthal distance to the spiral arm at the time the star particle begins to feel tangential force. We contrast each type of orbit to compare how these factors combine for migrators and non-migrators. We find that the positive (negative) migrators sustain a position behind (in front of) the spiral arm, and feel continuous tangential force as long as the spiral arm persists. This is because the positive (negative) migrators are close to the apocentre (pericentre) epicycle phase during their migration, and rotate slower (faster) than the co-rotating spiral arm. On the other hand, non-migrators stay close to the spiral arm, and pass or are passed by the spiral arm one or two times. Although they gain or lose the angular momentum when they are behind or in front of the spiral arm, their net angular momentum change becomes close to zero
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