Simulations of Galaxy Formation in a Λ Cold Dark Matter Universe. I. Dynamical and Photometric Properties of a Simulated Disk Galaxy

By M. Abadi, J. Navarro, Matthias Steinmetz, V. Eke. 2002

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We present a detailed analysis of the dynamical and photometric properties of a disk galaxy simulated in the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmogony. The galaxy is assembled through a number of high-redshift mergers followed by a period of quiescent accretion after z ~ 1 that lead to the formation of two distinct dynamical components: a spheroid of mostly old stars and a rotationally supported disk of younger stars. The surface brightness profile is very well approximated by the superposition of an R1/4 spheroid and an exponential disk. Each photometric component contributes a similar fraction of the total luminosity of the system, although less than a quarter of the stars form after the last merger episode at z ~ 1. In the optical bands the surface brightness profile is remarkably similar to that of Sab galaxy UGC 615, but the simulated galaxy rotates significantly faster and has a declining rotation curve dominated by the spheroid near the center. The decline in circular velocity is at odds with observation and results from the high concentration of the dark matter and baryonic components, as well as from the relatively high mass-to-light ratio of the stars in the simulation. The simulated galaxy lies ~1 mag off the I-band Tully-Fisher relation of late-type spirals but seems to be in reasonable agreement with Tully-Fisher data on S0 galaxies. In agreement with previous simulation work, the angular momentum of the luminous component is an order of magnitude lower than that of late-type spirals of similar rotation speed. This again reflects the dominance of the slowly rotating, dense spheroidal component, to which most discrepancies with observation may be traced. On its own, the disk component has properties rather similar to those of late-type spirals: its luminosity, its exponential scale length, and its colors are all comparable to those of galaxy disks of similar rotation speed. This suggests that a different form of feedback than adopted here is required to inhibit the efficient collapse and cooling of gas at high redshift that leads to the formation of the spheroid. Reconciling, without fine-tuning, the properties of disk galaxies with the early collapse and high merging rates characteristic of hierarchical scenarios such as ΛCDM remains a challenging, yet so far elusive, proposition.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/044d13c3749611858e24c47ed18288d619efda53

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Citations in the corpus

The Formation of a Realistic Disk Galaxy in Λ-dominated Cosmologies (2002, background): “As in other works, some of them including strong SN feedback (Abadi et al. 2002) the rotation velocity peaks even higher and in regions very close to the galaxy center that are only poorly resolved.”
Cosmic ray feedback in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation (2006, background): “They lead to too concentrated disk galaxies (e.g. Abadi et al., 2003) and fail to reproduce the observed shape of the luminosity function of galaxies in detail (Murali et al., 2002; Nagamine et al., 2004).”
Did most present-day spirals form during the last 8 Gyr? - A formation history with violent episodes revealed by panchromatic observations (2004, background): “In their detailed simulations of the formation of a single spiral galaxy, Abadi et al. (2003) have assumed a relatively high redshift (z = 1.5) for the last major merger event, which produces a short and intense starburst episode as well as a complete re-shaping of the galaxy bulge and disk.”
Effects of feedback on the morphology of galaxy discs (2005, neutral): “Typically, c∗ ≃ 1/30 has been used in simulations of disc formation (e.g. Steinmetz & Navarro 1999; Thacker & Couchman 2001; Abadi et al. 2003a; Governato et al. 2004; Robertson etal.”
The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) (2007, positive): “…in turn, fuel ever more sophisticated galactic dynamical and chemodynamical models (e.g., Chiappini et al. 2001, 2003; Sellwood & Binney 2002; Abadi et al. 2003; Bournaud et al. 2009; Schönrich & Binney 2009; Minchev & Famaey 2010; Bird et al. 2013; Minchev et al. 2013, 2014; Kubryk et al.…”
Toward First-Principle Simulations of Galaxy Formation: I. How Should We Choose Star-Formation Criteria in High-Resolution Simulations of Disk Galaxies? (2008, methodology): “For comparison, we choose several simulations of galaxy formation (mSPH ∼ 106 M⊙ in Abadi et al. 2003; mSPH ∼ 105 M⊙ in Governato et al. 2007) and plot the corresponding range of the critical density as the blue region.”
The current status of galaxy formation (2012, background): “This is a reflection of the over-massive bulge problem in disk galaxies that simply refuses to go away (Navarro & Steinmetz, 2000; Abadi et al., 2003).”
REPRODUCING THE STELLAR MASS/HALO MASS RELATION IN SIMULATED ΛCDM GALAXIES: THEORY VERSUS OBSERVATIONAL ESTIMATES (2012, background): “Simulations have repeatedly shown that a lack of realistic SN feedback leads to overestimating star formation as part of the general overcooling problem (Abadi et al. 2003; Governato et al. 2007; Piontek & Steinmetz 2011; Keres et al. 2011).”
Feedback and metal enrichment in cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations ¿ I. A model for chemical enrichment (2005, background): “Abadi et al. (2003) have also demonstrated the importance of a dense, slowly rotating spheroidal component, and pointed out its relevance for comparing simulated and observed galaxies consistently.”