Galaxy formation theory

By A. Benson. 2010

293 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We review the current theory of how galaxies form within the cosmological framework provided by the cold dark matter paradigm for structure formation. Beginning with the pre-galactic evolution of baryonic material we describe the analytical and numerical understanding of how baryons condense into galaxies, what determines the structure of those galaxies and how internal and external processes (including star formation, merging, active galactic nuclei, etc.) determine their gross properties and evolution. Throughout, we highlight successes and failures of current galaxy formation theory. We include a review of computational implementations of galaxy formation theory and assess their ability to provide reliable modeling of this complex phenomenon. We finish with a discussion of several “hot topics” in contemporary galaxy formation theory and assess future directions for this field.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2e1b622002c5c2da7b40839ab1a151e8d8946e5c

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Citations in the corpus

A unified multiwavelength model of galaxy formation (2015, methodology): “…anab initio calculation of the formation and evolution of galaxies using the semi-analytical modelGALFORM, which is set in the context of the hierarchical growth of structure in thedark matter (for reviews of hierarchical galaxy formation, see Baugh 2006, Benson 2010 and Somerville & Davé 2015).”
On the impact of empirical and theoretical star formation laws on galaxy formation (2010, background): “…2011 RAS and from photoionization of the intergalactic medium; (v) chemical enrichment of stars and gas and (vi) galaxy mergers driven by dynamical friction within common DM haloes, which can lead to the formation of spheroids and trigger bursts of SF (for reviews see Baugh 2006 and Benson 2010).”
Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, background): “In Table 2 of his review article, Benson (2010) summarizes some of the key physical processes that are (or are not) captured by five major semi-analytic codes, though the detailed treatment of an individual physical process (e.g. star formation) can vary frommodel tomodel, and even individual…”
Star formation sustained by gas accretion (2014, background): “…from different perspectives are in Sancisi et al. (2008), Silk & Mamon (2012), Combes (2014), Fraternali (2014), Conselice et al. (2013) (observationally oriented), Shlosman (2013), Benson (2010) (theoretically oriented), and Madau & Dickinson (2014) (emphasizing the high redshift aspects).”
The birth of a galaxy – II. The role of radiation pressure (2012, background): “On a grander scale, their input can drive large-scale outflows that increase the entropy and metallicity of the intergalactic medium (Davies et al. 1998; Aguirre et al. 2001a; Benson 2010, for a review).”
Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, methodology): “This method does not explicitly solve fundamental equations for particles or grid cells, but rather adopts a set of simplified flow equations for bulk components (see Baugh 2006, Benson 2010, for reviews).”
Cosmic evolution of the atomic and molecular gas contents of galaxies (2011, background): “These haloes have masses typically Mhalo 10 11 h−1M⊙ (Benson 2010).”
An analytic model for the evolution of the stellar, gas and metal content of galaxies (2011, background): “This sce- nario is well-situated within currently favored hierarchical cosmologies, and analytic models based on it have been quite successful at reproducing many observed galaxy properties (see review by Benson 2010).”
How sensitive are predicted galaxy luminosities to the choice of stellar population synthesis model (2013, methodology): “…equations to follow the fate of baryons in a universe in which structure grows hierarchically through gravitational instability (see Baugh 2006 and Benson 2010, for an overview of hierarchical galaxy formation models). galform models the main processes which shape the formation and evolution of…”
Lightcone mock catalogues from semi-analytic models of galaxy formation – I. Construction and application to the BzK colour selection (2012, background): “…that follow the evolution of baryons trapped in the gravitational potential wells of hierarchically grown dark matter halos (White & Rees 1978; Cole 1991; White & Frenk 1991; Kauffmann et al. 1993; Cole et al. 1994; for reviews of the semi-analytical approach see Baugh 2006 and Benson 2010).”
Moving mesh cosmology: numerical techniques and global statistics (2011, background): “…so-called semianalytical modelling of galaxy formation (e.g. White & Frenk 1991; Kauffmann, White & Guiderdoni 1993; Baugh 2006; Croton et al. 2006; Benson 2010, 2012; Guo et al. 2011) or the closely related approach of halo occupation distributions (Benson et al. 2000), or (ii) using direct…”
HERSCHEL-ATLAS GALAXY COUNTS AND HIGH-REDSHIFT LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS: THE FORMATION OF MASSIVE EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES (2011, background): “A widely held view is that the merging of halos is also the principal mechanism driving the evolution of the visible part of galaxies (see Benson 2010 for a recent review).”
Galaxy evolution in cosmological simulations with outflows ― I. Stellar masses and star formation rates (2011, background): “Hence there is some doubt that the canonical halo/merger-centric view provides the appropriate framework for galaxy formation, despite the wide-ranging successes that models based on this have enjoyed (e.g. Benson 2010).”
REPRODUCING THE STELLAR MASS/HALO MASS RELATION IN SIMULATED ΛCDM GALAXIES: THEORY VERSUS OBSERVATIONAL ESTIMATES (2012, background): “…that simultaneously improve on several long standing problems namely the substructure overabundance problem (Moore et al. 1998; Klypin et al. 1999; Benson 2010), reducing the B/D ratio in small galaxies by removal of low angular momentum baryons (Binney et al. 2001; Governato et al. 2010; Brook…”
Mapping stellar content to dark matter haloes using galaxy clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing in the SDSS DR7 (2015, methodology): “…galactic winds, and the impact of the active galactic nuclei (i.e., the AGN feedback), are happening on scales well below the resolution limit, so the treatment of the physics is often at the “subgrid” level, i.e., put in by hand using empirical scaling relations (see Benson 2010, for a review).”
Cosmological Parameters from Observations of Galaxy Clusters (2011, background): “There is considerable richness to the galaxy formation problem that we omit here; the recent review of Benson (2010) provides substantial detail.”