Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework

By R. Somerville, R. Dav'e. 2014

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Modeling galaxy formation in a cosmological context presents one of the greatest challenges in astrophysics today due to the vast range of scales and numerous physical processes involved. Here we review the current status of models that employ two leading techniques to simulate the physics of galaxy formation: semianalytic models and numerical hydrodynamic simulations. We focus on a set of observational targets that describe the evolution of the global and structural properties of galaxies from roughly cosmic high noon (z ∼ 2–3) to the present. Although minor discrepancies remain, overall, models show remarkable convergence among different methods and make predictions that are in qualitative agreement with observations. Modelers have converged on a core set of physical processes that are critical for shaping galaxy properties. This core set includes cosmological accretion, strong stellar-driven winds that are more efficient at low masses, black hole feedback that preferentially suppresses star formation a...

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6106d5c6b3c9dbb44038a89d3379376d4c5460a6

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Citations in the corpus

On the stunning abundance of super-early, luminous galaxies revealed by JWST (2022, background): “…et al. 2018; Hopkins et al. 2018; Davé et al. 2019; Trebitsch et al. 2021; Pallottini et al. 2022) to semi-analytic models (e.g. Dayal et al. 2014; Somerville & Davé 2015; Lacey et al. 2016a; Mutch et al. 2016; Behroozi et al. 2020; Dayal et al. 2022) have now been developed to study the…”
EMERGE – an empirical model for the formation of galaxies since z ∼ 10 (2017, background): “…initio’ models, where an initial distribution of gas and dark matter is evolved according to a specified set of relevant physical processes, including all the various baryonic physics that one thinks is important (see the reviews by Somerville & Davé 2015 and Naab & Ostriker 2016 for more details).”
The star formation activity of IllustrisTNG galaxies: main sequence, UVJ diagram, quenched fractions, and systematics (2018, result): “…model (see e.g. Sparre et al. 2015, Genel et al. 2014 and Davidzon et al. 2018), even though the Illustris’ MS is higher than the TNG ones, and by several other works that compared the observed MS with theoretical models of galaxy formation (Daddi et al. 2007; Davé 2008; Somerville & Davé 2015).”
NIHAO project – I. Reproducing the inefficiency of galaxy formation across cosmic time with a large sample of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations (2015, methodology): “This is a common feature of galaxy formation models (e.g., Dutton et al. 2010; Somerville & Davé 2014), which tend to have SSFR ∝ (1+z)2.25.”
Theoretical Challenges in Galaxy Formation (2016, methodology): “An even larger fraction (some of it hotter and ionised) gas might be stored in the so called ’circum galacitc medium’, the region extending from the star-forming interstellar medium into the galaxies halos (e.g. Somerville & Davé 2015, Werk et al. 2014).”
Simulating galaxy formation with black hole driven thermal and kinetic feedback (2016, background): “…et al. 2010; Teyssier et al. 2011; Dubois et al. 2012; RosasGuevara et al. 2015; Hirschmann et al. 2014; Choi et al. 2014; Khandai et al. 2015; Somerville & Davé 2015; Steinborn et al. 2015; Trayford et al. 2016, among others) has recently been complemented by a new generation of…”
The SILCC project - III. Regulation of star formation and outflows by stellar winds and supernovae (2016, background): “In this context, the fundamental role of massive stars for the evolution of star-forming galaxies with a large range of masses has been emphasized in many recent numerical studies (see e.g. Agertz et al. 2013; Hopkins et al. 2014; Somerville & Davé 2015).”
simba: Cosmological simulations with black hole growth and feedback (2019, background): “…feedback at scales above this but below L? is driven primarily by energy and momentum from young stars and supernovae, and feedback in massive galaxies predominantly owes to energetic release from accretion disks around supermassive central black holes (see Somerville & Davé 2015, for a review).”
The mass–metallicity and the fundamental metallicity relation revisited on a fully Te-based abundance scale for galaxies (2019, background): “…processes: on one side, it may simply imply that massive galaxies represent a more advanced stage of chemically evolution (“chemical downsizing”, Somerville & Davé 2015) whereas, on the other, that they are more capable to retain metals (thanks to their deeper gravitational potential)…”
Conditions for Reionizing the Universe with a Low Galaxy Ionizing Photon Escape Fraction (2019, background): “Feedback likely also plays a strong role (see Somerville and Davé 2015, and references therein), as these small halos have relatively shallow potential wells, allowing gas to easily be lost.”
Simulating galaxy formation with the IllustrisTNG model (2017, background): “…or smaller; or by attempting to reproduce the integral properties of entire populations of galaxies by including a large portion of the aforementioned processes within the large-scale structure arising from the now wellconstrained initial conditions of the Universe (e.g. Somerville & Davé 2015).”
The dust content of galaxies from z = 0 to z = 9 (2016, background): “Low gas-phase metallicities are a common problem for many galaxy formation models (Somerville & Davé 2015), but the depletion of metals makes the dis- c© 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000–000 agreement even stronger.”
UniverseMachine: The correlation between galaxy growth and dark matter halo assembly from z = 0−10 (2018, background): “For example, current implementations attempt to simulate the effects of supernovae, radiation pressure, multiphase gas, black hole accretion, photo- and collisional ionization, and chemistry (Somerville & Davé 2015; Naab & Ostriker 2017).”