The formation of disc galaxies in a ΛCDM universe

By O. Agertz, Romain Teyssier, B. Moore. 2010

187 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We study the formation of disc galaxies in a fully cosmological framework using adaptive mesh refinement simulations. We perform an extensive parameter study of the main subgrid processes that control how gas is converted into stars and the coupled effect of supernovae feedback. We argue that previous attempts to form disc galaxies have been unsuccessful because of the universal adoption of strong feedback combined with high star formation efficiencies. Unless extreme amounts of energy are injected into the interstellar medium during supernovae events, these star formation parameters result in bulge-dominated S0/Sa galaxies as star formation is too efficient at z~ 3. We show that a low efficiency of star formation more closely models the subparsec physical processes, especially at high redshift. We highlight the successful formation of extended disc galaxies with scalelengths rd= 4-5 kpc, flat rotation curves and bulge-to-disc ratios of B/D ~ 1/4. Not only do we resolve the formation of a Milky Way-like spiral galaxy, we also observe the secular evolution of the disc as it forms a pseudo-bulge. The disc properties agree well with observations and are compatible with the photometric and baryonic Tully-Fisher relations, the ΣSFR-Σgas (Kennicutt-Schmidt) relation and the observed angular momentum content of spiral galaxies. We conclude that the underlying small-scale star formation physics plays a greater role than previously considered in simulations of galaxy formation. (Less)

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6b7440bccb5f4d9ae7dad4850b817454581b7354

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. Volker Springel
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Citations in the corpus

• Moving mesh cosmology: numerical techniques and global statistics (2011, methodology): “…that important strides have been made recently in studying disc formation numerically using zoom-in procedures in cosmological SPH simulations (e.g. Agertz et al. 2011; Guedes et al. 2011), we do not think that these successes provide much evidence for the numerical reliability of SPH, although…”
• Radial migration in disc galaxies — I. Transient spiral structure and dynamics (2011, background): “We hope that it shouldsoon be possible to use state-of-the-art cosmological simulations (e.g. Guedes et al. 2011; Agertz et al. 2011) for detailed studies of radial migration. c© 0000 RAS, MNRAS000, 000–000”
• Radiative feedback and the low efficiency of galaxy formation in low-mass haloes at high redshift (2013, background): “Other commonly used ad-hoc prescriptions turn off cooling during a period of time right after thermal energy is injected into star forming regions (Gerritsen & Icke 1997; Thacker & Couchman 2000; Sommer-Larsen et al. 2003; Kereš et al. 2005; Governato et al. 2007; Agertz et al. 2011).”
• The Auriga Project: the properties and formation mechanisms of disc galaxies across cosmic time (2016, methodology): “…method, such as pressure-based SPH (Read, Hayfield & Agertz 2010; Saitoh & Makino 2013) and the inclusion of artificial thermal conductivity, have improved the situation somewhat, particularly with regard to the mixing and hydrodynamical instabilities (Agertz et al. 2011; Schaller et al. 2015b).”
• Matter power spectrum and the challenge of percent accuracy (2015, unknown): “The code is mainly used for hydrodynamical simulations in a cosmological context (Ocvirk et al. 2008; Agertz et al. 2010) but it has also been employed for pure dark matter N -body runs in the past (Teyssier et al. 2009).”
• OUR MILKY WAY AS A PURE-DISK GALAXY—A CHALLENGE FOR GALAXY FORMATION (2010, background): “…galaxy formation in a Universe dominated by cold dark matter – growing a giant galaxy via hierarchical clustering (Vc ≃ 220 km s−1 in the Milky Way) involves so many mergers that it seems almost impossible to avoid forming a substantial classical bulge (Peebles & Nusser 2010; Agertz et al. 2010).”
• The current status of galaxy formation (2012, background): “Some of this complexity can be seen in numerical simulations (Agertz et al., 2011).”
• Chemodynamical evolution of the Milky Way disk - I. The solar vicinity (2012, background): “Although an increase in resolution and better modeling of star formation and feedback have allowed recent simulations to produce MW-mass galaxies with reduced bulge fractions (Agertz et al., 2011; Guedes et al., 2011; Martig et al., 2012), none of these simulations include chemical evolution.”
• The local dark matter density (2014, background): “…be critical in forming galaxies that match the observed properties of real galaxies in the Universe (e.g. Mayer et al., 2008; Guedes et al., 2011; Agertz et al., 2011; Hopkins et al., 2013), though at present rather strong feedback – where a significant fraction of the available SNe energy…”
• Chemical signatures of formation processes in the stellar populations of simulated galaxies (2011, background): “…Governato et al. 2007; Brook et al. 2007; Stinson et al. 2006; Sijacki et al. 2007; Scannapieco et al. 2009; Agertz et al. 2009; Schaye et al. 2010; Agertz et al. 2011; Brook et al. 2011) with improved descriptions of cooling, star formation, black hole formation, and luminous, mechanical and…”
• Moving mesh cosmology: the hydrodynamics of galaxy formation (2011, result): “While this result is in line with our findings, it is important to recognize that the actual cause is quite different: in the study by Agertz et al. (2011), differences in the physical modelling of star formation in cosmological simulations affect the disc sizes, C© 2012 The Authors, MNRAS 424,…”