What Shapes the Luminosity Function of Galaxies?

By A. J. Benson, R. G. Bower, C. Frenk, C. Lacey, C. Baugh, S Cole, Shaun Cole, Uk. 2003

725 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We investigate the physical mechanisms that shape the luminosity function of galaxies in hierarchical clustering models. Beginning with the mass function of dark matter halos in the ΛCDM (Λ cold dark matter) cosmology, we show, in incremental steps, how gas cooling, photoionization at high redshift, feedback processes, galaxy merging, and thermal conduction affect the shape of the luminosity function. We consider three processes whereby supernovae and stellar wind energy can affect the forming galaxy: (1) the reheating of cold disk gas to the halo temperature; (2) expansion of the hot, diffuse halo gas; and (3) complete expulsion of cold disk gas from the halo. We demonstrate that while feedback of form 1 is able to flatten the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function, this process alone does not produce the sharp cutoff observed at large luminosities. Feedback of form 2 is also unable to solve the problem at the bright end of the luminosity function. The relative paucity of very bright galaxies can only be explained if cooling in massive halos is strongly suppressed. This might happen if thermal conduction near the centers of halos is very efficient, or if a substantial amount of gas is expelled from halos by process 3 above. Conduction is a promising mechanism, but an uncomfortably high efficiency is required to suppress cooling to the desired level. If, instead, superwinds are responsible for the lack of bright galaxies, then the total energy budget required to obtain a good match to the galaxy luminosity function greatly exceeds the energy available from supernova explosions. The mechanism is only viable if the formation of central supermassive black holes and the associated energy generation play a crucial role in limiting the amount of stars that form in the host galaxy. The models that best reproduce the galaxy luminosity function also give reasonable approximations to the Tully-Fisher relation and the galaxy autocorrelation function.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f1d4e8e82102a11b3ab57ce9c0d999d196525f68

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. Volker Springel
4. R. Dav'e
5. R. Somerville
6. Simon D. M. White
7. C. Conroy
8. A. Dekel

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. Richard S. Ellis
2. F. V. D. Bosch
3. Simon D. M. White
4. M. Ouchi
5. P. Hopkins
6. J. Dunlop
7. P. Oesch
8. C. Conroy

Citations in the corpus

• Galaxy clustering in the CFHTLS-Wide: the changing relationship between galaxies and haloes since z ~ 1.2 (2011, background): “In less massive haloes, supernovae winds are responsible for gas reheating, which reduces star formation and flattens the galaxy luminosity function at the faint end (Benson et al. 2003).”
• Galaxies–intergalactic medium interaction calculation – I. Galaxy formation as a function of large-scale environment (2009, background): “As explained in their respective papers (see also Benson et al. 2003; Croton et al. 2006), this ‘radiomode feedback’ is required in order to prevent the formation of overly massive galaxies in large haloes.”
• Extreme Gas Kinematics in the z = 2.2 Powerful Radio Galaxy MRC 1138–262: Evidence for Efficient Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback in the Early Universe? (2006, background): “But significant and likely fundamental discrepancies remain, e.g., when comparing the observedmass function of galaxies with the predicted mass function of dark matter halos at the upper end of the mass function (Benson et al. 2003).”
• The distribution of satellite galaxies: the great pancake (2005, background): “…medium; (v) reheating and expulsion of cooled gas through feedback processes associated with stellar winds and supernovae explosions (see Benson et al. 2003b); (vi) the evolution of the stellar populations; (vii) the effects of dust absorption and radiation; (viii) the chemical…”
• Semianalytical Model of Galaxy Formation with High-Resolution N-Body Simulations (2004, background): “It has been pointed out by Kauffmann et al. (1993) that gas cooling (or star formation) must be strongly suppressed in the mostmassive halos so as not to produce toomany superluminous galaxies (see also Benson et al. 2003).”
• Ages and metallicities of early-type galaxies in the SDSS: new insight into the physical origin of the colour-magnitude and the Mg2-sigmaV relations (2006, background): “However, observations and the hierarchical paradigm can be reconciled if detailed physics of feedback from supernovae, active galactic nuclei or thermal conduction is introduced (e.g. Benson et al. 2003; Granato et al. 2004; Nagashima et al. 2005).”
• THE MAJOR AND MINOR GALAXY MERGER RATES AT z < 1.5 (2011, background): “On the other hand, the stellar masses and stellar mass ratios predicted by cosmological galaxy evolution models can be quite sensitive to the uncertain physics of star formation and feedback (see, for example, Benson et al. 2003).”
• Stellar Mass—Halo Mass Relation and Star Formation Efficiency in High-Mass Halos (2014, background): “Semi-analytical models showed that without AGN feedback one cannot reproduce the high mass end of stellar mass function (e.g., Benson et al. 2003; Croton et al. 2006).”
• Kiloparsec-scale outflows are prevalent among luminous AGN: outflows and feedback in the context of the overall AGN population (2014, background): “…Vecchia & Schaye 2008; Hopkins et al. 2013a), it is believed that AGN activityis required to drive the highest velocity outflows and are particularly important for the evolution of the most massive galaxies (e.g., Benson et al. 2003; McCarthy et al. 2011; Hopkins et al. 2013b; Zubovas & King 2014).”
• THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY (NGVS). I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY (2012, background): “…flat faintend slopes (compared with the ΛCDM halo mass function) are usually attributed to photoionization or suppressed cooling in this regime (see Benson et al. 2003, and references therein), although the disagreement between observations and predictions at the low-mass end is so extreme (e.g.,…”
• The correlation of star formation quenching with internal galaxy properties and environment (2008, background): “…(e.g. White & Frenk 1991; Kauffmann, White & Guiderdoni 1993; Kauffmann et al. 1999; Somerville & Primack 1999; Cole et al. 2000; Somerville, Primack & Faber 2001; Springel et al. 2001; Benson et al. 2003; Hatton et al. 2003; Khochfar & Burkert 2003; Kang et al. 2005; Khochfar & Burkert 2005).”
• STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF ELLIPTICAL AND SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2008, background): “Very general arguments imply that supernova feedback gets less important at higher galaxy masses (e. g., Dekel & Silk 1986; Somerville & Primack 1999, who review earlier work; Benson et al. 2000, 2003; Garnett 2002; Dekel & Woo 2003; Ostriker & Ciotti 2005; Veilleux, Cecil, & Bland-Hawthorn 2005).”
• Properties of galaxy groups in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – II. Active galactic nucleus feedback and star formation truncation (2006, background): “In particular, the relatively shallow faint-end slope and the exponential cut-off at the bright end of the LF have proven difficult to explain (e.g. White & Frenk 1991; Benson et al. 2003).”
• On the prevalence of radio‐loud active galactic nuclei in brightest cluster galaxies: implications for AGN heating of cooling flows (2006, background): “…may therefore play a critical role in galaxy formation, preventing further cooling of gas on to elliptical galaxies and thus explaining why these galaxies are old and red (see also Benson et al. 2003; Scannapieco, Silk & Bouwens 2005; Bower et al. 2006; Cattaneo et al. 2006; Croton et al. 2006).”
• A fundamental problem in our understanding of low-mass galaxy evolution (2012, background): “This is the mass range in which feedback by supernovae, stellar winds and stellar radiation pressure, which remains poorly understood, is believed to have a crucial impact on galaxy evolution (e.g. White & c© 2012 RAS Rees 1978; White & Frenk 1991; Somerville & Primack 1999; Benson et al. 2003).”
• Keck Spectroscopy of Distant GOODS Spheroidal Galaxies: Downsizing in a Hierarchical Universe (2005, background): “If, above a certain halo mass, feedback from Supernovae or AGN, or thermal conduction (Benson et al. 2003; Nagashima et al. 2004; Granato et al. 2004), heat or remove gas and prevent it from cooling back onto the galaxy – thus inhibiting star formation – then the most massive galaxies will appear…”
• ABSORPTION-LINE PROBES OF THE PREVALENCE AND PROPERTIES OF OUTFLOWS IN PRESENT-DAY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2010, background): “The most natural way to reconcile the observations with theory is to invoke feedback processes, including supernova, stellar winds (Cole et al. 2000; Benson et al. 2003; Stringer et al. 2009; Oppenheimer et al. 2009) and AGN activity (Silk & Rees 1998; Hopkins et al. 2006).”
• Gaseous Galaxy Halos (2012, background): “…smaller than the cosmic mean (∼ 0.4 for the Milky Way), and this is attributed to powerful outflow mechanisms (Bregman, 2007; McGaugh et al., 2010), as is the ability to reproduce the basic properties of a galaxy in cosmological simulations (Benson et al., 2003; McCarthy et al., 2010, 2011).”
• OBSERVATIONS OF STARBURST GALAXIES WITH FAR-ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROGRAPHIC EXPLORER: GALACTIC FEEDBACK IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE (2009, background): “…of a universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy have led to a robust understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe, many questions remain when studying smaller scales where baryonic physics become important (Robertson et al. 2005; Sommer-Larsen et al. 1999; Benson et al. 2003).”