Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Avishai Dekel

Publications and source records attributed to Avishai Dekel.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources
arXiv2006

Properties of Dark Matter Haloes in Clusters, Filaments, Sheets and Voids

Using a series of high-resolution N-body simulations of the concordance cosmology we investigate how the formation histories, shapes and angular momenta of dark-matter haloes depend on environment. We first present a classification scheme that allows to distinguish between haloes in clusters, filaments, sheets and voids in the large-scale distribution of matter. This method is based on a local-stability criterion for the orbits of test particles and closely relates to the Zel'dovich approximation. Applying this scheme to our simulations we then find that: i) Mass assembly histories and formation redshifts strongly depend on environment for haloes of mass M<M* (haloes of a given mass tend to be older in clusters and younger in voids) and are independent of it for larger masses; ii) Low-mass haloes in clusters are generally less spherical and more oblate than in other regions; iii) Low-mass haloes in clusters have a higher median spin than in filaments and present a more prominent fraction of rapidly spinning objects; we identify recent major mergers as a likely source of this effect. For all these relations, we provide accurate functional fits as a function of halo mass and environment. We also look for correlations between halo-spin directions and the large-scale structures: the strongest effect is seen in sheets where halo spins tend to lie within the plane of symmetry of the mass distribution. Finally, we measure the spatial auto-correlation of spin directions and the cross-correlation between the directions of intrinsic and orbital angular momenta of neighbouring haloes. While the first quantity is always very small, we find that spin-orbit correlations are rather strong especially for low-mass haloes in clusters and high-mass haloes in filaments.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Natural Downsizing in Hierarchical Galaxy Formation

Stellar-population analyses of today's galaxies show "downsizing", where the stars in more massive galaxies tend to have formed earlier and over a shorter time span. We show that this phenomenon is not necessarily "anti-hierarchical" but rather has its natural roots in the bottom-up clustering process of dark-matter haloes. While the main progenitor does indeed show an opposite effect, the integrated mass in all the progenitors down to a given minimum mass shows a robust downsizing that is qualitatively similar to what has been observed. These results are derived analytically from the standard extended Press Schechter (EPS) theory, and are confirmed by merger trees based on EPS or drawn from N-body simulations. The downsizing is valid for any minimum mass, as long as it is the same for all haloes at any given time, but the effect is weaker for smaller minimum mass. If efficient star formation is triggered by atomic cooling, then a minimum halo mass arises naturally from the minimum virial temperature for cooling, T~10^4 K, though for such a small minimum mass the effect is weaker than observed. Baryonic feedback effects, which are expected to stretch the duration of star formation in small galaxies and shut it down in massive haloes at late epochs, are likely to play a subsequent role in shaping up the final downsizing behaviour. Other appearances of downsizing, such as the decline with time of the typical mass of star-forming galaxies, may not be attributed to the gravitational clustering process but rather arise from the gas processes.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Shapes of Stellar Systems and Dark Halos from Simulations of Galaxy Major Mergers

Using a sample of 89 snapshots from 58 hydrodynamic binary galaxy major merger simulations, we find that stellar remnants are mostly oblate while dark matter halos are mostly prolate or triaxial. The stellar minor axis and the halo major axis are almost always nearly perpendicular. This can be understood by considering the influence of angular momentum and dissipation during the merger. If binary mergers of spiral galaxies are responsible for the formation of elliptical galaxies or some subpopulation thereof, these galaxies can be expected to be oblate and inhabit their halos with the predicted shapes and orientations. These predictions are potentially relevant to observational studies of weak gravitational lensing, where one must stack many optically aligned galaxies in order to determine the shape of the resulting stacked mass distribution. The simple relationship between the dark and luminous matter presented here can be used to guide the stacking of galaxies to minimize the information lost.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

The Dissipative Merger Progenitors of Elliptical Galaxies

We address the deviations of the scaling relations of elliptical galaxies from the expectations based on the virial theorem and homology, including the "tilt" of the "fundamental plane" and the steep decline of density with mass. We show that such tilts result from dissipative major mergers once the gas fraction available for dissipation declines with progenitor mass, and derive the scaling properties of the progenitors. We use hydrodynamical simulations to quantify the effects of major mergers with different gas fractions on the structural properties of galaxies. The tilts are driven by the differential shrinkage of the effective stellar radius as a function of dissipation in the merger, while the correlated smaller enhancements in internal velocity and stellar mass keep the slope of the velocity-stellar mass relation near V \pr M_*^{1/4}. The progenitors match a straightforward model of disc formation in LCDM haloes. Their total to stellar mass ratio within the effective radius varies as M/M_* \pr M_*^-0.25, consistent with supernova feedback. They are nearly homologous in the sense that the dark-matter fractions within the effective and virial radii scale with mass in a similar way, with only a weak decline of density with mass. The progenitor radius is roughly R \pr M_*^0.3, compatible with today's intermediate late-type galaxies. This indicates that the latest wet mergers involved relatively big discs. The dissipative gas to stellar mass ratio is predicted to decline \pr M_*^-0.5, similar to the observed trend in today's blue sequence galaxies. Such a trend should be observed in relatively massive gaseous galaxies at z~1-4. The corresponding "baryonic" relations are consistent with homology and spherical virial equilibrium, V \pr R \pr M_b^1/3.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

Lost and found dark matter in elliptical galaxies

The kinematical properties of elliptical galaxies formed during the mergers of equal mass, stars+gas+dark matter spiral galaxies are compared to the observed low velocity dispersions found for planetary nebulae on the outskirts of ellipticals, which have been interpreted as pointing to a lack of dark matter in ellipticals (which poses a problem for the standard model of galaxy formation). We find that the velocity dispersion profiles of the stars in the simulated ellipticals match well the observed ones. The low outer stellar velocity dispersions are mainly caused by the radial orbits of the outermost stars, which, for a given binding energy must have low angular momentum to reach their large radial distances, usually driven out along tidal tails.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2006

On the Correlations of Massive Black Holes with their Host Galaxies

We address the correlations of black hole (BH) mass with four different host-galaxy properties from eleven existing data sets. To guide theoretical understanding, we first try to quantify the tightness of the intrinsic correlations. Given the estimated measurement errors, we evaluate the probability distribution of the residual variance in excess of that expected from the measurement errors. Our central result is that the current data sets do not allow definite conclusions regarding the quality of the true correlations because the obtained probability distributions for the residual variance overlap for most quantities. We then consider which of the relations offer the best inferences of BH mass when there is no direct measurement available. As with the residual variances, we find that the probability distribution of expected uncertainty in inferred BH masses overlaps significantly for most of the relations. Photometric methods would then be preferred because the data are easier to obtain, as long as bulge-disk decomposition or detailed modeling of the photometric profile (as in \citet{graham:01}) do not present problems. Determining which correlation offers the best inferences requires reducing the uncertainty in the expected error in the inferred BH masses (the ``error on the error''). This uncertainty is currently limited by uncertainty in the residual variance for all of the relations.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Galaxy Bimodality due to Cold Flows and Shock Heating

We address the origin of the robust bi-modality observed in galaxy properties about a characteristic stellar mass ~3x10^{10}Msun. Less massive galaxies tend to be ungrouped blue star-forming discs, while more massive galaxies are typically grouped red old-star spheroids. Colour-magnitude data show a gap between the red and blue sequences, extremely red luminous galaxies already at z~1, a truncation of today's blue sequence above L_*, and massive starbursts at z~2-4. We propose that these features are driven by the thermal properties of the inflowing gas and their interplay with the clustering and feedback processes, all functions of the dark-matter halo mass and associated with a similar characteristic scale. In haloes below a critical shock-heating mass M_shock~10^{12}Msun, discs are built by cold streams, not heated by a virial shock, yielding efficient early star formation. It is regulated by supernova feedback into a long sequence of bursts in blue galaxies constrained to a "fundamental line". Cold streams penetrating through hot media in M>M_shock haloes preferentially at z>2 lead to massive starbursts in L>L_* galaxies. At z<2, in M>M_shock haloes hosting groups, the gas is heated by a virial shock, and being dilute it becomes vulnerable to feedback from energetic sources such as AGNs. This shuts off gas supply and prevents further star formation, leading by passive evolution to "red-and-dead" massive spheroids starting at z~1. A minimum in feedback efficiency near M_shock explains the observed minimum in M/L and the qualitative features of the star-formation history. The cold flows provide a hint for solving the angular-momentum problem. When these processes are incorporated in simulations they recover the main bi-modality features and solve other open puzzles.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Do the low PN velocity dispersions around elliptical galaxies imply that these lack dark matter?

While kinematical modelling of the low PN velocity dispersions observed in the outer regions of elliptical galaxies suggest a lack of dark matter around these galaxies, we report on an analysis of a suite of $N$-body simulations (with gas) of major mergers of spiral galaxies embedded in dark matter halos, and find that the outer velocity dispersions are as low as observed for the PNe. The inconsistency between our dynamical modelling and previous kinematical modelling is caused by very radial stellar orbits and projection effects when viewing face-on oblate ellipticals. Our simulations (weakly) suggest the youth of PNe around ellipticals, and we propose that the universality of the PN luminosity function may be explained if the bright PNe in ellipticals are formed after the regular accretion of very low mass gas-rich galaxies.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Origin of the Joint Distribution of Structural Parameters in Disc Galaxies

We use a simple model of disc-galaxy formation in the LCDM cosmology to simultaneously reproduce the slopes, zero-points, scatter and uncorrelated residuals in the observed velocity-luminosity (VL) and radius-luminosity (RL) relations. Observed I-band luminosities are converted to stellar masses using the IMF-dependent relation between stellar mass-to-light ratio, M/L, and color. The model treats halo concentration, spin parameter, and disc mass fraction as independent log-normal random variables. Our main conclusion is that the VL and RL zero-points and the uncorrelated residuals can only be reproduced simultaneously if adiabatic contraction is avoided. One or the other could be fixed by appealing to unrealistic values for M/L, halo concentration c, and spin parameter lambda, but not all together. The small VL scatter is naturally determined by the predicted scatter in c and in M/L, quite independent of the large scatter in lambda. However, the RL scatter, driven by the scatter in lambda, can be as low as observed only if sigma_lambda simeq 0.25, about half the value predicted for CDM haloes. This may indicate that discs form in a special subset of haloes. The VL slope is reproduced once star formation occurs only above a threshold surface density, and the RL slope implies that the disc mass fraction is increasing with halo mass, consistent with feedback effects. A model that incorporates the above ingredients provides a simultaneous fit to all the observed features. In particular, the elimination of adiabatic contraction allows 80% disc contribution to the observed rotation velocity of bright discs at 2.2 disc scale lengths. The lack of halo contraction may indicate that disc formation is not as smooth as typically envisioned, but instead may involve clumpy, cold streams.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Phase-Space Structure & Substructure of Dark Halos

A method is presented for computing the 6-D phase-space density f(x,v) and its PDF v(f) in an N-body system. It is based on Delaunay tessellation, yielding v(f) with a fixed smoothing window over a wide f range, independent of the sampling resolution. It is found that in a gravitationally relaxed halo built by hierarchical clustering, v(f) is a robust power law, v(f) f^{-2.5 \pm 0.05}, over more than 4 decades in f, from its virial level to the current resolution limit. This is valid for halos of different sizes in the LCDM cosmology, indicating insensitivity to the initial-fluctuation power spectrum as long as the small-scale fluctuations were not completely suppressed. By mapping f in position space, we find that the high-f contributions to v(f) come from the "cold" subhalos within the parent halo rather than the halo central region and its global spherical profile. The f in subhalos near the halo virial radius is more than 100 times higher than at the halo center, and it decreases gradually with decreasing radius. This indicates phase mixing due to mergers and tidal effects involving puffing up and heating. The phase-space structure provides a sensitive tool for studying the evolution of subhalos during the buildup of halos. One wishes to understand why the substructure adds up to the universal power law in v(f). It seems that the f^{-2.5} behavior is related to the hierarchical clustering process and is not a general result of violent relaxation.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2004

Characteristic Scales in Galaxy Formation

Recent data, e.g. from SDSS and 2dF, reveal a robust bi-modality in the distribution of galaxy properties, with a characteristic transition scale at stellar mass M_*~3x10^{10} Msun (near L_*), corresponding to virial velocity V~100 km/s. Smaller galaxies tend to be blue disks of young populations. They define a "fundamental line" of decreasing surface brightness, metallicity and velocity with decreasing M_*, which extends to the smallest dwarf galaxies. Galaxies above the critical scale are dominated by red spheroids of old populations, with roughly constant high surface brightens and metallicity, and they tend to host AGNs. A minimum in the virial M/L is obtained at the same magic scale. This bi-modality can be the combined imprint of several different physical processes. On smaller scales, disks are built by cold flows, and supernova feedback is effective in regulating star formation. On larger scales, the infalling gas is heated by a virial shock and star formation can be suppressed by AGN feedback. Another feedback mechanism -- gas evaporation due to photo-ionization -- may explain the existence of totally dark halos below V~30 km/s. The standard cooling barriers are responsible for the loose upper and lower bounds for galaxies: 10 < V < 300 km/s.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2003

Scaling Relations of Local Spiral Galaxies.I. Observational Foundations

(Abridged) This paper presents an exploration of two fundamental scaling relations of spiral galaxies, the luminosity-rotation speed (or Tully-Fisher; TF) relation, and the size-luminosity (SL) relation, and the dependences of their scatter, at red and IR bands. We verify that the observed virial relations of disk galaxies are given by Vobs \prop L^0.31 and Rd \prop L^0.33 using distance-redshift surveys of high surface brightness (HSB) and low surface brightness (LSB) non-interacting galaxies. Thus the galaxy surface brightness (SB) is Sigma \prop Rd \prop Vobs \prop Mvir^0.33. We derive the first extensive J-band TF and SL relations using 2MASS data products. The TF residuals are fully independent of SB and other tested observables. TF relations (TFRs) for various morphological types have different zero points, but a common slope, such that early-type (redder) disks rotate faster than later-types (bluer) of the same luminosity. This dependence of the TFR is a direct consequence of the more fundamental dependence on color, which itself is related to the galaxy star formation history. The SL relation scatter is mostly dominated by SB, but color also plays a small role. The TF and SL residuals for HSB and LSB galaxies are weakly correlated, in agreement with the earlier claim by Courteau & Rix (1999). This suggests that spiral disks of all color, brightness, and barredness are, on average, dominated by dark matter even in their inner parts. The observed scaling relations of disk galaxies are likely the result of the simplest scenario of galaxy formation, but their color dependence remains a challenge to hierarchical structure formation models. The scaling relations and their derivatives are contrasted against galaxy formation models in our companion paper.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2003

Virial shocks in galactic haloes?

We investigate the conditions for the existence of an expanding virial shock in the gas falling within a spherical dark-matter halo. The shock relies on pressure support by the shock-heated gas behind it. When the radiative cooling is efficient compared to the infall rate the post-shock gas becomes unstable; it collapses inwards and cannot support the shock. We find for a monoatomic gas that the shock is stable when the post-shock pressure and density obey gamma effective>10/7, with gamma effective begin the time depended equivalent to the adiabatic index. We express the effective gamma in terms of r, u and rho at the shock to obtain a simple condition for shock stability. This result is confirmed by hydrodynamical simulations, using an accurate spheri-symmetric Lagrangian code. When the stability analysis is applied in cosmology, we find that a virial shock does not develop in most haloes that form before z ~ 2, and it never forms in haloes less massive than a few 10^11 solar masses. In such haloes the infalling gas is never heated to the virial temperature, and it does not need to cool radiatively before it drops into a disc. Instead, the gas collapses at T ~ 10^4K directly into the disc. This should have nontrivial effects on the star-formation rate and on the gas removal by supernova-driven winds. Instead of radiating soft x rays, this gas would emit lyman alpha thus helping explain the low flux of soft x-ray background and the lyman alpha emitters observed at high redshift.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2003

Photo-evaporation by thermal winds in dwarf galaxies

We revisit the evaporation process of gas from dwarf galaxies after it has been photo-ionized by the UV flux from the first stars and AGNs and heated to T~10^4K or 2x10^4K respectively. Earlier estimates, based on the balance between pressure and gravity, indicated that dark haloes of virial velocity lower than Vevap ~ 11-13 km/s have lost most of their gas in a dynamical time. We follow the continuous evaporation by a thermal wind during the period when the ionizing flux was effective. We find that the critical virial velocity for significant evaporation is significantly higher. For example, if the ionization starts at z-ion=10 and is maintained until z=2, a mass loss of one e-fold occurs in haloes of Vevap ~ 25 (or 35 km/s) for T ~ 10^4K (or 2x10^4K). Haloes of Vevap ~ 21 km/s (or 29 km/s) lose one e-fold within the first Hubble time at z=10. Any dwarf galaxies with virial velocities smaller than Vevap must have formed their stars from a small fraction of their gas before z-ion, and then lost the rest of the gas by photo-evaporation. This may explain the gas-poor, low surface brightness dwarf spheroidal galaxies. By z<1, most of the IGM gas was evaporated at least once form dwarf galaxies, thus providing a lower bound to its metallicity.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2003

Galactic halo cusp-core: tidal compression in mergers

We explain in simple terms how the buildup of dark haloes by merging compact satellites, as in the CDM cosmology, inevitably leads to an inner cusp of density profile $ρ\propto r^{-α}$ with $α\gsim 1$, as seen in cosmological N-body simulations. A flatter halo core with $α<1$ exerts on the satellites tidal compression in all directions, which prevents deposit of stripped satellite material in the core region. This makes the satellite orbits decay from the radius where $α\sim 1$ to the halo centre with no local tidal mass transfer and thus causes a rapid steepening of the inner profile to $α>1$. These tidal effects, the resultant steepening of the profile to a cusp, and the stability of this cusp to tandem mergers with compact satellites, are demonstrated using N-body simulations. The transition at $α\sim 1$ is then addressed using toy models in the limiting cases of impulse and adiabatic approximations and using tidal radii for satellites on radial and circular orbits. In an associated paper we address the subsequent slow convergence from either side to an asymptotic stable cusp with $α\gsim 1$. Our analysis thus implies that an inner cusp is enforced when small haloes are typically more compact than larger haloes, as in the CDM scenario, such that enough satellite material makes it intact into the inner halo and is deposited there. We conclude that a necessary condition for maintaining a flat core, as indicated by observations, is that the inner regions of the CDM satellite haloes be puffed up by about 50% such that when they merge into a bigger halo they would be disrupted outside the halo core. This puffing up could be due to baryonic feedback processes in small haloes, which may be stimulated by the tidal compression in the halo cores.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2003

Dark-Halo Cusp: Asymptotic Convergence

We propose a model for how the buildup of dark halos by merging satellites produces a characteristic inner cusp, of a density profile ρ\prop r^-a with a -> a_as > 1, as seen in cosmological N-body simulations of hierarchical clustering scenarios. Dekel, Devor & Hetzroni (2003) argue that a flat core of a<1 exerts tidal compression which prevents local deposit of satellite material; the satellite sinks intact into the halo center thus causing a rapid steepening to a>1. Using merger N-body simulations, we learn that this cusp is stable under a sequence of mergers, and derive a practical tidal mass-transfer recipe in regions where the local slope of the halo profile is a>1. According to this recipe, the ratio of mean densities of halo and initial satellite within the tidal radius equals a given function psi(a), which is significantly smaller than unity (compared to being 1 according to crude resonance criteria) and is a decreasing function of a. This decrease makes the tidal mass transfer relatively more efficient at larger a, which means steepening when a is small and flattening when a is large, thus causing converges to a stable solution. Given this mass-transfer recipe, linear perturbation analysis, supported by toy simulations, shows that a sequence of cosmological mergers with homologous satellites slowly leads to a fixed-point cusp with an asymptotic slope a_as>1. The slope depends only weakly on the fluctuation power spectrum, in agreement with cosmological simulations. During a long interim period the profile has an NFW-like shape, with a cusp of 1<a<a_as. Thus, a cusp is enforced if enough compact satellite remnants make it intact into the inner halo. In order to maintain a flat core, satellites must be disrupted outside the core, possibly as a result of a modest puffing up due to baryonic feedback.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2002

Resolving the Spin Crisis: Mergers and Feedback

We model in simple terms the angular momentum (J) problem of galaxy formation in CDM, and identify the key elements of a scenario that can solve it. The buildup of J is modeled via dynamical friction and tidal stripping in mergers. This reveals how over-cooling in incoming halos leads to transfer of J from baryons to dark matter (DM), in conflict with observations. By incorporating a simple recipe of supernova feedback, we match the observed J distribution in disks. Gas removal from small incoming halos, which make the low-J component of the product, eliminates the low-J baryons. Partial heating and puffing-up of the gas in larger incoming halos, combined with tidal stripping, reduces the J loss of baryons. This implies a higher baryonic spin for lower mass halos. The observed low baryonic fraction in dwarf galaxies is used to calibrate the characteristic velocity associated with supernova feedback, yielding v_fb sim 100 km/s, within the range of theoretical expectations. The model then reproduces the observed distribution of spin parameter among dwarf and bright galaxies, as well as the J distribution inside these galaxies. This suggests that the model captures the main features of a full scenario for resolving the spin crisis.

astro-ph↗