arXiv subjects

Geraint F. Lewis

Publications and source records attributed to Geraint F. Lewis.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

The impact of dark energy on galaxy formation. What does the future of our Universe hold?

We investigate the effect of the accelerated expansion of the Universe due to a cosmological constant, $Λ$, on the cosmic star formation rate. We utilise hydrodynamical simulations from the EAGLE suite, comparing a $Λ$CDM Universe to an Einstein-de Sitter model with $Λ=0$. Despite the differences in the rate of growth of structure, we find that dark energy, at its observed value, has negligible impact on star formation in the Universe. We study these effects beyond the present day by allowing the simulations to run forward into the future ($t>13.8$ Gyr). We show that the impact of $Λ$ becomes significant only when the Universe has already produced most of its stellar mass, only decreasing the total co-moving density of stars ever formed by ${\approx}15\%$. We develop a simple analytic model for the cosmic star formation rate that captures the suppression due to a cosmological constant. The main reason for the similarity between the models is that feedback from accreting black holes dramatically reduces the cosmic star formation at late times. Interestingly, simulations without feedback from accreting black holes predict an upturn in the cosmic star formation rate for $t>15$ Gyr due to the rejuvenation of massive ($ > 10^{11} \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$) galaxies. We briefly discuss the implication of the weak dependence of the cosmic star formation on $Λ$ in the context of the anthropic principle.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

The GALAH and TESS-HERMES surveys: high-resolution spectroscopy of luminous supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds and Bridge

We report the serendipitous observations of 571 luminous supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds by the spectroscopic GALAH and TESS-HERMES surveys: 434 stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud and 137 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We also find one star that appears associated with structured star formation in the Magellanic Bridge. Both of these surveys are aimed at the local volume of the Galaxy but have simple, magnitude-limited selection functions that mean they include some observations of luminous extra-Galactic stars. The surveys determine stellar parameter and abundances using The Cannon, a data-driven generative modelling approach. In this work, we explore the results from The Cannon when it is fed the spectra of these intrinsically luminous supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds, which are well outside the normal bounds of The Cannon's training set. We find that, although the parameters are astrophysically incorrect, the $v\sin i$ and the abundances of lithium, barium, and magnesium are excellent discriminants of these stars. It shows that in the future, with an expanded training set, it should be possible to determine accurate values for these types of stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2018

Galaxy Formation Efficiency and the Multiverse Explanation of the Cosmological Constant with EAGLE Simulations

Models of the very early universe, including inflationary models, are argued to produce varying universe domains with different values of fundamental constants and cosmic parameters. Using the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation code from the eagle collaboration, we investigate the effect of the cosmological constant on the formation of galaxies and stars. We simulate universes with values of the cosmological constant ranging from Lambda = 0 to Lambda_0 = 300, where Lambda_0 is the value of the cosmological constant in our Universe. Because the global star formation rate in our Universe peaks at t = 3.5 Gyr, before the onset of accelerating expansion, increases in Lambda of even an order of magnitude have only a small effect on the star formation history and efficiency of the universe. We use our simulations to predict the observed value of the cosmological constant, given a measure of the multiverse. Whether the cosmological constant is successfully predicted depends crucially on the measure. The impact of the cosmological constant on the formation of structure in the universe does not seem to be a sharp enough function of Lambda to explain its observed value alone.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

The GALAH Survey: Stellar streams and how stellar velocity distributions vary with Galactic longitude, hemisphere and metallicity

Using GALAH survey data of nearby stars, we look at how structure in the planar (u,v) velocity distribution depends on metallicity and on viewing direction within the Galaxy. In nearby stars, with distance d < 1 kpc, the Hercules stream is most strongly seen in higher metallicity stars [Fe/H] > 0.2. The Hercules stream peak v value depends on viewed galactic longitude, which we interpret as due to the gap between the stellar stream and more circular orbits being associated with a specific angular momentum value of about 1640 km/s kpc. The association of the gap with a particular angular momentum value supports a bar resonant model for the Hercules stream. Moving groups previously identified in Hipparcos observations are easiest to see in stars nearer than 250 pc, and their visibility and peak velocities in the velocity distributions depends on both viewing direction (galactic longitude and hemisphere) and metallicity. We infer that there is fine structure in local velocity distributions that varies over distances of a few hundred pc in the Galaxy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Spatially Resolving the Main Sequence of Star Formation

We present the ~800 star formation rate maps for the SAMI Galaxy Survey based on Hα emission maps, corrected for dust attenuation via the Balmer decrement, that are included in the SAMI Public Data Release 1. We mask out spaxels contaminated by non-stellar emission using the [O III]/Hβ, [N II]/Hα, [S II]/Hα, and [O I]/Hα line ratios. Using these maps, we examine the global and resolved star-forming main sequences of SAMI galaxies as a function of morphology, environmental density, and stellar mass. Galaxies further below the star-forming main sequence are more likely to have flatter star formation profiles. Early-type galaxies split into two populations with similar stellar masses and central stellar mass surface densities. The main sequence population has centrally-concentrated star formation similar to late-type galaxies, while galaxies >3σ below the main sequence show significantly reduced star formation most strikingly in the nuclear regions. The split populations support a two-step quenching mechanism, wherein halo mass first cuts off the gas supply and remaining gas continues to form stars until the local stellar mass surface density can stabilize the reduced remaining fuel against further star formation. Across all morphologies, galaxies in denser environments show a decreased specific star formation rate from the outside in, supporting an environmental cause for quenching, such as ram-pressure stripping or galaxy interactions.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

The Need for Speed: Escape velocity and dynamical mass measurements of the Andromeda galaxy

Our nearest large cosmological neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), is a dynamical system, and an accurate measurement of its total mass is central to our understanding of its assembly history, the life-cycles of its satellite galaxies, and its role in shaping the Local Group environment. Here, we apply a novel approach to determine the dynamical mass of M31 using high velocity Planetary Nebulae (PNe), establishing a hierarchical Bayesian model united with a scheme to capture potential outliers and marginalize over tracers unknown distances. With this, we derive the escape velocity run of M31 as a function of galacto-centric distance, with both parametric and non-parametric approaches. We determine the escape velocity of M31 to be $470\pm{40}$ km s$^{-1}$ at a galacto-centric distance of 15 kpc, and also, derive the total potential of M31, estimating the virial mass and radius of the galaxy to be $0.8\pm{0.1}\times10^{12}\,M_\odot$ and $240\pm{10}$ kpc, respectively. Our M31 mass is on the low-side of the measured range, this supports the lower expected mass of the M31-Milky Way system from the timing and momentum arguments, satisfying the HI constraint on circular velocity between $10\lesssim R/\textrm{kpc}<35$, and agreeing with the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation. To place these results in a broader context, we compare them to the key predictions of the $Λ{\rm CDM}$ cosmological paradigm, including the stellar-mass-halo-mass and the dark matter halo concentration-virial mass correlation, and finding it to be an outlier to this relation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Bell's Spaceships: The Views from Bow and Stern

Unravelling apparent paradoxes has proven to be a powerful tool for understanding the complexities of special relativity. In this paper, we focus upon one such paradox, namely Bell's spaceship paradox, examining the relative motion of two uniformly accelerating spaceships. We consider the view from either spaceship, with the exchange of photons between the two. This recovers the well known result that the leading spaceship loses sight of the trailing spaceship as it is redshifted and disappears behind what is known as the `Rindler horizon'. An immediate impact of this is that if either spaceship tries to measure the separation through `radar ranging', bouncing photons off one another, they would both eventually fail to receive any of the photon `pings' that they emit. We find that the view from this trailing spaceship is, however, starkly different, initially, seeing the leading spaceship with an increasing blueshift, followed by a decreasing blueshift. We conclude that, while the leading spaceship loses sight of the trailing spaceship, for the trailing spaceship the view of the separation between the two spaceships, and the apparent angular size of the leading spaceship, approach asymptotic values. Intriguingly, for particular parametrization of the journey of the two spaceships, these asymptotic values are identical to those properties seen before the spaceships began accelerating, and the view from the trailing spaceship becomes identical to when the two spaceships were initially at rest.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2017

On the Origin of the Monoceros Ring - I: Kinematics, proper motions, and the nature of the progenitor

The Monoceros Ring (MRi) structure is an apparent stellar overdensity that has been postulated to entirely encircle the Galactic plane and has been variously described as being due to line-of-sight effects of the Galactic warp and flare or of extragalactic origin (via accretion). Despite being intensely scrutinised in the literature for more than a decade, no studies to-date have been able to definitively uncover its origins. Here we use $N$-body simulations and a genetic algorithm to explore the parameter space for the initial position, orbital parameters and, for the first time, the final location of a satellite progenitor. We fit our models to the latest Pan-STARRS data to determine whether an accretion scenario is capable of producing an in- Plane ring-like structure matching the known parameters of the MRi. Our simulations produce streams that closely match the location, proper motion and kinematics of the MRi structure. However, we are not able to reproduce the mass estimates from earlier studies based on Pan-STARRS data. Furthermore, in contrast with earlier studies our best-fit models are those for progenitors on retrograde orbits. If the MRi was produced by satellite accretion, we find that its progenitor has an initial mass upper limit of ~$10^{10}$M$_\odot$ and the remnant is likely located behind the Galactic bulge, making it diffcult to locate observationally. While our models produce realistic MRi-like structures we cannot definitively conclude that the MRi was produced by the accretion of a satellite galaxy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Investigating dark matter substructure with pulsar timing: II. Improved limits on small-scale cosmology

Ultracompact Minihalos (UCMHs) have been proposed as a type of dark matter sub-structure seeded by large-amplitude primordial perturbations and topological defects. UCMHs are expected to survive to the present era, allowing constraints to be placed on their cosmic abundance using observations within our own Galaxy. Constraints on their number density can be linked to conditions in the early universe that impact structure formation, such as increased primordial power on small scales, generic weak non-Gaussianity, and the presence of cosmic strings. We use new constraints on the abundance of UCMHs from pulsar timing to place generalised limits on the parameters of each of these cosmological scenarios. At some scales, the limits are the strongest to date, exceeding those from dark matter annihilation. Our new limits have the added advantage of being independent of the particle nature of dark matter, as they are based only on gravitational effects.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Investigating dark matter substructure with pulsar timing: I. Constraints on ultracompact minihalos

Small-scale dark matter structure within the Milky Way is expected to affect pulsar timing. The change in gravitational potential induced by a dark matter halo passing near the line of sight to a pulsar would produce a varying delay in the light travel time of photons from the pulsar. Individual transits produce an effect that would either be too rare or too weak to be detected in 30-year pulsar observations. However, a population of dark matter subhalos would be expected to produce a detectable effect on the measured properties of pulsars if the subhalos constitute a significant fraction of the total halo mass. The effect is to increase the dispersion of measured period derivatives across the pulsar population. By statistical analysis of the ATNF pulsar catalogue, we place an upper limit on this dispersion of $\log σ_{\dot{P}} \leq -17.05$. We use this to place strong upper limits on the number density of ultracompact minihalos within the Milky Way. These limits are completely independent of the particle nature of dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

A rogues gallery of Andromeda's dwarf galaxies I. A predominance of red horizontal branches

We present homogeneous, sub-horizontal branch photometry of twenty dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies of M31 observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Combining our new data for sixteen systems with archival data in the same filters for another four, we show that Andromeda dwarf spheroidal galaxies favor strikingly red horizontal branches or red clumps down to ~10^{4.2} Lsun (M_V ~ -5.8). The age-sensitivity of horizontal branch stars implies that a large fraction of the M31 dwarf galaxies have extended star formation histories (SFHs), and appear inconsistent with early star formation episodes that were rapidly shutdown. Systems fainter than ~10^{5.5} Lsun show the widest range in the ratios and morphologies of red and blue horizontal branches, indicative of both complex SFHs and a diversity in quenching timescales and/or mechanisms, which is qualitatively different from what is currently known for faint Milky Way (MW) satellites of comparable luminosities. Our findings bolster similar conclusions from recent deeper data for a handful of M31 dwarf galaxies. We discuss several sources for diversity of our data such as varying halo masses, patchy reionization, mergers/accretion, and the environmental influence of M31 and the Milky Way on the early evolution of their satellite populations. A detailed comparison between the histories of M31 and MW satellites would shed signifiant insight into the processes that drive the evolution of low-mass galaxies. Such a study will require imaging that reaches the oldest main sequence turnoffs for a significant number of M31 companions.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Stability of Satellite Planes in M31 II: Effects of the Dark Subhalo Population

The planar arrangement of nearly half the satellite galaxies of M31 has been a source of mystery and speculation since it was discovered. With a growing number of other host galaxies showing these satellite galaxy planes, their stability and longevity have become central to the debate on whether the presence of satellite planes are a natural consequence of prevailing cosmological models, or represent a challenge. Given the dependence of their stability on host halo shape, we look into how a galaxy plane's dark matter environment influences its longevity. An increased number of dark matter subhalos results in increased interactions that hasten the deterioration of an already-formed plane of satellite galaxies in spherical dark halos. The role of total dark matter mass fraction held in subhalos in dispersing a plane of galaxies present non trivial effects on plane longevity as well. But any misalignments of plane inclines to major axes of flattened dark matter halos lead to their lifetimes being reduced to < 3 Gyrs. Distributing > 40% of total dark mass in subhalos in the overall dark matter distribution results in a plane of satellite galaxies that is prone to change through the 5 Gyr integration time period.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Considerations on how to investigate planes of satellite galaxies

The existence of a spatially thin, kinematically coherent Disk of Satellites (DoS) around the Milky Way (MW), is a problem that often garners vivacious debate in the literature or at scientific meetings. One of the most recent incarnations of this wrangle occurred with two papers by Maji et al, who argued that these structures "maybe a misinterpretation of the data". These claims are in stark contrast to previous works. Motivated by this and other recent publications on this problem, we discuss necessary considerations to make, observational effects to consider, and pitfalls to avoid when investigating satellite galaxy planes such as the MW's DoS. In particular, we emphasize that conclusions need to have a statistical basis including a determination of the significance of satellite alignments, observational biases must not be ignored, and measurement errors (e.g. for proper motions) need to be considered. We discuss general problems faced by attempts to determine the dynamical stability of the DoS via orbit integrations of MW satellite galaxies, and demonstrate that to interpret simulations, it is helpful to compare them with a null case of isotropically distributed satellite positions and velocities. Based on these criteria, we find that the conclusions of Maji et al. do not hold up to scrutiny, and that their hydrodynamic cosmological simulation of a single host shows no evidence for a significant kinematic coherence among the simulated satellite galaxies, in contrast to the observed MW system.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Feeling the pull, a study of natural Galactic accelerometers. II: kinematics and mass of the delicate stellar stream of the Palomar 5 globular cluster

We present two spectroscopic surveys of the tidal stellar stream of the Palomar 5 globular cluster, undertaken with the VLT/FLAMES and AAT/AAOmega instruments. We use these data in conjunction with photometric data presented in the previous contribution in this series to classify the survey stars in terms of their probability of belonging to the Palomar 5 stellar stream. We find that high-probability candidates are only found in a very narrow spatial interval surrounding the locus of the stream on the sky. PanSTARRS RRLyrae stars in this region of sky are also distributed in a similar manner. The absence of significant "fanning" of this stellar stream confirms that Palomar 5 does not follow a chaotic orbit. Previous studies have found that Palomar 5 is largely devoid of low-mass stars, and we show that this is true also of the stellar populations along the trailing arm out to $6°$. Within this region, which contains 73\% of the detected stars, the population is statistically identical to the core, implying that the ejection of the low-mass stars occurred before the formation of the stream. We also present an updated structural model fit to the bound remnant, which yields a total mass of $4297\pm98 {\rm\,M_\odot}$ and a tidal radius $0.145\pm0.009$ kpc. We estimate the mass of the observed system including the stream to be $12200\pm400 {\rm\,M_\odot}$, and the initial mass to have been $\sim47000\pm1500 {\rm\,M_\odot}$. These observational constraints will be employed in our next study to model the dynamics of the system in detail.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Producing the Deuteron in Stars: Anthropic Limits on Fundamental Constants

Stellar nucleosynthesis proceeds via the deuteron (D), but only a small change in the fundamental constants of nature is required to unbind it. Here, we investigate the effect of altering the binding energy of the deuteron on proton burning in stars. We find that the most definitive boundary in parameter space that divides probably life-permitting universes from probably life-prohibiting ones is between a bound and unbound deuteron. Due to neutrino losses, a ball of gas will undergo rapid cooling or stabilization by electron degeneracy pressure before it can form a stable, nuclear reaction-sustaining star. We also consider a less-bound deuteron, which changes the energetics of the $pp$ and $pep$ reactions. The transition to endothermic $pp$ and $pep$ reactions, and the resulting beta-decay instability of the deuteron, do not seem to present catastrophic problems for life.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Heating of galactic gas by dark matter annihilation in ultracompact minihalos

The existence of substructure in halos of annihilating dark matter would be expected to substantially boost the rate at which annihilation occurs. Ultracompact minihalos of dark matter (UCMHs) are one of the more extreme examples of this. The boosted annihilation can inject significant amounts of energy into the gas of a galaxy over its lifetime. Here we determine the impact of the boost factor from UCMH substructure on the heating of galactic gas in a Milky Way-type galaxy, by means of N-body simulation. If $1\%$ of the dark matter exists as UCMHs, the corresponding boost factor can be of order $10^5$. For reasonable values of the relevant parameters (annihilation cross section $3\times10^{-26} ~\textrm{cm}^3~ \textrm{s}^{-1}$, dark matter mass 100 GeV, 10% heating efficiency), we show that the presence of UCMHs at the 0.1% level would inject enough energy to eject significant amounts of gas from the halo, potentially preventing star formation within $\sim$1 kpc of the halo centre.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

A novel JEAnS analysis of the Fornax dwarf using evolutionary algorithms: mass follows light with signs of an off-centre merger

Dwarf galaxies, among the most dark matter dominated structures of our universe, are excellent test-beds for dark matter theories. Unfortunately, mass modelling of these systems suffers from the well documented mass-velocity anisotropy degeneracy. For the case of spherically symmetric systems, we describe a method for non-parametric modelling of the radial and tangential velocity moments. The method is a numerical velocity anisotropy "inversion", with parametric mass models, where the radial velocity dispersion profile, $σ_{\mathrm{rr}}^2$ is modeled as a B-spline, and the optimization is a three step process that consists of: (i) an Evolutionary modelling to determine the mass model form and the best B-spline basis to represent $σ_{\mathrm{rr}}^2$; (ii) an optimization of the smoothing parameters; (iii) a Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis to determine the physical parameters. The mass-anisotropy degeneracy is reduced into mass model inference, irrespective of kinematics. We test our method using synthetic data. Our algorithm constructs the best kinematic profile and discriminates between competing dark matter models. We apply our method to the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Using a King brightness profile and testing various dark matter mass models, our model inference favours a simple mass-follows-light system. We find that the anisotropy profile of Fornax is tangential ($β(r) < 0$) and we estimate a total mass of $M_{\text{tot}} = 1.613 ^{+0.050}_{-0.075} \times 10^8 \, \text{M}_{\odot}$, and a mass-to-light ratio of $Υ_V = 8.93 ^{+0.32}_{-0.47} \, (\text{M}_{\odot}/\text{L}_{\odot})$. The algorithm we present is a robust and computationally inexpensive method for non-parametric modelling of spherical clusters independent of the mass-anisotropy degeneracy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Cosmic Voids in Evolving Dark Sector Cosmologies: the Low Redshift Universe

We present a comparison of void properties between the standard model of cosmology, $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM), and two alternative cosmological models with evolving and interacting dark sectors: a quintessence model ($ϕ$CDM) and a Coupled Dark Matter-Dark Energy (CDE) model. Using $N$-body simulations of these models, we derive several measures of void statistics and properties, including distributions of void volume, ellipticity, prolateness, and average density. We find that the volume distribution derived from the CDE simulation deviates from the volume distribution derived from the $Λ$CDM simulation in the present-day universe, suggesting that the presence of a coupled dark sector could be observable through this statistic. We also find that the distributions of void ellipticity and prolateness are practically indistinguishable among the three models over the redshift range $z=0.0-1.0$, indicating that simple void shape statistics are insensitive to small changes in dark sector physics. Interestingly, we find that the distributions of average void density measured in each of the three simulations are distinct from each other. In particular, voids on average tend to be emptiest under a quintessence model, and densest under the $Λ$CDM model. Our results suggest that it is the scalar field present in both alternative models that causes emptier voids to form, while the coupling of the dark sector mitigates this effect by slowing down the evacuation of matter from voids.

astro-ph.CO↗