arXiv subjects

Ji-hoon Kim

Publications and source records attributed to Ji-hoon Kim.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Ab initio Simulations of a Supernova Driven Galactic Dynamo in an Isolated Disk Galaxy

We study the magnetic field evolution of an isolated spiral galaxy, using isolated Milky Way-mass galaxy formation simulations and a novel prescription for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) supernova feedback. Our main result is that a galactic dynamo can be seeded and driven by supernova explosions, resulting in magnetic fields whose strength and morphology is consistent with observations. In our model, supernovae supply thermal energy, and a low level magnetic field along with their ejecta. The thermal expansion drives turbulence, which serves a dual role by efficiently mixing the magnetic field into the interstellar medium, and amplifying it by means of turbulent dynamo. The computational prescription for MHD supernova feedback has been implemented within the publicly available ENZO code, and is fully described in this paper. This improves upon ENZO's existing modules for hydrodynamic feedback from stars and active galaxies. We find that the field attains $μG$-levels over Gyr-time scales throughout the disk. The field also develops large-scale structure, which appears to be correlated with the disk's spiral arm density structure. We find that seeding of the galactic dynamo by supernova ejecta predicts a persistent correlation between gas metallicity and magnetic field strength. We also generate all-sky maps of the Faraday rotation measure from the simulation-predicted magnetic field, and present a direct comparison with observations.

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arXiv2016

Reconciling dwarf galaxies with LCDM cosmology: Simulating a realistic population of satellites around a Milky Way-mass galaxy

Low-mass "dwarf" galaxies represent the most significant challenges to the cold dark matter (CDM) model of cosmological structure formation. Because these faint galaxies are (best) observed within the Local Group (LG) of the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31), understanding their formation in such an environment is critical. We present first results from the Latte Project: the Milky Way on FIRE (Feedback in Realistic Environments). This simulation models the formation of a MW-mass galaxy to z = 0 within LCDM cosmology, including dark matter, gas, and stars at unprecedented resolution: baryon particle mass of 7070 Msun with gas kernel/softening that adapts down to 1 pc (with a median of 25 - 60 pc at z = 0). Latte was simulated using the GIZMO code with a mesh-free method for accurate hydrodynamics and the FIRE-2 model for star formation and explicit feedback within a multi-phase interstellar medium. For the first time, Latte self-consistently resolves the spatial scales corresponding to half-light radii of dwarf galaxies that form around a MW-mass host down to Mstar > 10^5 Msun. Latte's population of dwarf galaxies agrees with the LG across a broad range of properties: (1) distributions of stellar masses and stellar velocity dispersions (dynamical masses), including their joint relation; (2) the mass-metallicity relation; and (3) a diverse range of star-formation histories, including their mass dependence. Thus, Latte produces a realistic population of dwarf galaxies at Mstar > 10^5 Msun that does not suffer from the "missing satellites" or "too big to fail" problems of small-scale structure formation. We conclude that baryonic physics can reconcile observed dwarf galaxies with standard LCDM cosmology.

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arXiv2013

The AGORA High-Resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project

We introduce the AGORA project, a comprehensive numerical study of well-resolved galaxies within the LCDM cosmology. Cosmological hydrodynamic simulations with force resolutions of ~100 proper pc or better will be run with a variety of code platforms to follow the hierarchical growth, star formation history, morphological transformation, and the cycle of baryons in and out of 8 galaxies with halo masses M_vir ~= 1e10, 1e11, 1e12, and 1e13 Msun at z=0 and two different ("violent" and "quiescent") assembly histories. The numerical techniques and implementations used in this project include the smoothed particle hydrodynamics codes GADGET and GASOLINE, and the adaptive mesh refinement codes ART, ENZO, and RAMSES. The codes will share common initial conditions and common astrophysics packages including UV background, metal-dependent radiative cooling, metal and energy yields of supernovae, and stellar initial mass function. These are described in detail in the present paper. Subgrid star formation and feedback prescriptions will be tuned to provide a realistic interstellar and circumgalactic medium using a non-cosmological disk galaxy simulation. Cosmological runs will be systematically compared with each other using a common analysis toolkit, and validated against observations to verify that the solutions are robust - i.e., that the astrophysical assumptions are responsible for any success, rather than artifacts of particular implementations. The goals of the AGORA project are, broadly speaking, to raise the realism and predictive power of galaxy simulations and the understanding of the feedback processes that regulate galaxy "metabolism." The proof-of-concept dark matter-only test of the formation of a galactic halo with a z=0 mass of M_vir ~= 1.7e11 Msun by 9 different versions of the participating codes is also presented to validate the infrastructure of the project.

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arXiv2013

Enzo: An Adaptive Mesh Refinement Code for Astrophysics

This paper describes the open-source code Enzo, which uses block-structured adaptive mesh refinement to provide high spatial and temporal resolution for modeling astrophysical fluid flows. The code is Cartesian, can be run in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions, and supports a wide variety of physics including hydrodynamics, ideal and non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics, N-body dynamics (and, more broadly, self-gravity of fluids and particles), primordial gas chemistry, optically-thin radiative cooling of primordial and metal-enriched plasmas (as well as some optically-thick cooling models), radiation transport, cosmological expansion, and models for star formation and feedback in a cosmological context. In addition to explaining the algorithms implemented, we present solutions for a wide range of test problems, demonstrate the code's parallel performance, and discuss the Enzo collaboration's code development methodology.

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arXiv2013

How Does the Surface Density and Size of Disk Galaxies Measured in Hydrodynamic Simulations Correlate with the Halo Spin Parameter?

Late-type low surface brightness galaxies (LSBs) are faint disk galaxies with central maximum stellar surface densities below 100 Msun/pc^2. The currently favored scenario for their origin is that LSBs have formed in fast-rotating halos with large angular momenta. We present the first numerical evidence for this scenario using a suite of self-consistent hydrodynamic simulations of a 2.3e11 Msun galactic halo, in which we investigate the correlations between the disk stellar/gas surface densities and the spin parameter of its host halo. A clear anti-correlation between the surface densities and the halo spin parameter, lambda, is found. That is, as the halo spin parameter increases, the disk cutoff radius at which the stellar surface density drops below 0.1 Msun/pc^2 monotonically increases, while the average stellar surface density of the disk within that radius decreases. The ratio of the average stellar surface density for the case of lambda=0.03 to that for the case of lambda=0.14 reaches more than 15. We demonstrate that the result is robust against variations in the baryon fraction, confirming that the angular momentum of the host halo is an important driver for the formation of LSBs.

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