arXiv subjects

Mark Vogelsberger

Publications and source records attributed to Mark Vogelsberger.

At least 415 records · Page 23Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

The Illustris simulation: the evolving population of black holes across cosmic time

We study the properties of black holes and their host galaxies across cosmic time in the Illustris simulation. Illustris is a large scale cosmological hydrodynamical simulation which resolves a (106.5 Mpc)^3 volume with more than 12 billion resolution elements and includes state-of-the-art physical models relevant for galaxy formation. We find that the black hole mass density for redshifts z = 0 - 5 and the black hole mass function at z = 0 predicted by Illustris are in very good agreement with the most recent observational constraints. We show that the bolometric and hard X-ray luminosity functions of AGN at z = 0 and 1 reproduce observational data very well over the full dynamic range probed. Unless the bolometric corrections are largely underestimated, this requires radiative efficiencies to be on average low, epsilon_r <= 0.1, noting however that in our model radiative efficiencies are degenerate with black hole feedback efficiencies. Cosmic downsizing of the AGN population is in broad agreement with the findings from X-ray surveys, but we predict a larger number density of faint AGN at high redshifts than currently inferred. We also study black hole -- host galaxy scaling relations as a function of galaxy morphology, colour and specific star formation rate. We find that black holes and galaxies co-evolve at the massive end, but for low mass, blue and star-forming galaxies there is no tight relation with either their central black hole masses or the nuclear AGN activity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Galaxy Formation with Local Photoionization Feedback -II. Effect of X-Ray Emission from Binaries and Hot Gas

We study how X-rays from stellar binary systems and the hot intracluster medium (ICM) affect the radiative cooling rates of gas in galaxies. Our study uses a novel implementation of gas cooling in the moving-mesh hydrodynamics code \textsc{arepo}. X-rays from stellar binaries do not affect cooling at all as their emission spectrum is too hard to effectively couple with galactic gas. In contrast, X-rays from the ICM couple well with gas in the temperature range $10^4 - 10^6$ K. Idealised simulations show that the hot halo radiation field has minimal impact on the dynamics of cooling flows in clusters because of the high virial temperature ($> 10^7$K), making the interaction between the gas and incident photons very ineffective. Satellite galaxies in cluster environments, on the other hand, experience a high radiation flux due to the emission from the host halo. Low mass satellites ($< 10^{12}\rm{M_\odot}$) in particular have virial temperatures that are exactly in the regime where the effect of the radiation field is maximal. Idealised simulations of satellite galaxies including only the effect of host halo radiation (no ram pressure stripping or tidal effects) fields show a drastic reduction in the amount of cool gas formed ($\sim 40\%$) on a short timescale of about $0.5$ Gyrs. A galaxy merger simulation including all the other environmental quenching mechanisms, shows about $20\%$ reduction in the stellar mass of the satellite and about $\sim 30\%$ reduction in star formation rate after $1$ Gyr due to the host hot halo radiation field. These results indicate that the hot halo radiation fields potentially play an important role in quenching galaxies in cluster environments.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Galactic Angular Momentum in the Illustris Simulation: Feedback and the Hubble Sequence

We study the stellar angular momentum of thousands of galaxies in the Illustris cosmological simulation, which captures gravitational and gas dynamics within galaxies, as well as feedback from stars and black holes. We find that the angular momentum of the simulated galaxies matches observations well, and in particular two distinct relations are found for late-type versus early-type galaxies. The relation for late-type galaxies corresponds to the value expected from full conservation of the specific angular momentum generated by cosmological tidal torques. The relation for early-type galaxies corresponds to retention of only ~30% of that, but we find that those early-type galaxies with low angular momentum at z=0 nevertheless reside at high redshift on the late-type relation. Some of them abruptly lose angular momentum during major mergers. To gain further insight, we explore the scaling relations in simulations where the galaxy formation physics is modified with respect to the fiducial model. We find that galactic winds with high mass-loading factors are essential for obtaining the high angular momentum relation typical for late-type galaxies, while AGN feedback largely operates in the opposite direction. Hence, feedback controls the stellar angular momentum of galaxies, and appears to be instrumental for establishing the Hubble sequence.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Reducing noise in moving-grid codes with strongly-centroidal Lloyd mesh regularization

A method for improving the accuracy of hydrodynamical codes that use a moving Voronoi mesh is described. Our scheme is based on a new regularization scheme that constrains the mesh to be centroidal to high precision while still allowing the cells to move approximately with the local fluid velocity, thereby retaining the quasi-Lagrangian nature of the approach. Our regularization technique significantly reduces mesh noise that is attributed to changes in mesh topology and deviations from mesh regularity. We demonstrate the advantages of our method on various test problems, and note in particular improvements obtained in handling shear instabilities, mixing, and in angular momentum conservation. Calculations of adiabatic jets in which shear excites Kelvin Helmholtz instability show reduction of mesh noise and entropy generation. In contrast, simulations of the collapse and formation of an isolated disc galaxy are nearly unaffected, showing that numerical errors due to the choice of regularization do not impact the outcome in this case.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

The merger rate of galaxies in the Illustris Simulation: a comparison with observations and semi-empirical models

We have constructed merger trees for galaxies in the Illustris Simulation by directly tracking the baryonic content of subhalos. These merger trees are used to calculate the galaxy-galaxy merger rate as a function of descendant stellar mass, progenitor stellar mass ratio, and redshift. We demonstrate that the most appropriate definition for the mass ratio of a galaxy-galaxy merger consists in taking both progenitor masses at the time when the secondary progenitor reaches its maximum stellar mass. Additionally, we avoid effects from `orphaned' galaxies by allowing some objects to `skip' a snapshot when finding a descendant, and by only considering mergers which show a well-defined `infall' moment. Adopting these definitions, we obtain well-converged predictions for the galaxy-galaxy merger rate with the following main features, which are qualitatively similar to the halo-halo merger rate except for the last one: a strong correlation with redshift that evolves as $\sim (1+z)^{2.4-2.8}$, a power law with respect to mass ratio, and an increasing dependence on descendant stellar mass, which steepens significantly for descendant stellar masses greater than $\sim 2 \times 10^{11} \, {\rm M_{\odot}}$. These trends are consistent with observational constraints for medium-sized galaxies ($M_{\ast} \gtrsim 10^{10} \, {\rm M_{\odot}}$), but in tension with some recent observations of the close pair fraction for massive galaxies ($M_{\ast} \gtrsim 10^{11} \, {\rm M_{\odot}}$), which report a nearly constant or decreasing evolution with redshift. Finally, we provide a fitting function for the galaxy-galaxy merger rate which is accurate over a wide range of stellar masses, progenitor mass ratios, and redshifts.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Zooming in on accretion - I. The structure of halo gas

We study the properties of gas in and around 10^12 solar mass halos at z=2 using a suite of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic 'zoom' simulations. We quantify the thermal and dynamical structure of these gaseous reservoirs in terms of their mean radial distributions and angular variability along different sightlines. With each halo simulated at three levels of increasing resolution, the highest reaching a baryon mass resolution of ~10,000 solar masses, we study the interaction of filamentary inflow and the quasi-static hot halo atmosphere. We highlight the discrepancy between the spatial resolution available in the halo gas as opposed to within the galaxy itself, and find that stream morphologies become increasingly complex at higher resolution, with large coherent flows revealing density and temperature structure at progressively smaller scales. Moreover, multiple gas components co-exist at the same radius within the halo, making radially averaged analyses misleading. This is particularly true where the hot, quasi-static, high entropy halo atmosphere interacts with cold, rapidly inflowing, low entropy accretion. We investigate the process of gas virialization and identify different regimes for the heating of gas as it accretes from the intergalactic medium. Haloes at this mass have a well-defined virial shock, associated with a sharp jump in temperature and entropy at ~1.25 r_vir. The presence, radius, and radial width of this boundary feature, however, vary not only from halo to halo, but also as a function of angular direction, covering roughly ~85% of the 4pi sphere. Our findings are relevant for the proper interpretation of observations pertaining to the circumgalactic medium, including evidence for large amounts of cold gas surrounding massive haloes at intermediate redshifts.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

The impact of feedback on cosmological gas accretion

We investigate how the way galaxies acquire their gas across cosmic time in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations is modified by a comprehensive physical model for baryonic feedback processes. To do so, we compare two simulations -- with and without feedback -- both evolved with the moving mesh code AREPO. The feedback runs implement the full physics model of the Illustris simulation project, including star formation driven galactic winds and energetic feedback from supermassive blackholes. We explore: (a) the accretion rate of material contributing to the net growth of galaxies and originating directly from the intergalactic medium, finding that feedback strongly suppresses the raw, as well as the net, inflow of this "smooth mode" gas at all redshifts, regardless of the temperature history of newly acquired gas. (b) At the virial radius the temperature and radial flux of inflowing gas is largely unaffected at z=2. However, the spherical covering fraction of inflowing gas at 0.25 rvir decreases substantially, from more than 80% to less than 50%, while the rates of both inflow and outflow increase, indicative of recycling across this boundary. (c) The fractional contribution of smooth accretion to the total accretion rate is lower in the simulation with feedback, by roughly a factor of two across all redshifts. Moreover, the smooth component of gas with a cold temperature history, is entirely suppressed in the feedback run at z<1. (d) The amount of time taken by gas to cross from the virial radius to the galaxy -- the "halo transit time" -- increases in the presence of feedback by a factor of ~2-3, and is notably independent of halo mass. We discuss the possible implications of this invariance for theoretical models of hot halo gas cooling.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2015

Hot Gaseous Coronae around Spiral Galaxies: Probing the Illustris Simulation

The presence of hot gaseous coronae around present-day massive spiral galaxies is a fundamental prediction of galaxy formation models. However, our observational knowledge remains scarce, since to date only four gaseous coronae were detected around spirals with massive stellar bodies ($\gtrsim2\times10^{11} \ \rm{M_{\odot}}$). To explore the hot coronae around lower mass spiral galaxies, we utilized Chandra X-ray observations of a sample of eight normal spiral galaxies with stellar masses of $(0.7-2.0)\times10^{11} \ \rm{M_{\odot}}$. Although statistically significant diffuse X-ray emission is not detected beyond the optical radii ($\sim20$ kpc) of the galaxies, we derive $3σ$ limits on the characteristics of the coronae. These limits, complemented with previous detections of NGC 1961 and NGC 6753, are used to probe the Illustris Simulation. The observed $3σ$ upper limits on the X-ray luminosities and gas masses exceed or are at the upper end of the model predictions. For NGC 1961 and NGC 6753 the observed gas temperatures, metal abundances, and electron density profiles broadly agree with those predicted by Illustris. These results hint that the physics modules of Illustris are broadly consistent with the observed properties of hot coronae around spiral galaxies. However, a shortcoming of Illustris is that massive black holes, mostly residing in giant ellipticals, give rise to powerful radio-mode AGN feedback, which results in under luminous coronae for ellipticals.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation

Massive, quiescent galaxies at high redshift have been found to be considerably more compact than galaxies of similar mass in the local universe. How these compact galaxies formed has yet to be determined, though several progenitor populations have been proposed. Here we investigate the formation processes and quantify the assembly histories of such galaxies in Illustris, a suite of hydrodynamical cosmological simulations encompassing a sufficiently large volume to include rare objects, while simultaneously resolving the internal structure of galaxies. We select massive (~10^11 solar masses) and compact (stellar half-mass radius < 2 kpc) galaxies from the simulation at z=2. Within the Illustris suite, we find that these quantities are not perfectly converged, but are reasonably reliable for our purposes. The resulting population is composed primarily of quiescent galaxies, but we also find several star-forming compact galaxies. The simulated compact galaxies are similar to observed galaxies in star formation activity and appearance. We follow their evolution at high redshift in the simulation and find that there are multiple pathways to form these compact galaxies, dominated by two mechanisms: (i) intense, centrally concentrated starbursts generally triggered by gas-rich major mergers between z~2-4, reducing the galaxies' half-mass radii by a factor of a few to below 2 kpc, and (ii) assembly at very early times when the universe was much denser; the galaxies formed compact and remained so until z~2.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Impact of Galactic Feedback on the Circumgalactic Medium

Galactic feedback strongly affects the way galactic environments are enriched. We examine this connection by performing a suite of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, exploring a range of parameters based on the galaxy formation model developed in Vogelsberger et al. 2013 (henceforth V13). We examine the effects of AGN feedback, wind mass loading, wind specific energy, and wind metal-loading on the properties of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of galaxies with $M_\text{halo} > 10^{11} M_\odot$. Note that while the V13 model was tuned to match observations including the stellar mass function, no explicit tuning was done for the CGM. The wind energy per unit outflow mass has the most significant effect on the CGM enrichment. High energy winds launch metals far beyond the virial radius. AGN feedback also has a significant effect, but only at $z < 3$. We compare to high redshift HI and CIV observations. All our simulations produce the observed number of Damped Lyman-$α$ Absorbers. At lower column density, several of our simulations produce enough Lyman Limit Systems (LLS) $100$ kpc from the galaxy, but in all cases the LLS abundance falls off with distance faster than observations, with too few LLS at $200$ kpc. Further, in all models the CIV abundance drops off too sharply with distance, with too little CIV $100$-$200$ kpc from the galaxy. Higher energy wind models produce more extended CIV but also produce less stars, in tension with star-formation rate density observations. This highlights the fact that circumgalactic observations are a strong constraint on galactic feedback models.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Stellar orbit evolution in close circumstellar disc encounters

The formation and early evolution of circumstellar discs often occurs within dense, newborn stellar clusters. For the first time, we apply the moving-mesh code AREPO, to circumstellar discs in 3-D, focusing on disc-disc interactions that result from stellar fly-bys. Although a small fraction of stars are expected to undergo close approaches, the outcomes of the most violent encounters might leave an imprint on the discs and host stars that will influence both their orbits and their ability to form planets. We first construct well-behaved 3-D models of self-gravitating discs, and then create a suite of numerical experiments of parabolic encounters, exploring the effects of pericenter separation r_p, disc orientation and disc-star mass ratio (M_d/M_*) on the orbital evolution of the host stars. Close encounters (2r_p<~ disc radius) can truncate discs on very short time scales. If discs are massive, close encounters facilitate enough orbital angular momentum extraction to induce stellar capture. We find that for realistic primordial disc masses M_d<~0.1M_*, non-colliding encounters induce minor orbital changes, which is consistent with analytic calculations of encounters in the linear regime. The same disc masses produce entirely different results for grazing/colliding encounters. In the latter case, rapidly cooling discs lose orbital energy by radiating away the energy excess of the shock-heated gas, thus causing capture of the host stars into a bound orbit. In rare cases, a tight binary with a circumbinary disc forms as a result of this encounter.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2015

Reproducing the Kinematics of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems

We examine the kinematic structure of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems (DLAs) in a series of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations using the AREPO code. We are able to match the distribution of velocity widths of associated low ionisation metal absorbers substantially better than earlier work. Our simulations produce a population of DLAs dominated by halos with virial velocities around 70 km/s, consistent with a picture of relatively small, faint objects. In addition, we reproduce the observed correlation between velocity width and metallicity and the equivalent width distribution of SiII. Some discrepancies of moderate statistical significance remain; too many of our spectra show absorption concentrated at the edge of the profile and there are slight differences in the exact shape of the velocity width distribution. We show that the improvement over previous work is mostly due to our strong feedback from star formation and our detailed modelling of the metal ionisation state.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

The star formation main sequence and stellar mass assembly of galaxies in the Illustris simulation

Understanding the physical processes that drive star formation is a key challenge for galaxy formation models. In this article we study the tight correlation between the star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass of galaxies at a given redshift, how halo growth influences star formation, and star formation histories of individual galaxies. We study these topics using Illustris, a state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulation of galaxy formation. Illustris reproduces the observed relation (the star formation main sequence; SFMS) between SFR and stellar mass at redshifts z=0 and z=4, but at intermediate redshifts of z~2, the simulated SFMS has a significantly lower normalisation than reported by observations. The scatter in the relation is consistent with the observed scatter. However, the fraction of outliers above the SFR-stellar mass relation in Illustris is less than that observed. Galaxies with halo masses of ~10^{12} solar masses dominate the SFR density of the Universe, in agreement with the results of abundance matching. Furthermore, more-massive galaxies tend to form the bulk of their stars at high redshift, which indicates that `downsizing' occurs in Illustris. We also studied the star formation histories of individual galaxies, including the use of a principal component analysis decomposition. We find that for fixed stellar mass, galaxies that form earlier have more-massive black holes at z=0, indicating that star formation and black hole growth are tightly linked processes in Illustris. While many of the properties of normal star-forming galaxies are well-reproduced in the Illustris simulation, forming a realistic population of starbursts will likely require higher resolution and probably a more sophisticated treatment of star formation and feedback from stars and black holes.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Synthetic Galaxy Images and Spectra from the Illustris Simulation

We present our methods for generating a catalog of 7,000 synthetic images and 40,000 integrated spectra of redshift z = 0 galaxies from the Illustris Simulation. The mock data products are produced by using stellar population synthesis models to assign spectral energy distributions (SED) to each star particle in the galaxies. The resulting synthetic images and integrated SEDs therefore properly reflect the spatial distribution, stellar metallicity distribution, and star formation history of the galaxies. From the synthetic data products it is possible to produce monochromatic or color-composite images, perform SED fitting, classify morphology, determine galaxy structural properties, and evaluate the impacts of galaxy viewing angle. The main contribution of this paper is to describe the production, format, and composition of the image catalog that makes up the Illustris Simulation Obsevatory. As a demonstration of this resource, we derive galactic stellar mass estimates by applying the SED fitting code FAST to the synthetic galaxy products, and compare the derived stellar masses against the true stellar masses from the simulation. We find from this idealized experiment that systematic biases exist in the photometrically derived stellar mass values that can be reduced by using a fixed metallicity in conjunction with a minimum galaxy age restriction.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

The colors of satellite galaxies in the Illustris Simulation

Observationally, the fraction of blue satellite galaxies decreases steeply with host halo mass, and their radial distribution around central galaxies is significantly shallower in massive (M_* >10e11M_sun) than in Milky Way like systems. Theoretical models, based primarily on semi-analytical techniques, have had a long-standing problem with reproducing these trends, instead predicting too few blue satellites in general but also estimating a radial distribution that is too shallow, regardless of primary mass. In this Letter, we use the Illustris cosmological simulation to study the properties of satellite galaxies around isolated primaries. For the first time, we find good agreement between theory and observations. We identify the main source of this success relative to earlier work to be a consequence of the large gas contents of satellites at infall, a factor ~5-10 times larger than in semi-analytical models. Because of their relatively large gas reservoirs, satellites can continue to form stars long after infall, with a typical timescale for star-formation to be quenched ~2 Gyr in groups but more than ~5 Gyr for satellites around Milky Way like primaries. The gas contents we infer are consistent with z=0 observations of HI gas in galaxies, although we find large discrepancies among reported values in the literature. A testable prediction of our model is that the gas-to-stellar mass ratio of satellite progenitors should vary only weakly with cosmic time.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe

We introduce the Illustris Project, a series of large-scale hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. The highest resolution simulation, Illustris-1, covers a volume of $(106.5\,{\rm Mpc})^3$, has a dark mass resolution of ${6.26 \times 10^{6}\,{\rm M}_\odot}$, and an initial baryonic matter mass resolution of ${1.26 \times 10^{6}\,{\rm M}_\odot}$. At $z=0$ gravitational forces are softened on scales of $710\,{\rm pc}$, and the smallest hydrodynamical gas cells have an extent of $48\,{\rm pc}$. We follow the dynamical evolution of $2\times 1820^3$ resolution elements and in addition passively evolve $1820^3$ Monte Carlo tracer particles reaching a total particle count of more than $18$ billion. The galaxy formation model includes: primordial and metal-line cooling with self-shielding corrections, stellar evolution, stellar feedback, gas recycling, chemical enrichment, supermassive black hole growth, and feedback from active galactic nuclei. At $z=0$ our simulation volume contains about $40,000$ well-resolved galaxies covering a diverse range of morphologies and colours including early-type, late-type and irregular galaxies. The simulation reproduces reasonably well the cosmic star formation rate density, the galaxy luminosity function, and baryon conversion efficiency at $z=0$. It also qualitatively captures the impact of galaxy environment on the red fractions of galaxies. The internal velocity structure of selected well-resolved disk galaxies obeys the stellar and baryonic Tully-Fisher relation together with flat circular velocity curves. In the well-resolved regime the simulation reproduces the observed mix of early-type and late-type galaxies. Our model predicts a halo mass dependent impact of baryonic effects on the halo mass function and the masses of haloes caused by feedback from supernova and active galactic nuclei.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Dwarf galaxies in CDM and SIDM with baryons: observational probes of the nature of dark matter

We present the first cosmological simulations of dwarf galaxies, which include dark matter self-interactions and baryons. We study two dwarf galaxies within cold dark matter, and four different elastic self-interacting scenarios with constant and velocity-dependent cross sections, motivated by a new force in the hidden dark matter sector. Our highest resolution simulation has a baryonic mass resolution of $1.8\times 10^2\,{\rm M}_\odot$ and a gravitational softening length of $34\,{\rm pc}$ at $z=0$. In this first study we focus on the regime of mostly isolated dwarf galaxies with halo masses $\sim10^{10}\,{\rm M}_\odot$ where dark matter dynamically dominates even at sub-kpc scales. We find that while the global properties of galaxies of this scale are minimally affected by allowed self-interactions, their internal structures change significantly if the cross section is large enough within the inner sub-kpc region. In these dark-matter-dominated systems, self-scattering ties the shape of the stellar distribution to that of the dark matter distribution. In particular, we find that the stellar core radius is closely related to the dark matter core radius generated by self-interactions. Dark matter collisions lead to dwarf galaxies with larger stellar cores and smaller stellar central densities compared to the cold dark matter case. The central metallicity within $1\,{\rm kpc}$ is also larger by up to $\sim 15\%$ in the former case. We conclude that the mass distribution, and characteristics of the central stars in dwarf galaxies can potentially be used to probe the self-interacting nature of dark matter.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Damped Lyman-alpha absorbers as a probe of stellar feedback

We examine the abundance, clustering and metallicity of Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers (DLAs) in a suite of hydrodynamic cosmological simulations using the moving mesh code AREPO. We incorporate models of supernova and AGN feedback, as well as molecular hydrogen formation. We compare our simulations to the column density distribution function at $z=3$, the total DLA abundance at $z=2-4$, the measured DLA bias at $z=2.3$ and the DLA metallicity distribution at $z=2-4$. Our preferred models produce populations of DLAs in good agreement with most of these observations. The exception is the DLA abundance at $z < 3$, which we show requires stronger feedback in $10^{11-12} \, h^{-1} M_\odot$ mass halos. While the DLA population probes a wide range of halo masses, we find the cross-section is dominated by halos of mass $10^{10} - 10^{11} \, h^{-1} M_\odot$ and virial velocities $50 - 100 \;\mathrm{km/s}$. The simulated DLA population has a linear theory bias of $1.7$, whereas the observations require $2.17 \pm 0.2$. We show that non-linear growth increases the bias in our simulations to $2.3$ at $k=1\; \mathrm{Mpc/}h$, the smallest scale observed. The scale-dependence of the bias is, however, very different in the simulations compared against the observations. We show that, of the observations we consider, the DLA abundance and column density function provide the strongest constraints on the feedback model.

astro-ph.CO↗