arXiv subjects

Martin Sparre

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Sparre.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Submillimetre galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations -- an opportunity for constraining feedback models

Submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) have long posed a challenge for theorists, and self-consistently reproducing the properties of the SMG population in a large-volume cosmological hydrodynamical simulation has not yet been achieved. We use a scaling relation derived from previous simulations plus radiative transfer calculations to predict the submm flux densities of simulated SMGs drawn from cosmological simulations from the Illustris and IllustrisTNG projects based on the simulated galaxies' star formation rates (SFRs) and dust masses and compare the predicted number counts with observations. We find that the predicted SMG number counts based on IllustrisTNG are significantly less than observed (more than 1 dex at $S_{850} \gtrsim 4$ mJy). The simulation from the original Illustris project yields more SMGs than IllustrisTNG: the predicted counts are consistent with those observed at both $S_{850} \lesssim 5$ mJy and $S_{850} \gtrsim 9$ mJy and only a factor of $\sim 2$ lower than observed at intermediate flux densities. The redshift distribution of SMGs with $S_{850} > 3$ mJy in IllustrisTNG is consistent with the observed distribution, whereas the Illustris redshift distribution peaks at significantly lower redshift (1.5 vs. 2.8). We demonstrate that IllustrisTNG hosts fewer SMGs than Illustris because in the former, high-mass ($M_{\star} \sim 10^{11} \, \text{M}_{\odot}$) $z \sim 2-3$ galaxies have lower dust masses and SFRs than in Illustris owing to differences in the sub-grid models for stellar or/and active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback between the two simulations (we unfortunately cannot isolate the specific cause(s) post hoc). Our results demonstrate that because our method enables predicting SMG number counts in post-processing with a negligible computational expense, SMGs can provide useful constraints for tuning sub-grid models in future large-volume cosmological simulations.

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arXiv2020

The time-scales probed by star formation rate indicators for realistic, bursty star formation histories from the FIRE simulations

Understanding the rate at which stars form is central to studies of galaxy formation. Observationally, the star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies are measured using the luminosity in different frequency bands, often under the assumption of a time-steady SFR in the recent past. We use star formation histories (SFHs) extracted from cosmological simulations of star-forming galaxies from the FIRE project to analyze the time-scales to which the H$α$ and far-ultraviolet (FUV) continuum SFR indicators are sensitive. In these simulations, the SFRs are highly time variable for all galaxies at high redshift, and continue to be bursty to z=0 in dwarf galaxies. When FIRE SFHs are partitioned into their bursty and time-steady phases, the best-fitting FUV time-scale fluctuates from its ~10 Myr value when the SFR is time-steady to >~100 Myr immediately following particularly extreme bursts of star formation during the bursty phase. On the other hand, the best-fitting averaging time-scale for H$α$ is generally insensitive to the SFR variability in the FIRE simulations and remains ~5 Myr at all times. These time-scales are shorter than the 100 Myr and 10 Myr time-scales sometimes assumed in the literature for FUV and H$α$, respectively, because while the FUV emission persists for stellar populations older than 100 Myr, the time-dependent luminosities are strongly dominated by younger stars. Our results confirm that the ratio of SFRs inferred using H$α$ vs. FUV can be used to probe the burstiness of star formation in galaxies.

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arXiv2020

Highly ordered magnetic fields in the tail of the jellyfish galaxy JO206

Jellyfish galaxies have long tails of gas that is stripped from the disc by ram pressure due to the motion of galaxies in the intracluster medium in galaxy clusters. We present the first measurement of the magnetic field strength and orientation within the disc and the (90$\,$kpc-long) $\rm Hα$-emitting tail of the jellyfish galaxy JO206. The tail has a large-scale magnetic field ($>4.1\,μ$G), a steep radio spectral index ($α\sim -2.0$), indicating an aging of the electrons propagating away from the star-forming regions, and extremely high fractional polarisation ($>50\,$%), indicating low turbulent motions. The magnetic field vectors are aligned with (parallel to) the direction of the ionised-gas tail and stripping direction. High-resolution simulations of a large, cold gas cloud that is exposed to a hot, magnetised turbulent wind show that the high fractional polarisation and the ordered magnetic field can be explained by accretion of draped magnetised plasma from the hot wind that condenses onto the external layers of the tail, where it is adiabatically compressed and sheared. The ordered magnetic field, preventing heat and momentum exchange, may be a key factor in allowing in-situ star formation in the tail.

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arXiv2020

Interaction of a cold cloud with a hot wind: the regimes of cloud growth and destruction and the impact of magnetic fields

Multiphase galaxy winds, the accretion of cold gas through galaxy haloes, and gas stripping from jellyfish galaxies are examples of interactions between cold and hot gaseous phases. There are two important regimes in such systems. A sufficiently small cold cloud is destroyed by the hot wind as a result of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, which shatter the cloud into small pieces that eventually mix and dissolve in the hot wind. On the contrary, stripped cold gas from a large cloud mixes with the hot wind to intermediate temperatures, and then becomes thermally unstable and cools, causing a net accretion of hot gas to the cold tail. Using the magneto-hydrodynamical code AREPO, we perform cloud crushing simulations and test analytical criteria for the transition between the growth and destruction regimes to clarify a current debate in the literature. We find that the hot-wind cooling time sets the transition radius and not the cooling time of the mixed phase. Magnetic fields modify the wind-cloud interaction. Draping of wind magnetic field enhances the field upstream of the cloud and fluid instabilities are suppressed by a turbulently magnetised wind beyond what is seen for a wind with a uniform magnetic field. We furthermore predict jellyfish galaxies to have ordered magnetic fields aligned with their tails. We finally discuss how the results of idealised simulations can be used to provide input to subgrid models in cosmological (magneto-)hydrodynamical simulations, which cannot resolve the detailed small-scale structure of cold gas clouds in the circum-galactic medium.

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arXiv2020

The Hestia project: simulations of the Local Group

We present the Hestia simulation suite: High-resolutions Environmental Simulations of The Immediate Area, a set of cosmological simulations of the Local Group. Initial conditions constrained by the observed peculiar velocity of nearby galaxies are employed to accurately simulate the local cosmography. Halo pairs that resemble the Local Group are found in low resolutions constrained, dark matter only simulations, and selected for higher resolution magneto hydrodynamic simulation using the Arepo code. Baryonic physics follows the Auriga model of galaxy formation. The simulations contain a high resolution region of 3-5 Mpc in radius from the Local Group midpoint embedded in the correct cosmographic landscape. Within this region a simulated Local Group consisting of a Milky Way and Andromeda like galaxy forms, whose description is in excellent agreement with observations. The simulated Local Group galaxies resemble the Milky Way and Andromeda in terms of their halo mass, mass ratio, stellar disc mass, morphology separation, relative velocity, rotation curves, bulge-disc morphology, satellite galaxy stellar mass function, satellite radial distribution and in some cases, the presence of a Magellanic cloud like object. Because these simulations properly model the Local Group in their cosmographic context, they provide a testing ground for questions where environment is thought to play an important role.

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arXiv2020

Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- XIV. Galaxy mergers do not lie on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation

In recent observational studies, star-forming galaxies have been shown to follow a relation often dubbed the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR). This relation links the stellar mass of a galaxy with its star formation rate (SFR) and its gas-phase metallicity. Specifically, the FMR predicts that galaxies, at a given stellar mass, exhibit lower metallicities for higher SFRs. This trend is qualitatively consistent with observations of galaxy pairs, which have been robustly shown to experience increasing gas-phase metallicity dilution and enhanced star formation activity with decreasing projected separation. In this work, we show that, despite the qualitative consistency with FMR expectations, the observed O/H dilution in galaxy pairs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is stronger than what is predicted by the FMR. We conclude that the evolutionary phase of galaxies interacting with companions is not encoded in the FMR, and thus, mergers constitute a clearly defined population of outliers. We find that galaxies in pairs are consistent with the FMR only when their separation is larger than 110 kpc. Finally, we also quantify the local environment of the pairs using the number of galaxy neighbours within $2\, \mathrm{Mpc}$, $N_2$, and the projected separation to the second closest galaxy, $r_2$. We find that pairs are more sensitive to a second companion than to the local galaxy density, displaying less elevated SFRs with smaller values of $r_2$.

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arXiv2019

Quiescent galaxies 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and their progenitors

We report two secure ($z=3.775, 4.012$) and one tentative ($z\approx3.767$) spectroscopic confirmations of massive and quiescent galaxies through $K$-band observations with Keck/MOSFIRE and VLT/X-Shooter. The stellar continuum emission, the absence of strong nebular emission lines and the lack of significant far-infrared detections confirm the passive nature of these objects, disfavoring the alternative solution of low-redshift dusty star-forming interlopers. We derive stellar masses of $\mathrm{log}(M_{\star}/M_\odot)\sim11$ and ongoing star formation rates placing these galaxies $\gtrsim 1-2$ dex below the main sequence at their redshifts. The adopted parametrization of the star formation history suggests that these sources experienced a strong ($\langle \rm SFR \rangle \sim 1200-3500\,M_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$) and short ($\sim 50$ Myr) burst of star formation, peaking $\sim 150-500$ Myr before the time of observation, all properties reminiscent of the characteristics of sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs) at $z>4$. We investigate this connection by comparing the comoving number densities and the properties of these two populations. We find a fair agreement only with the deepest sub-mm surveys detecting not only the most extreme starbursts, but also more normal galaxies. We support these findings by further exploring the Illustris-TNG cosmological simulation, retrieving populations of both fully quenched massive galaxies at $z\sim3-4$ and SMGs at $z\sim4-5$, with number densities and properties in agreement with the observations at $z\sim3$, but in increasing tension at higher redshift. Nevertheless, as suggested by the observations, not all the progenitors of quiescent galaxies at these redshifts shine as bright SMGs in their past and, similarly, not all bright SMGs quench by $z\sim3$, both fractions depending on the threshold assumed to define the SMGs themselves.

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arXiv2019

The diversity of the circumgalactic medium around z = 0 Milky Way-mass galaxies from the Auriga simulations

Galaxies are surrounded by massive gas reservoirs (i.e. the circumgalactic medium; CGM) which play a key role in their evolution. The properties of the CGM, which are dependent on a variety of internal and environmental factors, are often inferred from absorption line surveys which rely on a limited number of single lines-of-sight. In this work we present an analysis of 28 galaxy haloes selected from the Auriga project, a cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical zoom-in simulation suite of isolated Milky Way-mass galaxies, to understand the impact of CGM diversity on observational studies. Although the Auriga haloes are selected to populate a narrow range in halo mass, our work demonstrates that the CGM of L* galaxies is extremely diverse: column densities of commonly observed species span ~3-4 dex and their covering fractions range from ~5 to 90 per cent. Despite this diversity, we identify the following correlations: 1) the covering fractions (CF) of hydrogen and metals of the Auriga haloes positively correlate with stellar mass, 2) the CF of H I, C IV, and Si II anticorrelate with active galactic nucleus luminosity due to ionization effects, and 3) the CF of H I, C IV, and Si II positively correlate with galaxy disc fraction due to outflows populating the CGM with cool and dense gas. The Auriga sample demonstrates striking diversity within the CGM of L* galaxies, which poses a challenge for observations reconstructing CGM characteristics from limited samples, and also indicates that long-term merger assembly history and recent star formation are not the dominant sculptors of the CGM.

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arXiv2019

The interplay of Self-Interacting Dark Matter and baryons in shaping the halo evolution

We use high-resolution hydrodynamical simulation to test the difference of halo properties in cold dark matter (CDM) and a self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) scenario with a constant cross-section of $σ^\text{T}/m_χ=1\;\text{cm}^{2}\text{g}^{-1}$. We find that the interplay between dark matter self-interaction and baryonic physics induces a complex evolution of the halo properties, which depends on the halo mass and morphological type, as well as on the halo mass accretion history. While high mass haloes, selected as analogues of early-type galaxies, show cored profiles in the SIDM run, systems of intermediate mass and with a significant disk component can develop a profile that is similar or cuspier than in CDM. The final properties of SIDM haloes - measured at z=0.2 - correlate with the halo concentration and formation time, suggesting that the differences between different systems are due to the fact that we are observing the impact self-interaction. We also search for signatures of self-interacting dark matter in the lensing signal of the main haloes and hints of potential differences in the distribution of Einstein radii, which suggests that future wide-field survey might be able to distinguish between CDM and SIDM models on this basis. Finally, we find that the subhalo abundances are not altered in the adopted SIDM model with respect to CDM.

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arXiv2018

The physics of multiphase gas flows: fragmentation of a radiatively cooling gas cloud in a hot wind

Galactic winds exhibit a multiphase structure that consists of hot-diffuse and cold-dense phases. Here we present high-resolution idealised simulations of the interaction of a hot supersonic wind with a cold cloud with the moving-mesh code arepo in setups with and without radiative cooling. We demonstrate that cooling causes clouds with sizes larger than the cooling length to fragment in two- and three-dimensional simulations (2D and 3D). We confirm earlier 2D simulations by McCourt et al. 2018 and highlight differences of the shattering processes of 3D clouds that are exposed to a hot wind. The fragmentation process is quantified with a friends-of-friends analysis of shattered cloudlets and density power spectra. Those show that radiative cooling causes the power spectral index to gradually increase when the initial cloud radius is larger than the cooling length and with increasing time until the cloud is fully dissolved in the hot wind. A resolution of around 1 pc is required to reveal the effect of cooling-induced fragmentation of a 100 pc outflowing cloud. Thus, state-of-the-art cosmological zoom simulations of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) fall short by orders of magnitudes from resolving this fragmentation process. This physics is, however, necessary to reliably model observed column densities and covering fractions of Lyman-$α$ haloes, high-velocity clouds, and broad-line regions of active galactic nuclei.

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arXiv2018

Merger-Induced Metallicity Dilution in Cosmological Galaxy Formation Simulations

Observational studies have revealed that galaxy pairs tend to have lower gas-phase metallicity than isolated galaxies. This metallicity deficiency can be caused by inflows of low-metallicity gas due to the tidal forces and gravitational torques associated with galaxy mergers, diluting the metal content of the central region. In this work we demonstrate that such metallicity dilution occurs in state-of-the-art cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. We find that the dilution is typically 0.1 dex for major mergers, and is noticeable at projected separations smaller than $40$ kpc. For minor mergers the metallicity dilution is still present, even though the amplitude is significantly smaller. Consistent with previous analysis of observed galaxies we find that mergers are outliers from the \emph{fundamental metallicity relation}, with deviations being larger than expected for a Gaussian distribution of residuals. Our large sample of mergers within full cosmological simulations also makes it possible to estimate how the star formation rate enhancement and gas consumption timescale behave as a function of the merger mass ratio. We confirm that strong starbursts are likely to occur in major mergers, but they can also arise in minor mergers if more than two galaxies are participating in the interaction, a scenario that has largely been ignored in previous work based on idealised isolated merger simulations.

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arXiv2018

Galaxy mergers moulding the circum-galactic medium - I. The impact of a major merger

Galaxies are surrounded by sizeable gas reservoirs which host a significant amount of metals: the circum-galactic medium (CGM). The CGM acts as a mediator between the galaxy and the extra-galactic medium. However, our understanding of how galaxy mergers, a major evolutionary transformation, impact the CGM remains deficient. We present a theoretical study of the effect of galaxy mergers on the CGM. We use hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations of a major merger selected from the Illustris project such that the z=0 descendant has a halo mass and stellar mass comparable to the Milky Way. To study the CGM we then re-simulated this system at a 40 times better mass resolution, and included detailed post-processing ionization modelling. Our work demonstrates the effect the merger has on the characteristic size of the CGM, its metallicity, and the predicted covering fraction of various commonly observed gas-phase species, such as H I, C IV, and O VI. We show that merger-induced outflows can increase the CGM metallicity by 0.2-0.3 dex within 0.5 Gyr post-merger. These effects last up to 6 Gyr post-merger. While the merger increases the total metal covering fractions by factors of 2-3, the covering fractions of commonly observed UV ions decrease due to the hard ionizing radiation from the active galactic nucleus, which we model explicitly. Our study of the single simulated major merger presented in this work demonstrates the significant impact that a galaxy interaction can have on the size, metallicity, and observed column densities of the CGM.

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arXiv2017

An alternate approach to measure specific star formation rates at 2<z<7

We trace the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of massive star-forming galaxies ($\gtrsim\!10^{10}\,\mathcal{M}_\odot$) from $z\sim2$ to 7. Our method is substantially different from previous analyses, as it does not rely on direct estimates of star formation rate, but on the differential evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF). We show the reliability of this approach by means of semi-analytical and hydrodynamical cosmological simulations. We then apply it to real data, using the SMFs derived in the COSMOS and CANDELS fields. We find that the sSFR is proportional to $(1+z)^{1.1\pm0.2}$ at $z>2$, in agreement with other observations but in tension with the steeper evolution predicted by simulations from $z\sim4$ to 2. We investigate the impact of several sources of observational bias, which however cannot account for this discrepancy. Although the SMF of high-redshift galaxies is still affected by significant errors, we show that future large-area surveys will substantially reduce them, making our method an effective tool to probe the massive end of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies.

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arXiv2017

Origin of chemically distinct discs in the Auriga cosmological simulations

The stellar disk of the Milky Way shows complex spatial and abundance structure that is central to understanding the key physical mechanisms responsible for shaping our Galaxy. In this study, we use six very high resolution cosmological zoom simulations of Milky Way-sized haloes to study the prevalence and formation of chemically distinct disc components. We find that our simulations develop a clearly bimodal distribution in the $[\rm α/Fe]$ -- $[\rm Fe/H]$ plane. We find two main pathways to creating this dichotomy which operate in different regions of the galaxies: a) an early ($z>1$) and intense high-$\rm[α/Fe]$ star formation phase in the inner region ($R\lesssim 5$ kpc) induced by gas-rich mergers, followed by more quiescent low-$\rm[α/Fe]$ star formation; and b) an early phase of high-$\rm[α/Fe]$ star formation in the outer disc followed by a shrinking of the gas disc owing to a temporarily lowered gas accretion rate, after which disc growth resumes. In process b), a double-peaked star formation history around the time and radius of disc shrinking accentuates the dichotomy. If the early star formation phase is prolonged (rather than short and intense), chemical evolution proceeds as per process a) in the inner region, but the dichotomy is less clear. In the outer region, the dichotomy is only evident if the first intense phase of star formation covers a large enough radial range before disc shrinking occurs; otherwise, the outer disc consists of only low-$\rm[α/Fe]$ sequence stars. We discuss the implication that both processes occurred in the Milky Way.

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arXiv2017

The unorthodox evolution of major merger remnants into star-forming spiral galaxies

Galaxy mergers are believed to play a key role in transforming star-forming disk galaxies into quenched ellipticals. Most of our theoretical knowledge about such morphological transformations does, however, rely on idealised simulations where processes such as cooling of hot halo gas into the disk and gas accretion in the post-merger phase are not treated in a self-consistent cosmological fashion. In this paper we study the morphological evolution of the stellar components of four major mergers occurring at z=0.5 in cosmological hydrodynamical zoom-simulations. In all simulations the merger reduces the disk mass-fraction, but all galaxies simulated at our highest resolution regrow a significant disk by z=0 (with a disk fraction larger than 24%). For runs with our default physics model, which includes galactic winds from star formation and black hole feedback, none of the merger remnants are quenched, but in a set of simulations with stronger black hole feedback we find that major mergers can indeed quench galaxies. We conclude that major merger remnants commonly evolve into star-forming disk galaxies, unless sufficiently strong AGN feedback assists in the quenching of the remnant.

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arXiv2017

Log-normal star formation histories in simulated and observed galaxies

Gladders et al. have recently suggested that the star formation histories (SFHs) of individual galaxies are characterized by a log-normal function in time, implying a slow decline rather than rapid quenching. We test their conjecture on theoretical SFHs from the cosmological simulation Illustris and on observationally inferred SFHs. While the log-normal form necessarily ignores short-lived features such as starbursts, it fits the overall shape of the majority of SFHs very well. In particular, 85% of the cumulative SFHs are fitted to within a maximum error of 5% of the total stellar mass formed, and 99% to within 10%. The log-normal performs systematically better than the commonly used delayed-tau model, and is superseded only by functions with more than three free parameters. Poor fits are mostly found in galaxies that were rapidly quenched after becoming satellites. We explore the log-normal parameter space of normalization, peak time, and full width at half maximum, and find that the simulated and observed samples occupy similar regions, though Illustris predicts wider, later-forming SFHs on average. The ensemble of log-normal fits correctly reproduces complex metrics such as the evolution of Illustris galaxies across the star formation main sequence, but overpredicts their quenching timescales. SFHs in Illustris are a diverse population not determined by any one physical property of galaxies, but follow a tight relation, where $\mathrm{width}\propto\mathrm{(peak\ time)}^{3/2}$. We show that such a relation can be explained qualitatively (though not quantitatively) by a close connection between the growth of dark matter halos and their galaxies.

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arXiv2016

(Star)bursts of FIRE: observational signatures of bursty star formation in galaxies

Galaxy formation models are now able to reproduce observed relations such as the relation between galaxies' star formation rates (SFRs) and stellar masses ($M_*$) and the stellar mass--halo mass relation. We demonstrate that comparisons of the short-timescale variability in galaxy SFRs with observational data provide an additional useful constraint on the physics of galaxy formation feedback. We apply SFR indicators with different sensitivity timescales to galaxies from the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations. We find that the SFR--$M_*$ relation has a significantly greater scatter when the H$α$-derived SFR is considered compared with when the far-ultraviolet (FUV)-based SFR is used. This difference is a direct consequence of bursty star formation because the FIRE galaxies exhibit order-of-magnitude SFR variations over timescales of a few Myr. We show that the difference in the scatter between the simulated H$α$- and FUV-derived SFR--$M_*$ relations at $z=2$ is consistent with observational constraints. We also find that the H$α$/FUV ratios predicted by the simulations at $z=0$ are similar to those observed for local galaxies except for a population of low-mass ($M_* \lesssim 10^{9.5} {\rm M}_\odot$) simulated galaxies with lower H$α$/FUV ratios than observed. We suggest that future cosmological simulations should compare the H$α$/FUV ratios of their galaxies with observations to constrain the feedback models employed.

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arXiv2016

Zooming in on major mergers: dense, starbursting gas in cosmological simulations

We introduce the `Illustris zoom simulation project', which allows the study of selected galaxies forming in the $Λ$CDM cosmology with a 40 times better mass resolution than in the parent large-scale hydrodynamical Illustris simulation. We here focus on the starburst properties of the gas in four cosmological simulations of major mergers. The galaxies in our high-resolution zoom runs exhibit a bursty mode of star formation with gas consumption timescales 10 times shorter than for the normal star formation mode. The strong bursts are only present in the simulations with the highest resolution, hinting that a too low resolution is the reason why the original Illustris simulation showed a dearth of starburst galaxies. Very pronounced bursts of star formation occur in two out of four major mergers we study. The high star formation rates, the short gas consumption timescales and the morphology of these systems strongly resemble observed nuclear starbursts. This is the first time that a sample of major mergers is studied through self-consistent cosmological hydrodynamical simulations instead of using isolated galaxy models setup on a collision course. We also study the orbits of the colliding galaxies and find that the starbursting gas preferentially appears in head-on mergers with very high collision velocities. Encounters with large impact parameters do typically not lead to the formation of starbursting gas.

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