arXiv subjects

Matthias Steinmetz

Publications and source records attributed to Matthias Steinmetz.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Kinematics in galactic tidal tails - A source for Hypervelocity stars?

[abridged] In this work we study in detail the kinematics of tidal debris stars to investigate the implications of the new scenario that the observed sample of Hypervelocity stars could partly originate from a dwarf-host galaxy collision. We use a suite of N-body simulations following the encounter of a satellite galaxy with its Milky Way-type host galaxy to gather statistics on the properties of stripped-off stars. We study especially the orbital energy distribution of this population. We quantify the typical pattern in angular and phase space formed by the debris stars. We further develop a simple stripping model predicting the kinematics of stripped-off stars. We show that the distribution of orbital energies in the tidal debris has a typical form which can be described quite accurately by a simple function. Based on this we develop a method to predict the energy distribution which allows us to evaluate the significance and the implications of high velocity stars in satellite tidal debris. Generally tidal collisions of satellite galaxy produce stars which escape into the intragalactic space even if the satellite itself is on a bound orbit. The main parameters determining the maximum energy kick a tidal debris star can get is the initial mass of the satellite and only to a lower extent its orbit. Main contributors to an unbound stellar population created in this way are massive satellites (M_sat > 10^9 M_sun). We thus expect intragalactic stars to have a metallicity higher than the surviving satellite population of the Milky Way. However, the probability that the observed HVS population is significantly contaminated by tidal debris stars appears small in the light of our results.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

The MultiDark Database: Release of the Bolshoi and MultiDark Cosmological Simulations

We present the online MultiDark Database -- a Virtual Observatory-oriented, relational database for hosting various cosmological simulations. The data is accessible via an SQL (Structured Query Language) query interface, which also allows users to directly pose scientific questions, as shown in a number of examples in this paper. Further examples for the usage of the database are given in its extensive online documentation (www.multidark.org). The database is based on the same technology as the Millennium Database, a fact that will greatly facilitate the usage of both suites of cosmological simulations. The first release of the MultiDark Database hosts two 8.6 billion particle cosmological N-body simulations: the Bolshoi (250/h Mpc simulation box, 1/h kpc resolution) and MultiDark Run1 simulation (MDR1, or BigBolshoi, 1000/h Mpc simulation box, 7/h kpc resolution). The extraction methods for halos/subhalos from the raw simulation data, and how this data is structured in the database are explained in this paper. With the first data release, users get full access to halo/subhalo catalogs, various profiles of the halos at redshifts z=0-15, and raw dark matter data for one time-step of the Bolshoi and four time-steps of the MultiDark simulation. Later releases will also include galaxy mock catalogs and additional merging trees for both simulations as well as new large volume simulations with high resolution. This project is further proof of the viability to store and present complex data using relational database technology. We encourage other simulators to publish their results in a similar manner.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Observational Properties of the Metal-Poor Thick Disk of the Milky Way Galaxy and Insights into Its Origins

We have undertaken the study of the elemental abundances and kinematic properties of a metal-poor sample of candidate thick-disk stars selected from the RAVE spectroscopic survey of bright stars to differentiate among the present scenarios of the formation of the thick disk. In this paper, we report on a sample of 214 red giant branch, 31 red clump/horizontal branch, and 74 main-sequence/sub-giant branch metal-poor stars, which serves to augment our previous sample of only giant stars. We find that the thick disk [alpha/Fe] ratios are enhanced, and have little variation (<0.1 dex), in agreement with our previous study. The augmented sample further allows, for the first time, investigation of the gradients in the metal-poor thick disk. For stars with [Fe/H] < -1.2, the thick disk shows very small gradients, <0.03 +/- 0.02 dex/kpc, in alpha-enhancement, while we find a +0.01 +/- 0.04 dex/kpc radial gradient and a -0.09 +/- 0.05 dex/kpc vertical gradient in iron abundance. In addition, we show that the peak of the distribution of orbital eccentricities for our sample agrees better with models in which the stars that comprise the thick disk were formed primarily in the Galaxy, with direct accretion of stars contributing little. Our results thus disfavor direct accretion of stars from dwarf galaxies into the thick disk as a major contributor to the thick disk population, but cannot discriminate between alternative models for the thick disk, such as those that invoke high-redshift (gas-rich) mergers, heating of a pre-existing thin stellar disk by a minor merger, or efficient radial migration of stars.

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arXiv2011

A Sagittarius-Induced Origin for the Monoceros Ring

The Monoceros ring is a collection of stars in nearly-circular orbits at roughly 18 kpc from the Galactic center. It may have originated (i) as the response of the disc to perturbations excited by satellite companions or (ii) from the tidal debris of a disrupted dwarf galaxy. The metallicity of Monoceros stars differs from that of disc stars at comparable Galactocentric distances, an observation that disfavours the first scenario. On the other hand, circular orbits are difficult to accommodate in the tidal-disruption scenario, since it requires a satellite which at the time of disruption was itself in a nearly circular orbit. Such satellite could not have formed at the location of the ring and, given its low mass, dynamical friction is unlikely to have played a major role in its orbital evolution. We search cosmological simulations for low-mass satellites in nearly-circular orbits and find that they result, almost invariably, from orbital changes induced by collisions with more massive satellites: the radius of the circular orbit thus traces the galactocentric distance of the collision. Interestingly, the Sagittarius dwarf, one of the most luminous satellites of the Milky Way, is in a polar orbit that crosses the Galactic plane at roughly the same Galactocentric distance as Monoceros. We use idealized simulations to demonstrate that an encounter with Sagittarius might well have led to the circularization and subsequent tidal demise of the progenitor of the Monoceros ring.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

Disc Heating: Comparing the Milky Way with Cosmological Simulations

We present the analysis of a suite of simulations run with different particle-and grid-based cosmological hydrodynamical codes and compare them with observational data of the Milky Way. This is the first study to make comparisons of properties of galaxies simulated with particle and grid-based codes. Our analysis indicates that there is broad agreement between these different modelling techniques. We study the velocity dispersion - age relation for disc stars at z=0 and find that four of the simulations are more consistent with observations by Holmberg et al. (2008) in which the stellar disc appears to undergo continual/secular heating. Two other simulations are in better agreement with the Quillen & Garnett (2001) observations that suggest a "saturation" in the heating profile for young stars in the disc. None of the simulations have thin discs as old as that of the Milky Way. We also analyse the kinematics of disc stars at the time of their birth for different epochs in the galaxies' evolution and find that in some simulations old stars are born cold within the disc and are subsequently heated, while other simulations possess old stellar populations which are born relatively hot. The models which are in better agreement with observations of the Milky Way's stellar disc undergo significantly lower minor-merger/assembly activity after the last major merger - i.e. once the disc has formed. All of the simulations are significantly "hotter" than the Milky Way disc; on top of the effects of mergers, we find a "floor" in the dispersion that is related to the underlying treatment of the heating and cooling of the interstellar medium, and the low density threshold which such codes use for star formation. This finding has important implications for all studies of disc heating that use hydrodynamical codes.

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arXiv2010

The Dawning of the Stream of Aquarius in RAVE

We identify a new, nearby (0.5 < d < 10 kpc) stream in data from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). As the majority of stars in the stream lie in the constellation of Aquarius we name it the Aquarius Stream. We identify 15 members of the stream lying between 30 < l < 75 and -70< b <-50, with heliocentric line-of-sight velocities V_los~-200 km/s. The members are outliers in the radial velocity distribution, and the overdensity is statistically significant when compared to mock samples created with both the Besançon Galaxy model and newly-developed code Galaxia. The metallicity distribution function and isochrone fit in the log g - T_eff plane suggest the stream consists of a 10 Gyr old population with [m/H]~-1.0. We explore relations to other streams and substructures, finding the stream cannot be identified with known structures: it is a new, nearby substructure in the Galaxy's halo. Using a simple dynamical model of a dissolving satellite galaxy we account for the localization of the stream. We find that the stream is dynamically young and therefore likely the debris of a recently disrupted dwarf galaxy or globular cluster. The Aquarius stream is thus a specimen of ongoing hierarchical Galaxy formation, rare for being right in the solar suburb.

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arXiv2010

The preferred direction of infalling satellite galaxies in the Local Group

Using a high resolution DM simulation of the Local Group (LG), conducted within the framework of the Constrained Local UniversE Simulation (CLUES) project, we investigate the nature of how satellites of the MW and M31 are accreted. Satellites of these galaxies are accreted anisotropically, entering the virial radius of their hosts from specific "spots" with respect to the large scale structure. Furthermore, material which is tidally stripped from these satellites is also, at z=0, distributed anisotropically and is characterized by an ellipsoidal sub-volume embedded in the halo. The angular pattern created by the locus of satellite infall points and the projected stripped DM is investigated within a coordinate system determined by the location of the LG companion and the simulated Virgo cluster across concentric shells ranging from 0.1 to 5 r_vir. Remarkably, the principal axis of the ellipsoidal sub-volume shows a coherent alignment extending from well within the halo to a few r_vir. A spherical harmonics transform applied to the angular distributions confirms the visual impression: namely, the angular distributions of both the satellites entry points and stripped DM is dominated by the l=2 quadrupole term, whose major principal axis is aligned across the shells considered. It follows that the structure of the outer (r>0.5 r_vir) regions of the main halos is closely related to the cosmic web within which it is embedded. Given the hypothesis that a large fraction of the stellar halo of the Milky Way has been accreted from satellites, the present results can be applied to the stellar halo of the MW and M31. We predict that the remnants of tidally stripped satellites should be embedded in streams of material composed of dark matter and stars. The present results can therefore shed light on the existence of satellites embedded within larger streams of matter, such as the Segue 2 satellite.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

AstroGrid-D: Grid Technology for Astronomical Science

We present status and results of AstroGrid-D, a joint effort of astrophysicists and computer scientists to employ grid technology for scientific applications. AstroGrid-D provides access to a network of distributed machines with a set of commands as well as software interfaces. It allows simple use of computer and storage facilities and to schedule or monitor compute tasks and data management. It is based on the Globus Toolkit middleware (GT4). Chapter 1 describes the context which led to the demand for advanced software solutions in Astrophysics, and we state the goals of the project. We then present characteristic astrophysical applications that have been implemented on AstroGrid-D in chapter 2. We describe simulations of different complexity, compute-intensive calculations running on multiple sites, and advanced applications for specific scientific purposes, such as a connection to robotic telescopes. We can show from these examples how grid execution improves e.g. the scientific workflow. Chapter 3 explains the software tools and services that we adapted or newly developed. Section 3.1 is focused on the administrative aspects of the infrastructure, to manage users and monitor activity. Section 3.2 characterises the central components of our architecture: The AstroGrid-D information service to collect and store metadata, a file management system, the data management system, and a job manager for automatic submission of compute tasks. We summarise the successfully established infrastructure in chapter 4, concluding with our future plans to establish AstroGrid-D as a platform of modern e-Astronomy.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2010

eROSITA on SRG

eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the core instrument on the Russian Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission which is scheduled for launch in late 2012. eROSITA is fully approved and funded by the German Space Agency DLR and the Max-Planck-Society.The design driving science is the detection of 50-100 thousands Clusters of Galaxies up to redshift z~1.3 in order to study the large scale structure in the Universe and test cosmological models, especially Dark Energy. This will be accomplished by an all-sky survey lasting for four years plus a phase of pointed observations. eROSITA consists of seven Wolter-I telescope modules, each equipped with 54 Wolter-I shells having an outer diameter of 360 mm. This would provide and effective area at 1.5 keV of ~1500 cm2 and an on axis PSF HEW of 15" which would provide an effective angular resolution of 25"-30". In the focus of each mirror module, a fast frame-store pn-CCD will provide a field of view of 1deg in diameter for an active FOV of ~0.83 deg2. At the time of writing the instrument development is currently in phase C/D.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

The Modelling of Feedback Processes in Cosmological Simulations of Disk Galaxy Formation

We present a systematic study of stellar feedback processes in simulations of disk galaxy formation. Using a dark matter halo with properties similar to the ones for the Milky Way's stellar halo, we perform a comparison of different methods of distributing energy related to feedback processes to the surrounding gas. A most promising standard model is applied to halos spanning a range of masses in order to compare the results to disk galaxy scaling relations. With few exceptions we find little or no angular momentum deficiency for our galaxies and a good agreement with the angular momentum-size relation. Our galaxies are in good agreement with the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation and the slope of the photometric Tully-Fisher relation is reproduced. We find a zero-point offset of 0.7 to 1 magnitudes, depending on the employed IMF. We also study our standard feedback model in combination with additional physical processes like a UV background, kinetic feedback, a delayed energy deposition as expected for type Ia supernovae, mass return and metal-dependent cooling. Only a combination of effects yields a real improvement of the resulting galaxy by reducing the bulge, while including metal-dependent cooling increases the bulge again. We find that in general the stellar mass fraction of our galaxies is too high. In an ad-hoc experiment we show that an removal of the bulge could reconcile this. However, the fit of the Tully-Fisher relation can only be improved by delaying the star formation, but not suppressing it completely. Our models do not seem to be efficient enough to achieve either effect. We conclude that disk formation is a complex, highly interconnected problem and we expect a solution to come from a combination of small effects.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

The Angular Momentum Problem in Cosmological Simulations of Disk Galaxy Formation

We conduct a systematic study of the angular momentum problem in numerical simulations of disk galaxy formation. We investigate the role of numerical resolution using a semi-cosmological setup which combines an efficient use of the number of particles in an isolated halo while preserving the hierarchical build-up of the disk through the merging of clumps. We perform the same simulation varying the resolution over 4 orders of magnitude. Independent on the level of resolution, the loss of angular momentum stays the same and can be tied to dynamical friction during the build-up phase. This is confirmed in a cosmological simulation. We also perform simulations including star formation and star formation and supernova feedback. While the former has no influence on the angular momentum problem, the latter reduces the loss to a level potentially in agreement with observations. This is achieved through a suppression of early star formation and therefore the formation of a large, slowly rotating bulge. We conclude that feedback is a critical component to achieve realistic disk galaxies in cosmological simulations. Numerical resolution is important, but by itself not capable of solving the angular momentum problem.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Orbital Eccentricity as a probe of Thick Disk Formation Scenarios

We study the orbital properties of stars in four (published) simulations of thick disks formed by: i) accretion from disrupted satellites, ii) heating of a pre-existing thin disk by a minor merger, iii) radial migration and iv) gas rich mergers. We find that the distribution of orbital eccentricities are predicted to be different for each model: a prominent peak at low eccentricity is expected for the heating, migration and gas-rich merging scenarios, while the eccentricity distribution is broader and shifted towards higher values for the accretion model. These differences can be traced back to whether the bulk of the stars in each case is formed 'in-situ' or is 'accreted', and are robust to the peculiarities of each model. A simple test based on the eccentricity distribution of nearby thick disk stars may thus help elucidate the dominant formation mechanism of the Galactic thick disk.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Galaxy-Induced Transformation of Dark Matter Halos

We use N-body/gasdynamical LambdaCDM cosmological simulations to examine the effect of the assembly of a central galaxy on the shape and mass profile of its dark halo. Two series of simulations are compared; one that follows only the evolution of the dark matter component and a second one where a baryonic component is added. These simulations include radiative cooling but neglect star formation and feedback, leading most baryons to collect at the halo center in a disk which is too small and too massive when compared with typical spiral. This unrealistic model allows us, nevertheless, to gauge the maximum effect that galaxies may have in transforming their dark halos. We find that the shape of the halo becomes more axisymmetric: halos are transformed from triaxial into essentially oblate systems, with well-aligned isopotential contours of roughly constant flattening (c/a ~ 0.85). Halos always contract as a result of galaxy assembly, but the effect is substantially less pronounced than predicted by the "adiabatic contraction" hypothesis. The reduced contraction helps to reconcile LambdaCDM halos with constraints on the dark matter content inside the solar circle and should alleviate the long-standing difficulty of matching simultaneously the scaling properties of galaxy disks and the luminosity function. The halo contraction is also less pronounced than found in earlier simulations, a disagreement that suggests that halo contraction is not solely a function of the initial and final distribution of baryons. Not only how much baryonic mass has been deposited at the center of a halo matters, but also the mode of its deposition. It might prove impossible to predict the halo response without a detailed understanding of a galaxy's assembly history. (Abriged)

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arXiv2008

An Alternative Origin for Hypervelocity Stars

Halo stars with unusually high radial velocity ("hypervelocity" stars, or HVS) are thought to be stars unbound to the Milky Way that originate from the gravitational interaction of stellar systems with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. We examine the latest HVS compilation and find peculiarities that are unexpected in this black hole-ejection scenario. For example, a large fraction of HVS cluster around the constellation of Leo and share a common travel time of $\sim 100$-200 Myr. Furthermore, their velocities are not really extreme if, as suggested by recent galaxy formation models, the Milky Way is embedded within a $2.5\times 10^{12} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$ dark halo with virial velocity of $\sim 220$ km/s. In this case, the escape velocity at $\sim 50$ kpc would be $\sim 600$ km/s and very few HVS would be truly unbound. We use numerical simulations to show that disrupting dwarf galaxies may contribute halo stars with velocities up to and sometimes exceeding the nominal escape speed of the system. These stars are arranged in a thinly-collimated outgoing ``tidal tail'' stripped from the dwarf during its latest pericentric passage. We speculate that some HVS may therefore be tidal debris from a dwarf recently disrupted near the center of the Galaxy. In this interpretation, the angular clustering of HVS results because from our perspective the tail is seen nearly ``end on'', whereas the common travel time simply reflects the fact that these stars were stripped simultaneously from the dwarf during a single pericentric passage. This proposal is eminently falsifiable, since it makes a number of predictions that are distinct from the black-hole ejection mechanism and that should be testable with improved HVS datasets.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Constraining dark energy via baryon acoustic oscillations in the (an)isotropic light-cone power spectrum

The measurement of the scale of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the galaxy power spectrum as a function of redshift is a promising method to constrain the equation-of-state parameter of the dark energy w. To measure the scale of the BAO precisely, a substantial volume of space must be surveyed. We test whether light-cone effects are important and whether the scaling relations used to compensate for an incorrect reference cosmology are in this case sufficiently accurate. We investigate the degeneracies in the cosmological parameters and the benefits of using the two-dimensional anisotropic power spectrum. Finally, we estimate the uncertainty with which w can be measured by proposed surveys at redshifts of about z=3 and z=1, respectively. In the simulated survey we find that light-cone effects are small and that the simple scaling relations used to correct for the cosmological distortion work fairly well even for large survey volumes. The analysis of the two-dimensional anisotropic power spectra enables an independent determination to be made of the apparent scale of the BAO, perpendicular and parallel to the line of sight. This is essential for two-parameter w-models, such as the redshift-dependent dark energy model w=w_0+(1-a)w_a. Using Planck priors for the matter and baryon density and Delta(H_0)=5% for the Hubble constant, we estimate that the BAO measurements of future surveys around z=3 and z=1 will be able to constrain, independently of other cosmological probes, a constant w to ~ 12% and ~ 11% (68% c.l.), respectively.

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arXiv2008

The accretion origin of the Milky Way's stellar halo

We have used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 5 to explore the overall structure and substructure of the stellar halo of the Milky Way using about 4 million color-selected main sequence turn-off stars. We fit oblate and triaxial broken power-law models to the data, and found a `best-fit' oblateness of the stellar halo 0.5 ~100pc, after accounting for the (known) contribution of Poisson uncertainties. The fractional RMS deviation of the actual stellar distribution from any smooth, parameterized halo model is >~40%: hence, the stellar halo is highly structured. We compared the observations with simulations of galactic stellar halos formed entirely from the accretion of satellites in a cosmological context by analysing the simulations in the same way as the data. While the masses, overall profiles, and degree of substructure in the simulated stellar halos show considerable scatter, the properties and degree of substructure in the Milky Way's halo match well the properties of a `typical' stellar halo built exclusively out of the debris from disrupted satellite galaxies. Our results therefore point towards a picture in which an important fraction of the Milky Way's stellar halo has been accreted from satellite galaxies.

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arXiv2008

Multi-Dimensional Density Estimation and Phase Space Structure Of Dark Matter Halos

We present a method to numerically estimate the densities of a discretely sampled data based on binary space partitioning tree. We start with a root node containing all the particles and then recursively divide each node into two nodes each containing roughly equal number of particles,until each of the nodes contains only one particle. The volume of such a leaf node provides an estimate of the local density. We implement an entropy-based node splitting criterion that results in a significant improvement in the estimation of densities compared to earlier work. The method is completely metric free and can be applied to arbitrary number of dimensions. We apply this method to determine the phase space densities of dark matter halos obtained from cosmological N-body simulations. We find that contrary to earlier studies, the volume distribution function $v(f)$ of phase space density $f$ does not have a constant slope but rather a small hump at high phase space densities. We demonstrate that a model in which a halo is made up by a superposition of Hernquist spheres is not capable in explaining the shape of $v(f)$ vs $f$ relation, whereas a model which takes into account the contribution of the main halo separately roughly reproduces the behavior as seen in simulations. The use of the presented method is not limited to calculation of phase space densities, but can be used as a general-purpose data-mining tool and due to its speed and accuracy it is ideally suited for analysis of large multidimensional data sets.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Stars beyond Galaxies: The Origin of Extended Luminous Halos around Galaxies

(Abridged) We use numerical simulations to investigate the origin and structure of the luminous halos that surround isolated galaxies. These stellar structures extend out to several hundred kpc away from a galaxy, and consist of stars shed by merging subunits during the many accretion events that characterize the hierarchical assembly of galaxies. Such origin suggests that outer luminous halos are ubiquitous and that they should appear as an excess of light over extrapolations of the galaxy's inner profile beyond its traditional luminous radius. The mass profile of the accreted stellar component is well approximated by a model where the logarithmic slope steepens monotonically with radius; from -3 at the luminous edge of the galaxy to -4 or steeper near the virial radius of the system. Such spatial distribution is consistent with that of Galactic and M31 globular clusters, suggesting that many of the globulars were brought in by accretion events, in a manner akin to the classic Searle-Zinn scenario. The outer stellar spheroid is supported by a velocity dispersion tensor with a substantial and radially increasing radial anisotropy. These properties distinguish the stellar halo from the dark matter component, which is more isotropic in velocity space, as well as from some tracers of the outer spheroid such as satellite galaxies. Most stars in the outer halo formed in progenitors that have since merged with the central galaxy; very few stars in the halo are contributed by satellites that survive as self-bound entities at the present. These features are in reasonable agreement with recent observations of the outer halo of the MW, of M31, and of other isolated spirals, and suggest that all of these systems underwent an early period of active merging, as envisioned in hierarchical models of galaxy formation.

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