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Michaela Hirschmann

Publications and source records attributed to Michaela Hirschmann.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

Variations of the stellar initial mass function in semi-analytical models II: the impact of Cosmic Ray regulation

Recent studies proposed that cosmic rays (CR) are a key ingredient in setting the conditions for star formation, thanks to their ability to alter the thermal and chemical state of dense gas in the UV-shielded cores of molecular clouds. In this paper, we explore their role as regulators of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) variations, using the semi-analytic model for GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA). The new model confirms our previous results obtained using the integrated galaxy-wide IMF (IGIMF) theory: both variable IMF models reproduce the observed increase of $α$-enhancement as a function of stellar mass and the measured $z=0$ excess of dynamical mass-to-light ratios with respect to photometric estimates assuming a universal IMF. We focus here on the mismatch between the photometrically-derived ($M^{\rm app}_{\star}$) and intrinsic ($M_{\star}$) stellar masses, by analysing in detail the evolution of model galaxies with different values of $M_{\star}/M^{\rm app}_{\star}$. We find that galaxies with small deviations (i.e. formally consistent with a universal IMF hypothesis) are characterized by more extended star formation histories and live in less massive haloes with respect to the bulk of the galaxy population. While the IGIMF theory does not change significantly the mean evolution of model galaxies with respect to the reference model, a CR-regulated IMF implies shorter star formation histories and higher peaks of star formation for objects more massive than $10^{10.5} M_\odot$. However, we also show that it is difficult to unveil this behaviour from observations, as the key physical quantities are typically derived assuming a universal IMF.

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The Co-Evolution of Total Density Profiles and Central Dark Matter Fractions in Simulated Early-Type Galaxies

We present evidence from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations for a co-evolution of the slope of the total (dark and stellar) mass density profile, gamma_tot, and the dark matter fraction within the half-mass radius, f_DM, in early-type galaxies. The relation can be described as gamma_tot = A f_DM + B for all systems at all redshifts. The trend is set by the decreasing importance of gas dissipation towards lower redshifts and for more massive systems. Early-type galaxies are smaller, more concentrated, have lower f_DM and steeper gamma_tot at high redshifts and at lower masses for a given redshift; f_DM and gamma_tot are good indicators for growth by "dry" merging. The values for A and B change distinctively for different feedback models, and this relation can be used as a test for such models. A similar correlation exists between gamma_tot and the stellar mass surface density Sigma_*. A model with weak stellar feedback and feedback from black holes is in best agreement with observations. All simulations, independent of the assumed feedback model, predict steeper gamma_tot and lower f_DM at higher redshifts. While the latter is in agreement with the observed trends, the former is in conflict with lensing observations, which indicate constant or decreasing gamma_tot. This discrepancy is shown to be artificial: the observed trends can be reproduced from the simulations using observational methodology to calculate the total density slopes.

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Synthetic nebular emission from massive galaxies I: origin of the cosmic evolution of optical emission-line ratios

Galaxies occupy different regions of the [OIII]$\lambda5007$/H$β$-versus-[NII]$\lambda6584$/H$α$ emission-line ratio diagram in the distant and local Universe. We investigate the origin of this intriguing result by modelling self-consistently, for the first time, nebular emission from young stars, accreting black holes (BHs) and older, post-asymptotic-giant-branch (post-AGB) stellar populations in galaxy formation simulations in a full cosmological context. In post-processing, we couple new-generation nebular-emission models with high-resolution, cosmological zoom-in simulations of massive galaxies to explore which galaxy physical properties drive the cosmic evolution of the optical-line ratios [OIII]$\lambda5007$/H$β$, [NII]$\lambda6584$/H$α$, [SII]$λ\lambda6717,6731$/H$α$ and [OI]$\lambda6300$/H$α$. The line ratios of simulated galaxies agree well with observations of both star-forming and active local SDSS galaxies. Towards higher redshifts, at fixed galaxy stellar mass, the average [OIII]/H$β$ increases and [NII]/H$α$, [SII]/H$α$ and [OI]/H$α$ decrease -- widely consistent with observations. At fixed stellar mass, we identify star formation history, which controls nebular emission from young stars via the ionization parameter, as the primary driver of the cosmic evolution of [OIII]/H$β$ and [NII]/H$α$. For [SII]/H$α$ and [OI]/H$α$, this applies only to redshifts above $z=1.5$, the evolution at lower redshift being driven in roughly equal parts by nebular emission from AGN and post-AGB stars. Instead, changes in the hardness of ionizing radiation, ionized-gas density, the prevalence of BH accretion relative to star formation and the dust-to-metal mass ratio (whose impact on the gas-phase N/O ratio we model at fixed O/H) play at most a minor role in the cosmic evolution of simulated galaxy line ratios.

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H$_2$-based star formation laws in hierarchical models of galaxy formation

We update our recently published model for GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA), to include a self-consistent treatment of the partition of cold gas in atomic and molecular hydrogen. Our model provides significant improvements with respect to previous ones used for similar studies. In particular, GAEA (i) includes a sophisticated chemical enrichment scheme accounting for non-instantaneous recycling of gas, metals, and energy; (ii) reproduces the measured evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function; (iii) reasonably reproduces the observed correlation between galaxy stellar mass and gas metallicity at different redshifts. These are important prerequisites for models considering a metallicity dependent efficiency of molecular gas formation. We also update our model for disk sizes and show that model predictions are in nice agreement with observational estimates for the gas, stellar and star forming disks at different cosmic epochs. We analyse the influence of different star formation laws including empirical relations based on the hydro-static pressure of the disk, analytic models, and prescriptions derived from detailed hydro-dynamical simulations. We find that modifying the star formation law does not affect significantly the global properties of model galaxies, neither their distributions. The only quantity showing significant deviations in different models is the cosmic molecular-to-atomic hydrogen ratio, particularly at high redshift. Unfortunately, however, this quantity also depends strongly on the modelling adopted for additional physical processes. Useful constraints on the physical processes regulating star formation can be obtained focusing on low mass galaxies and/or at higher redshift. In this case, self-regulation has not yet washed out differences imprinted at early time.

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Physics of Galactic Metals: Evolutionary Effects due to Production, Distribution, Feedback & Interaction with Black Holes

We ask how the inclusion of various physical heating processes due to the metal content of gas affect the evolution of massive galaxies and compute a suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that follow these systems and their supermassive black holes. We use a smoothed particle hydrodynamics code with a pressure-entropy formulation and a more accurate treatment of the metal production, turbulent diffusion and cooling rate based on individual element abundances. The feedback models include (1) AGN feedback via high velocity BAL winds and Compton/photoionization heating, (2) explicit stellar feedback from multiple processes including powerful winds from supernova events, stellar winds from young massive stars and AGB stars as well as radiative heating within Stromgren spheres around massive stars, and (3) additional heating effects due to the presence of metals including grain photoelectric heating, metallicity dependent X-ray heating by nearby accreting black holes and from the cosmic X-ray background, which are the major improvement in our feedback model. With a suite of zoom-in simulations of 30 halos with $M_{vir} \sim 10^{12-13.4}$, we show that energy and momentum budget from all feedback effects generate realistic galaxy properties. We explore the detailed role of each feedback model with three additional sets of simulations with varying input physics. We show that the metal induced heating mechanisms reduce the fraction of accreted stellar material by mainly suppressing the growth of diffuse small stellar systems at high redshift but overall have a relatively minor effect on the final stellar and gas properties of massive galaxies. The inclusion of AGN feedback significantly improves the ability of our cosmological simulations to yield realistic gas and stellar properties of massive galaxies with reasonable fraction of the final stellar mass accreted from other galaxies.

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Strong stellar-driven outflows shape the evolution of galaxies at cosmic dawn

We study galaxy mass assembly and cosmic star formation rate (SFR) at high-redshift (z$\gt$4), by comparing data from multiwavelength surveys with predictions from the GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) model. GAEA implements a stellar feedback scheme partially based on cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, that features strong stellar driven outflows and mass-dependent timescale for the re-accretion of ejected gas. In previous work, we have shown that this scheme is able to correctly reproduce the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) up to $z\sim3$. We contrast model predictions with both rest-frame Ultra-Violet (UV) and optical luminosity functions (LF), which are mostly sensible to the SFR and stellar mass, respectively. We show that GAEA is able to reproduce the shape and redshift evolution of both sets of LFs. We study the impact of dust on the predicted LFs and we find that the required level of dust attenuation is in qualitative agreement with recent estimates based on the UV continuum slope. The consistency between data and model predictions holds for the redshift evolution of the physical quantities well beyond the redshift range considered for the calibration of the original model. In particular, we show that GAEA is able to recover the evolution of the GSMF up to z$\sim$7 and the cosmic SFR density up to z$\sim$10.

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nIFTy Cosmology: the clustering consistency of galaxy formation models

We present a clustering comparison of 12 galaxy formation models (including Semi-Analytic Models (SAMs) and Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) models) all run on halo catalogues and merger trees extracted from a single ΛCDM N-body simulation. We compare the results of the measurements of the mean halo occupation numbers, the radial distribution of galaxies in haloes and the 2-Point Correlation Functions (2PCF). We also study the implications of the different treatments of orphan (galaxies not assigned to any dark matter subhalo) and non-orphan galaxies in these measurements. Our main result is that the galaxy formation models generally agree in their clustering predictions but they disagree significantly between HOD and SAMs for the orphan satellites. Although there is a very good agreement between the models on the 2PCF of central galaxies, the scatter between the models when orphan satellites are included can be larger than a factor of 2 for scales smaller than 1 Mpc/h. We also show that galaxy formation models that do not include orphan satellite galaxies have a significantly lower 2PCF on small scales, consistent with previous studies. Finally, we show that the 2PCF of orphan satellites is remarkably different between SAMs and HOD models. Orphan satellites in SAMs present a higher clustering than in HOD models because they tend to occupy more massive haloes. We conclude that orphan satellites have an important role on galaxy clustering and they are the main cause of the differences in the clustering between HOD models and SAMs.

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AGN feedback and the origin of the $α$ enhancement in early type galaxies - insights from the GAEA model

We take advantage of our recently published model for Galaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) to study the origin of the observed correlation between [$α$/Fe] and galaxy stellar mass. In particular, we analyse the role of radio mode AGN feedback, that recent work has identified as a crucial ingredient to reproduce observations. In GAEA, this process introduces the observed trend of star formation histories extending over shorter time-scales for more massive galaxies, but does not provide a sufficient condition to reproduce the observed $α$ enhancements of massive galaxies. In the framework of our model, this is possible only assuming that any residual star formation is truncated for galaxies more massive than $10^{10.5}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$. This results, however, in even shorter star formation time-scales for the most massive galaxies, that translate in total stellar metallicities significantly lower than observed. Our results demonstrate that (i) trends of [$α$/Fe] ratios cannot be simply converted in relative time-scale indicators, and (ii) AGN feedback cannot explain alone the positive correlation between [$α$/Fe] and galaxy mass/velocity dispersion. Reproducing simultaneously the mass-metallicity relation and the $α$ enhancements observed poses a challenge for hierarchical models, unless more exotic solutions are adopted such as metal-rich winds or a variable IMF.

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HI-selected Galaxies in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Formation and Evolution

In this work, we study the basic statistical properties of HI-selected galaxies extracted from six different semi-analytic models, all run on the same cosmological N-body simulation. One model includes an explicit treatment for the partition of cold gas into atomic and molecular hydrogen. All models considered agree nicely with the measured HI mass function in the local Universe, with the measured scaling relations between HI and galaxy stellar mass, and with the predicted 2-point correlation function for HI rich galaxies. One exception is given by one model that predicts very little HI associated with galaxies in haloes above 10^12 Msun: we argue this is due to a too efficient radio-mode feedback for central galaxies, and to a combination of efficient stellar feedback and instantaneous stripping of hot gas for satellites. We demonstrate that treatment of satellite galaxies introduces large uncertainties at low HI masses. While models assuming non instantaneous stripping of hot gas tend to form satellite galaxies with HI masses slightly smaller than those of centrals with the same stellar mass, instantaneous gas stripping does not translate necessarily in lower HI masses. In fact, the adopted stellar feedback and star formation affect the satellites too. We analyze the relation between HI content and spin of simulated haloes: low spin haloes tend to host HI poor galaxies while high spin haloes are populated by galaxies in a wide range of HI mass. In our simulations, this is due to a correlation between the initial gas disk size and the halo spin.

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Variations of the initial mass function in semi-analytical models: implications for the mass assembly and the chemical enrichment of galaxies in the GAEA model

In this work, we investigate the implications of the Integrated Galaxy-wide stellar Initial Mass Function (IGIMF) approach in the framework of the semi-analytic model GAEA (GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly), which features a detailed treatment of chemical enrichment and stellar feedback. The IGIMF provides an analytic description of the dependence of the stellar IMF shape on the rate of star formation in galaxies. We find that our model with a universal IMF predicts a rather flat [$α$/Fe]-stellar mass relation. The model assuming the IGIMF, instead, is able to reproduce the observed increase of $α$-enhancement with stellar mass, in agreement with previous studies. This is mainly due to the fact that massive galaxies are characterized by larger star formation rates at high-redshift, leading to stronger $α$-enhancement with respect to low-mass galaxies. At the same time, the IGIMF hypothesis does not affect significantly the trend for shorter star formation timescales for more massive galaxies. We argue that in the IGIMF scenario the [$α$/Fe] ratios are good tracers of the highest star formation events. The final stellar masses and mass-to-light-ratio of our model massive galaxies are larger than those estimated from the synthetic photometry assuming a universal IMF, providing a self-consistent interpretation of similar recent results, based on dynamical analysis of local early type galaxies.

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Galaxy assembly, stellar feedback and metal enrichment: the view from the GAEA model

One major problem of current theoretical models of galaxy formation is given by their inability to reproduce the apparently `anti-hierarchical' evolution of galaxy assembly: massive galaxies appear to be in place since $z\sim 3$, while a significant increase of the number densities of low mass galaxies is measured with decreasing redshift. In this work, we perform a systematic analysis of the influence of different stellar feedback schemes, carried out in the framework of GAEA, a new semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. It includes a self-consistent treatment for the timings of gas, metal and energy recycling, and for the chemical yields. We show this to be crucial to use observational measurements of the metallicity as independent and powerful constraints for the adopted feedback schemes. The observed trends can be reproduced in the framework of either a strong ejective or preventive feedback model. In the former case, the gas ejection rate must decrease significantly with cosmic time (as suggested by parametrizations of the cosmological `FIRE' simulations). Irrespective of the feedback scheme used, our successful models always imply that up to 60-70 per cent of the baryons reside in an `ejected' reservoir and are unavailable for cooling at high redshift. The same schemes predict physical properties of model galaxies (e.g. gas content, colour, age, and metallicity) that are in much better agreement with observational data than our fiducial model. The overall fraction of passive galaxies is found to be primarily determined by internal physical processes, with environment playing a secondary role.

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Origin and properties of dual and offset active galactic nuclei in a cosmological simulation at z=2

In the last few years, it became possible to observationally resolve galaxies with two distinct nuclei in their centre. For separations smaller than 10kpc, dual and offset active galactic nuclei (AGN) are distinguished: in dual AGN, both nuclei are active, whereas in offset AGN only one nucleus is active. To study the origin of such AGN pairs, we employ a cosmological, hydrodynamic simulation with a large volume of (182Mpc)^3 from the set of Magneticum Pathfinder Simulations. The simulation self-consistently produces 35 resolved black hole (BH) pairs at redshift z=2, with a comoving distance smaller than 10kpc. 14 of them are offset AGN and nine are dual AGN, resulting in a fraction of (1.2 \pm 0.3)% AGN pairs with respect to the total number of AGN. In this paper, we discuss fundamental differences between the BH and galaxy properties of dual AGN, offset AGN and inactive BH pairs and investigate their different triggering mechanisms. We find that in dual AGN the BHs have similar masses and the corresponding BH from the less massive progenitor galaxy always accretes with a higher Eddington ratio. In contrast, in offset AGN the active BH is typically more massive than its non-active counterpart. Furthermore, dual AGN in general accrete more gas from the intergalactic medium than offset AGN and non-active BH pairs. This highlights that merger events, particularly minor mergers, do not necessarily lead to strong gas inflows and thus, do not always drive strong nuclear activity.

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On the dependence of galaxy morphologies on galaxy mergers

The distribution of galaxy morphological types is a key test for models of galaxy formation and evolution, providing strong constraints on the relative contribution of different physical processes responsible for the growth of the spheroidal components. In this paper, we make use of a suite of semi-analytic models to study the efficiency of galaxy mergers in disrupting galaxy discs and building galaxy bulges. In particular, we compare standard prescriptions usually adopted in semi-analytic models, with new prescriptions proposed by Kannan et al., based on results from high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations, and we show that these new implementations reduce the efficiency of bulge formation through mergers. In addition, we compare our model results with a variety of observational measurements of the fraction of spheroid-dominated galaxies as a function of stellar and halo mass, showing that the present uncertainties in the data represent an important limitation to our understanding of spheroid formation. Our results indicate that the main tension between theoretical models and observations does not stem from the survival of purely disc structures (i.e. bulgeless galaxies), rather from the distribution of galaxies of different morphological types, as a function of their stellar mass.

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nIFTy Cosmology: Comparison of Galaxy Formation Models

We present a comparison of 14 galaxy formation models: 12 different semi-analytical models and 2 halo-occupation distribution models for galaxy formation based upon the same cosmological simulation and merger tree information derived from it. The participating codes have proven to be very successful in their own right but they have all been calibrated independently using various observational data sets, stellar models, and merger trees. In this paper we apply them without recalibration and this leads to a wide variety of predictions for the stellar mass function, specific star formation rates, stellar-to- halo mass ratios, and the abundance of orphan galaxies. The scatter is much larger than seen in previous comparison studies primarily because the codes have been used outside of their native environment within which they are well tested and calibrated. The purpose of the `nIFTy comparison of galaxy formation models' is to bring together as many different galaxy formation modellers as possible and to investigate a common approach to model calibration. This paper provides a unified description for all participating models and presents the initial, uncalibrated comparison as a baseline for our future studies where we will develop a common calibration framework and address the extent to which that reduces the scatter in the model predictions seen here.

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A refined sub-grid model for black hole accretion and AGN feedback in large cosmological simulations

In large scale cosmological hydrodynamic simulations simplified sub-grid models for gas accretion onto black holes and AGN feedback are commonly used. Such models typically depend on various free parameters, which are not well constrained. We present a new advanced model containing a more detailed description of AGN feedback, where those parameters reflect the results of recent observations. The model takes the dependency of these parameters on the black hole properties into account and describes a continuous transition between the feedback processes acting in the so-called radio-mode and quasar-mode. In addition, we implement a more detailed description of the accretion of gas onto black holes by distinguishing between hot and cold gas accretion. Our new implementations prevent black holes from gaining too much mass, particularly at low redshifts so that our simulations are now very successful in reproducing the observed present-day black hole mass function. Our new model also suppresses star formation in massive galaxies slightly more efficiently than many state-of-the-art models. Therefore, the simulations that include our new implementations produce a more realistic population of quiescent and star-forming galaxies compared to recent observations, even if some discrepancies remain. In addition, the baryon conversion efficiencies in our simulation are - except for the high mass end - consistent with observations presented in literature over the mass range resolved by our simulations. Finally, we discuss the significant impact of the feedback model on the low-luminous end of the AGN luminosity function.

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The stellar accretion origin of stellar population gradients in massive galaxies at large radii

We investigate the evolution of stellar population gradients from $z=2$ to $z=0$ in massive galaxies at large radii ($r > 2R_{\mathrm{eff}}$) using ten cosmological zoom simulations of halos with $6 \times 10^{12} M_{\odot} < M_{\mathrm{halo}} < 2 \times 10^{13}M_{\odot}$. The simulations follow metal cooling and enrichment from SNII, SNIa and AGB winds. We explore the differential impact of an empirical model for galactic winds that reproduces the mass-metallicity relation and its evolution with redshift. At larger radii the galaxies, for both models, become more dominated by stars accreted from satellite galaxies in major and minor mergers. In the wind model, fewer stars are accreted, but they are significantly more metal poor resulting in steep global metallicity ($\langle \nabla Z_{\mathrm{stars}} \rangle= -0.35$ dex/dex) and color (e.g. $\langle \nabla g-r \rangle = -0.13$ dex/dex) gradients in agreement with observations. In contrast, colour and metallicity gradients of the models without winds are inconsistent with observations. Age gradients are in general mildly positive at $z=0$ ($\langle \nabla Age_{\mathrm{stars}} \rangle= 0.04$ dex/dex) with significant differences between the models at higher redshift. We demonstrate that for the wind model, stellar accretion is steepening existing in-situ metallicity gradients by about 0.2 dex by the present day and helps to match observed gradients of massive early-type galaxies at large radii. Colour and metallicity gradients are significantly steeper for systems which have accreted stars in minor mergers, while galaxies with major mergers have relatively flat gradients, confirming previous results. This study highlights the importance of stellar accretion for stellar population properties of massive galaxies at large radii, which can provide important constraints for formation models.

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The definition of environment and its relation to the quenching of galaxies at z=1-2 in a hierarchical Universe

A well calibrated method to describe the environment of galaxies at all redshifts is essential for the study of structure formation. Such a calibration should include well understood correlations with halo mass, and the possibility to identify galaxies which dominate their potential well (centrals), and their satellites. Focusing on z = 1 and 2 we propose a method of environmental calibration which can be applied to the next generation of low to medium resolution spectroscopic surveys. Using an up-to-date semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we measure the local density of galaxies in fixed apertures on different scales. There is a clear correlation of density with halo mass for satellite galaxies, while a significant population of low mass centrals is found at high densities in the neighbourhood of massive haloes. In this case the density simply traces the mass of the most massive halo within the aperture. To identify central and satellite galaxies, we apply an observationally motivated stellar mass rank method which is both highly pure and complete, especially in the more massive haloes where such a division is most meaningful. Finally we examine a test case for the recovery of environmental trends: the passive fraction of galaxies and its dependence on stellar and halo mass for centrals and satellites. With careful calibration, observationally defined quantities do a good job of recovering known trends in the model. This result stands even with reduced redshift accuracy, provided the sample is deep enough to preserve a wide dynamic range of density.

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The influence of the environmental history on quenching star formation in a $Λ$CDM universe

We present a detailed analysis of the influence of the environment and of the environmental history on quenching star formation in central and satellite galaxies in the local Universe. We take advantage of publicly available galaxy catalogues obtained from applying a galaxy formation model to the Millennium simulation. In addition to halo mass, we consider the local density of galaxies within various fixed scales. Comparing our model predictions to observational data (SDSS), we demonstrate that the models are failing to reproduce the observed density dependence of the quiescent galaxy fraction in several aspects: for most of the stellar mass ranges and densities explored, models cannot reproduce the observed similar behaviour of centrals and satellites, they slightly under-estimate the quiescent fraction of centrals and significantly over-estimate that of satellites. We show that in the models, the density dependence of the quiescent central galaxies is caused by a fraction of "backsplash" centrals which have been satellites in the past (and were thus suffering from environmental processes). Turning to satellite galaxies, the density dependence of their quiescent fractions reflects a dependence on the time spent orbiting within a parent halo of a particular mass, correlating strongly with halo mass and distance from the halo centre. Comparisons with observational estimates suggest relatively long gas consumption time scales of roughly 5 Gyr in low mass satellite galaxies. The quenching time scales decrease with increasing satellite stellar mass. Overall, a change in modelling both internal processes (star formation and feedback) and environmental processes (e.g. making them dependent on dynamical friction time-scales and preventing the re-accretion of gas onto backsplash galaxies) is required for improving currently used galaxy formation models.

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