arXiv subjects

Peter H. Johansson

Publications and source records attributed to Peter H. Johansson.

87 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

One moment in time - modeling star formation in the Antennae

We present a new high-resolution N-body/SPH simulation of an encounter of two gas-rich disk galaxies which closely matches the morphology and kinematics of the interacting Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/39). The simulation includes radiative cooling, star formation and feedback from SNII. The large-scale morphology and kinematics are determined by the internal structure and the orbit of the progenitor disks. The properties of the central region, in particular the starburst in the overlap region, only match the observations for a very short time interval of ~20 Myr after the second encounter. This indicates that the Antennae galaxies are in a special phase only about 40 Myr after the second encounter and 50 Myr before their final collision. This is the only phase in the simulation when a gas-rich overlap region between the nuclei is forming accompanied by enhanced star formation. The star formation rate as well as the recent star formation history in the central region agree well with observational estimates. For the first time this new model explains the distributed extra-nuclear star formation in the Antennae galaxies as a consequence of the recent second encounter. The proposed model predicts that the Antennae are in a later merger stage than the Mice (NGC 4676) and would therefore lose their first place in the classical Toomre sequence.

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arXiv2009

Can Gas prevent the Destruction of Thin Stellar Discs by Minor Mergers?

We study the effect of dissipational gas physics on the vertical heating and thickening of disc galaxies during minor mergers. We produce a suite of minor merger simulations for Milky Way-like galaxies. This suite consists of collisionless simulations as well as hydrodynamical runs including a gaseous component in the galactic disc. We find that in dissipationless simulations minor mergers cause the scale height of the disc to increase by up to a factor of ~2. When the presence of gas in the disc is taken into account this thickening is reduced by 25% (50%) for an initial disc gas fraction of 20% (40%), leading to a final scale height z0 between 0.6 and 0.7 kpc, regardless of the initial scale height. We argue that the presence of gas reduces disc heating via two mechanisms: absorption of kinetic impact energy by the gas and/or formation of a new thin stellar disc that can cause heated stars to recontract towards the disc plane. We show that in our simulations most of the gas is consumed during the merger and thus the regrowth of a new thin disc has a negligible impact on the z0 of the post merger galaxy. Final disc scale heights found in our simulations are in good agreement with studies of the vertical structure of spiral galaxies where the majority of the systems are found to have scale heights of 0.4 kpc < z0 < 0.8 kpc. We also found no tension between recent measurements of the scale height of the Milky Way thin disc and results coming from our hydrodynamical simulations. We conclude that the existence of a thin disc in the Milky Way and in external galaxies is not in obvious conflict with the predictions of the CDM model.

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arXiv2009

The evolution of Black Hole scaling relations in galaxy mergers

We study the evolution of black holes (BHs) on the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-M_bulge planes as a function of time in disk galaxies undergoing mergers. We begin the simulations with the progenitor black hole masses being initially below (Delta log M_BH=-2), on (Delta log M_BH=0) and above (Delta log M_BH=0.5) the observed local relations. The final relations are rapidly established after the final coalescense of the galaxies and their BHs. Progenitors with low initial gas fractions (f_gas=0.2) starting below the relations evolve onto the relations (Delta log M_BH=-0.18), progenitors on the relations stay there (Delta log M_BH=0) and finally progenitors above the relations evolve towards the relations, but still remaining above them (Delta log M_BH=0.35). Mergers in which the progenitors have high initial gas fractions (f_gas=0.8) evolve above the relations in all cases (Delta log M_BH=0.5). We find that the initial gas fraction is the prime source of scatter in the observed relations, dominating over the scatter arising from the evolutionary stage of the merger remnants. The fact that BHs starting above the relations do not evolve onto the relations, indicates that our simulations rule out the scenario in which overmassive BHs evolve onto the relations through gas-rich mergers. By implication our simulations thus disfavor the picture in which supermassive BHs develop significantly before their parent bulges.

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arXiv2009

Building the red sequence through gas-rich major mergers

Understanding the details of how the red sequence is built is a key question in galaxy evolution. What are the relative roles of gas-rich vs. dry mergers, major vs. minor mergers or galaxy mergers vs. gas accretion? In Wild et al. 2009 we compare hydrodynamic simulations with observations to show how gas-rich major mergers result in galaxies with strong post-starburst spectral features, a population of galaxies easily identified in the real Universe using optical spectra. Using spectra from the VVDS deep survey with z~0.7, and a principal component analysis technique to provide indices with high enough SNR, we find that 40% of the mass flux onto the red-sequence could enter through a strong post-starburst phase, and thus through gas-rich major mergers. The deeper samples provided by next generation galaxy redshift surveys will allow us to observe the primary physical processes responsible for the shut-down in starformation and build-up of the red sequence.

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arXiv2009

The Effects of the Ionizing Radiation Background on Galaxy Evolution

We find that the amount and nature of the assumed ionizing background can strongly affect galaxy formation and evolution. Galaxy evolution simulations typically incorporate an ultraviolet background which falls off rapidly above z=3; e.g., that of Haardt & Madau (1996). However, this decline may be too steep to fit the WMAP constraints on electron scattering optical depth or observations of intermediate redshift (z ~ 2-4) Ly-alpha forest transmission. As an alternative, we present simulations of the cosmological formation of individual galaxies with UV backgrounds that decline more slowly at high redshift: both a simple intensity rescaling and the background recently derived by Faucher-Giguere (2009), which softens the spectrum at higher redshifts. We also test an approximation of the X-ray background with a similar z-dependence. We find for the test galaxies that an increase in either the intensity or hardness of ionizing radiation generically pushes star formation towards lower redshifts: although overall star formation in the simulation boxes is reduced by 10-25%, the galaxies show a factor of ~2 increase in the fraction of stars within a 30 kpc radius that are formed after z=1. Other effects include late gas inflows enhanced up to 30 times, stellar half-mass radii decreased by up to 30%, central velocity dispersions increased up to 40%, and a strong reduction in substructure. The magnitude of the effects depends on the environmental/accretion properties of the particular galaxy.

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arXiv2009

Minor mergers and the size evolution of elliptical galaxies

Using a high resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulation of the formation of a massive spheroidal galaxy we show that elliptical galaxies can be very compact and massive at high redshift in agreement with recent observations. Accretion of stripped in-falling stellar material increases the size of the system with time and the central concentration is reduced by dynamical friction of the surviving stellar cores. In a specific case of a spheroidal galaxy with a final stellar mass of $1.5 \times 10^{11} M_{\odot}$ we find that the effective radius $r_e$ increases from $0.7 \pm 0.2 \rm kpc$ at z = 3 to $r_e = 2.4 \pm 0.4 \rm kpc$ at z = 0 with a concomitant decrease in the effective density of an order of magnitude and a decrease of the central velocity dispersion by approximately 20% over this time interval. A simple argument based on the virial theorem shows that during the accretion of weakly bound material (minor mergers) the radius can increase as the square of the mass in contrast to the usual linear rate of increase for major mergers. By undergoing minor mergers compact high redshift spheroids can evolve into present-day systems with sizes and concentrations similar to observed local ellipticals. This indicates that minor mergers may be the main driver for the late evolution of sizes and densities of early-type galaxies.

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arXiv2009

Gravitational Heating Helps Make Massive Galaxies Red and Dead

We study the thermal formation history of four simulated galaxies that were shown in Naab et al. (2007) to reproduce a number of observed properties of elliptical galaxies. The temperature of the gas in the galaxies is steadily increasing with decreasing redshift, although much of the gas has a cooling time shorter than the Hubble time. The gas is being heated and kept hot by gravitational heating processes through the release of potential energy from infalling stellar clumps. The energy is dissipated in supersonic collisions of infalling gas lumps with the ambient gas and through the dynamical capturing of satellite systems causing gravitational wakes that transfer energy to the surrounding gas. Furthermore dynamical friction from the infalling clumps pushes out dark matter, lowering the central dark matter density by up to a factor of two from z=3 to z=0. In galaxies in which the late formation history (z<2) is dominated by minor merging and accretion the energy released (E~5x10^{59} ergs) from gravitational feedback is sufficient to form red and dead elliptical galaxies by z~1 even in the absence of supernova and AGN feedback.

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arXiv2009

Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity

From the VIMOS VLT DEEP Survey (VVDS) we select a sample of 16 galaxies with spectra which identify them as having recently undergone a strong starburst and subsequent fast quenching of star formation. These post-starburst galaxies lie in the redshift range 0.5 10^9.75Msun. They have a number density of 1x10^-4 per Mpc^3, almost two orders of magnitude sparser than the full galaxy population with the same mass limit. We compare with simulations to show that the galaxies are consistent with being the descendants of gas rich major mergers. Starburst mass fractions must be larger than ~5-10% and decay times shorter than ~10^8 years for post-starburst spectral signatures to be observed in the simulations. We find that the presence of black hole feedback does not greatly affect the evolution of the simulated merger remnants through the post-starburst phase. The multiwavelength spectral energy distributions of the post-starburst galaxies show that 5/16 have completely ceased the formation of new stars. These 5 galaxies correspond to a mass flux entering the red-sequence of rhodot(A->Q, PSB) = 0.0038Msun/Mpc^3/yr, assuming the defining spectroscopic features are detectable for 0.35Gyr. If the galaxies subsequently remain on the red sequence, this accounts for 38(+4/-11)% of the growth rate of the red sequence. Finally, we compare our high redshift results with a sample of galaxies with 0.05<z<0.1 observed in the SDSS and UKIDSS surveys. We find a very strong redshift evolution: the mass density of strong post-starburst galaxies is 230 times lower at z~0.07 than at z~0.7.

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arXiv2008

Quenching of Star Formation

In the last decade we have seen an enormous increase in the size and quality of spectroscopic galaxy surveys, both at low and high redshift. New statistical techniques to analyse large portions of galaxy spectra are now finding favour over traditional index based methods. Here we will review a new robust and iterative Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm, which solves several common issues with classic PCA. Application to the 4000AA break region of galaxies in the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) gives new high signal-to-noise ratio spectral indices easily interpretable in terms of recent star formation history. In particular, we identify a sample of post-starburst galaxies at z~0.7 and z~0.07. We quantify for the first time the importance of post-starburst galaxies, consistent with being descendants of gas-rich major mergers, for building the red sequence. Finally, we present a comparison with new low and high redshift "mock spectroscopic surveys" derived from a Millennium Run semi-analytic model.

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arXiv2008

Towards an accurate model for the Antennae Galaxies

In the framework of hierarchical structure formation ellipticals can form from merging of smaller disk galaxies. The nearby interacting 'Antennae' galaxy pair (NGC 4038/39) is one of the best-studied local systems of merging spirals, thus presenting us with an ideal laboratory for the study of galaxy evolution models. The Antennae are believed to be in a state prior to their final encounter with rapid subsequent merging, which puts them in the first position of the Toomre (1977) merger sequence. Here we present first numerical high-resolution, self-consistent, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the Antennae system, including star formation and stellar feedback, and compare our results to VLA HI observations by Hibbard et al. (2001). We are able to obtain a close, but not yet perfect match to the observed morphology and kinematics of the system.

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arXiv2008

Termination of star formation by BH feedback in equal- and unequal-mass mergers of disk and elliptical galaxies

We present binary galaxy merger simulations of gas-rich disks (Sp-Sp), of early-type galaxies and disks (E-Sp, mixed mergers), and mergers of early-type galaxies (E-E, dry mergers) with varying mass ratios and different progenitor morphologies. The simulations include radiative cooling, star formation and black hole (BH) accretion and the associated feedback processes. We find for Sp-Sp mergers, that the peak star formation rate and BH accretion rate decrease and the growth timescales of the central black holes and newly formed stars increase with higher progenitor mass ratios. The termination of star formation by BH feedback in disk mergers is significantly less important for higher progenitor mass ratios (e.g. 3:1 and higher). In addition, the inclusion of BH feedback suppresses efficiently star formation in dry E-E mergers and mixed E-Sp mergers.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Equal- and unequal-mass mergers of disk and elliptical galaxies with black holes

We present binary galaxy merger simulations with varying mass ratios and different progenitor morphologies. The simulations include mergers of gas-rich disks (Sp-Sp), of early-type galaxies and disks (E-Sp, mixed mergers), and mergers of early-type galaxies (E-E, dry mergers). We follow the dynamics of gas, stars and dark matter, and include radiative cooling, star formation and black hole (BH) accretion. For Sp-Sp mergers, the peak star formation rate and BH accretion rate decrease and the growth timescales of the central black holes and newly formed stars increase with higher progenitor mass ratios. The peak BH accretion rate typically occurs shortly after the time of BH merging for low progenitor mass ratios (e.g. 3:1 and lower), whereas for higher progenitor mass ratios there is no clear correlation between the peak BH accretion rate and BH merging time. The termination of star formation by BH feedback in disk mergers is significantly less important for higher progenitor mass ratios (e.g. 3:1 and higher). In addition, the inclusion of BH feedback suppresses efficiently star formation in dry E-E mergers and mixed E-Sp mergers. All merger remnants, independent of their progenitors, follow the observed relations between the central BH mass and the stellar velocity dispersion M_BH-sigma, the bulge mass M_BH-M_* and the bulge binding energy M_BH-M_{*}sigma^2, with the dominant source of scatter arising from variations in the initial gas mass fraction. The normalizations for all relations and the simulated slope of the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-M_{*}sigma^2 relations are in good agreement with the observations, whereas the simulated slope of the M_BH-M_* relation is slightly steeper compared to the observations. (abridged)

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arXiv2007

SAURON's Challenge for the Major Merger Scenario of Elliptical Galaxy Formation

The intrinsic anisotropy delta and flattening epsilon of simulated merger remnants is compared with elliptical galaxies that have been observed by the SAURON collaboration, and that were analysed using axisymmetric Schwarzschild models. Collisionless binary mergers of stellar disks and disk mergers with an additional isothermal gas component, neglecting star formation cannot reproduce the observed trend delta = 0.55 epsilon (SAURON relationship). An excellent fit of the SAURON relationship for flattened ellipticals with epsilon >= 0.25 is however found for merger simulations of disks with gas fractions >= 20%, including star formation and stellar energy feedback. Massive black hole feedback does not strongly affect this result. Subsequent dry merging of merger remnants however does not generate the slowly-rotating SAURON ellipticals which are characterized by low ellipticities epsilon < 0.25 and low anisotropies. This indicates that at least some ellipticals on the red galaxy sequence did not form by binary mergers of disks or early-type galaxies. We show that stellar spheroids resulting from multiple, hierarchical mergers of star-bursting subunits in a cosmological context are in excellent agreement with the low ellipticities and anisotropies of the slowly rotating SAURON ellipticals and their observed trend of delta with epsilon. The numerical simulations indicate that the SAURON relation might be a result of strong violent relaxation and phase mixing of multiple, kinematically cold stellar subunits with the angular momentum of the system determining its location on the relation.

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arXiv2007

Formation and evolution of galactic spheroids by mergers

Galactic spheroids can form as a result of galaxy interactions and mergers of disks. Detailed analyses of the photometric properties, the intrinsic orbital structure, the line-of-sight velocity distributions and the kinemetry of simulated merger remnants, which depend critically on the geometry and the gas content of the interacting progenitors, indicate that low and intermediate mass rotating ellipticals can form from mergers of disks. The masses and metallicities of all massive ellipticals and the kinematics of some massive non-rotating ellipticals cannot be explained by binary mergers. Thus these galaxies might have formed in a different way.

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arXiv2006

Formation of early-type galaxies from cosmological initial conditions

We describe high resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of three approximately $M_*$ field galaxies starting from \LCDM initial conditions. The simulations are made intentionally simple, and include photoionization, cooling of the intergalactic medium, and star formation but not feedback from AGN or supernovae. All of the galaxies undergo an initial burst of star formation at $z \approx 5$, accompanied by the formation of a bubble of heated gas. Two out of three galaxies show early-type properties at present whereas only one of them experienced a major merger. Heating from shocks and -PdV work dominates over cooling so that for most of the gas the temperature is an increasing function of time. By $z \approx 1$ a significant fraction of the final stellar mass is in place and the spectral energy distribution resembles those of observed massive red galaxies. The galaxies have grown from $z=1 \to 0$ on average by 25% in mass and in size by gas poor (dry) stellar mergers. By the present day, the simulated galaxies are old ($\approx 10 {\rm Gyrs}$), kinematically hot stellar systems surrounded by hot gaseous haloes. Stars dominate the mass of the galaxies up to $\approx 4$ effective radii ($\approx 10$ kpc). Kinematic and most photometric properties are in good agreement with those of observed elliptical galaxies. The galaxy with a major merger develops a counter-rotating core. Our simulations show that realistic intermediate mass giant elliptical galaxies with plausible formation histories can be formed from \LCDM initial conditions even without requiring recent major mergers or feedback from supernovae or AGN.

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