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Rüdgier Pakmor

Publications and source records attributed to Rüdgier Pakmor.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

The mass of the Milky Way from satellite dynamics

We present and apply a method to infer the mass of the Milky Way (MW) by comparing the dynamics of MW satellites to those of model satellites in the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamics simulations. A distribution function (DF) for galactic satellites is constructed from EAGLE using specific angular momentum and specific energy, which are scaled so as to be independent of host halo mass. In this 2-dimensional space, the orbital properties of satellite galaxies vary according to the host halo mass. The halo mass can be inferred by calculating the likelihood that the observed satellite population is drawn from this DF. Our method is robustly calibrated on mock EAGLE systems. We validate it by applying it to the completely independent suite of 30 AURIGA high-resolution simulations of MW-like galaxies: the method accurately recovers their true mass and associated uncertainties. We then apply it to ten classical satellites of the MW with 6D phase-space measurements, including updated proper motions from the GAIA satellite. The mass of the MW is estimated to be $M_{200}^{\textnormal{MW}}=1.17_{-0.15}^{+0.21}\times10^{12}M_{\odot}$ (68\% confidence limits). We combine our total mass estimate with recent mass estimates in the inner regions of the Galaxy to infer an inner dark matter (DM) mass fraction $M^\textnormal{DM}(<20~\rm{kpc})/M^\textnormal{DM}_{200}=0.12$ which is typical of ${\sim}10^{12}M_{\odot}$ $Λ$CDM haloes in hydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations. Assuming an NFW profile, this is equivalent to a halo concentration of $c_{200}^{\textnormal{MW}}=10.9^{+2.6}_{-2.0}$.

astro-ph.GA

The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation in IllustrisTNG

The coevolution of galaxies and their metal content serves as an important test for galaxy feedback models. We analyze the distribution and evolution of metals within the IllustrisTNG simulation suite with a focus on the gas-phase mass-metallicity relation (MZR). We find that the IllustrisTNG model broadly reproduces the slope and normalization evolution of the MZR across the redshift range $0 2$) evolution fit by $\mathrm{d\;log(Z)}/\mathrm{dz} \approx - 0.064$. Our simulations indicate that the metal retention efficiency of the interstellar medium (ISM) is low: a majority of gas-phase metals ($\sim$ 85 per cent at $z=0$) live outside of the ISM, either in an extended gas disk, the circumgalactic medium, or outside the halo. Nevertheless, the redshift evolution in the simulated MZR normalization is driven by the higher gas fractions of high redshift galaxies, not by changes to the metal retention efficiency. The scatter in the simulated MZR contains a clear correlation with the gas-mass or star formation rate of the system, in agreement with the observed fundamental metallicity relation. The scatter in the MZR is driven by a competition between periods of enrichment- and accretion-dominated metallicity evolution. We expect that while the normalization of the MZR declines with redshift, the strength of the correlation between metallicity and gas-mass at fixed stellar mass is not a strong function of redshift. Our results indicate that the "regulator" style models are best suited for simultaneously explaining the shape, redshift evolution, and existence of correlated scatter with gas fraction about the MZR.

astro-ph.GA