arXiv subjects

Sebastian E. Nuza

Publications and source records attributed to Sebastian E. Nuza.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

A model for molecular hydrogen-dependent star formation in simulations of galaxy evolution

Star formation, together with the associated chemical and energy feedback, is one of the most important processes in galaxy evolution. The star formation activity in galaxies defines and affects many of their fundamental properties, such as stellar mass, morphology and chemical enrichment levels. Simple models for star formation in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations have shown to be successful in reproducing the star formation rate (SFR) levels and shapes of different types of galaxies. However, with the advent of high-resolution simulations and more detailed observations, more sophisticated star formation models are needed; in particular, to better understand the relation between star formation and the amount of gas in the atomic and molecular phases. In this work, we apply a novel star formation model, recently developed to work in the context of hydrodynamical simulations, to the study of the SFR in Milky Way-mass galaxies. The new implementation describes the formation of molecular hydrogen from atomic material, considering also possible dependencies with the chemical abundance of the gas. This allows to implement various star formation models, where the SFR of a gas cloud is determined by the atomic and/or molecular gas phases, and to compare their predictions to recent observational results.

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arXiv2021

A model for star formation in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation

We present a new model to describe the star formation process in galaxies, which includes the description of the different gas phases -- molecular, atomic, and ionized -- together with its metal content. The model, which will be coupled to cosmological simulations of galaxy formation, will be used to investigate the relation between the star formation rate (SFR) and the formation of molecular hydrogen. The model follows the time evolution of the molecular, atomic and ionized phases in a gas cloud and estimates the amount of stellar mass formed, by solving a set of five coupled differential equations. As expected, we find a positive, strong correlation between the molecular fraction and the initial gas density, which manifests in a positive correlation between the initial gas density and the SFR of the cloud.

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arXiv2018

Gas accretion in Milky Way-like galaxies: temporal and radial dependencies

One of the fundamental assumptions of chemical evolution models (CEMs) of the Milky Way (MW) and other spirals is that higher gas accretion rates are expected in the past, and in the inner regions of the Galaxy. This leads to the so-called `inside-out disc formation scenario'. Yet, these are probably the most unconstrained inputs of such models. In the present paper, we aim at investigating these main assumptions by studying how gas is accreted in four simulated MW-like galaxies assembled within the $Λ$CDM scenario. The galaxies were obtained using two different simulation techniques, cosmological setups and initial conditions. Two of them are MW candidates corresponding to the chemodynamical model of Minchev et al. (2013, 2014) (known as MCM) and the Local Group cosmological simulation of Nuza et al. (2014). We investigate vertical and radial gas accretion on to galaxy discs as a function of cosmic time and disc radius. We find that accretion in the MW-like galaxies seem to happen in two distinct phases, namely: an early, more violent period; followed by a subsequent, slowly declining phase. Our simulations seem to give support to the assumption that the amount of gas incorporated into the MW disc exponentially decreases with time, leading to current net accretion rates of $0.6-1\,$M$_\odot\,$yr$^{-1}$. In particular, accretion timescales on to the simulated thin-disc-like structures are within $\sim5-7\,$Gyr, consistent with expectations from CEMs. Moreover, our simulated MW discs are assembled from the inside-out with gas in the inner disc regions accreted in shorter timescales than in external ones, in qualitative agreement with CEMs of the Galaxy. However, this type of growth is not general to all galaxies and it is intimately linked to their particular merger and gas accretion history.

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arXiv2018

How does the stellar disk of the Milky Way get its gas?

In chemodynamical evolution models it is usually assumed that the Milky Way galaxy forms from the inside-out implying that gas inflows onto the disk decrease with galactocentric distance. Similarly, to reproduce differences between chemical abundances of the thick disk and bulge with respect to those of the thin disk, higher accretion fluxes at early times are postulated. By using a suite of Milky Way-like galaxies extracted from cosmological simulations, we investigate the accretion of gas on the simulated stellar disks during their whole evolution. In general, we find that the picture outlined above holds, although the detailed behavior depends on the assembly history of the Galaxy and the complexities inherent to the physics of galaxy formation.

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arXiv2017

Can cluster merger shocks reproduce the luminosity and shape distribution of radio relics?

Radio relics in galaxy clusters are believed to trace merger shock fronts. If cosmological structure formation determines the luminosity, size and shape distributions of radio relics then merger shocks need to be lighted up in a homogeneous way. We investigate if a mock relic sample, obtained from zoomed galaxy cluster simulations, is able to match the properties of relics measured in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). We compile a list of all radio relics known to date and homogeneously measure their parameters in all NVSS images and apply the same procedure to relics in our simulations. Number counts in the mock relic sample increase more steeply towards lower relic flux densities, suggesting an incompleteness of NVSS in this regime. Overall, we find that NVSS and mock samples show similar properties. However, large simulated relics tend to be somewhat smaller and closer to the cluster centre than observed ones. Besides this, the mock sample reproduces very well-known correlations for radio relics, in particular those relating the radio luminosity with the largest linear size and the X-ray luminosity. We show that these correlations are largely governed by the sensitivity of the NVSS observations. Mock relics show a similar orientation with respect to the direction to the cluster centre as the NVSS sample. Moreover, we find that their maximum radio luminosity roughly correlates with cluster mass, although displaying a large scatter. The overall good agreement between NVSS and the mock sample suggests that properties of radio relics are indeed governed by merger shock fronts, emitting in a homogeneous fashion. Our study demonstrates that the combination of mock observations and data from upcoming radio surveys will allow to shed light on both the origin of radio relics and the nature of the intracluster medium.

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arXiv2017

Reconciling radio relic observations and simulations: The NVSS sample

The diffusive shock acceleration scenario is usually invoked to explain radio relics, although the detailed driving mechanism is still a matter of debate. Our aim is to constrain models for the origin of radio relics by comparing observed relic samples with simulated ones. Here we present a framework to homogeneously extract the whole sample of known radio relics from NVSS so that it can be used for comparison with cosmological simulations. In this way, we can better handle intrinsic biases in the analysis of the radio relic population. In addition, we show some properties of the resulting NVSS sample relics such as the correlation between relic shape and orientation with respect to the cluster. Also, we briefly discuss the typical relic surface brightness and its relation to projected cluster distance and relic angular sizes.

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arXiv2016

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: single-probe measurements from CMASS anisotropic galaxy clustering

With the largest spectroscopic galaxy survey volume drawn from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), we can extract cosmological constraints from the measurements of redshift and geometric distortions at quasi-linear scales (e.g. above 50 $h^{-1}$Mpc). We analyze the broad-range shape of the monopole and quadrupole correlation functions of the BOSS Data Release 12 (DR12) CMASS galaxy sample, at the effective redshift $z=0.59$, to obtain constraints on the Hubble expansion rate $H(z)$, the angular-diameter distance $D_A(z)$, the normalized growth rate $f(z)σ_8(z)$, and the physical matter density $Ω_mh^2$. We obtain robust measurements by including a polynomial as the model for the systematic errors, and find it works very well against the systematic effects, e.g., ones induced by stars and seeing. We provide accurate measurements $\{D_A(0.59)r_{s,fid}/r_s$ $\rm Mpc$, $H(0.59)r_s/r_{s,fid}$ $km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}$, $f(0.59)σ_8(0.59)$, $Ω_m h^2\}$ = $\{1427\pm26$, $97.3\pm3.3$, $0.488 \pm 0.060$, $0.135\pm0.016\}$, where $r_s$ is the comoving sound horizon at the drag epoch and $r_{s,fid}=147.66$ Mpc is the sound scale of the fiducial cosmology used in this study. The parameters which are not well constrained by our galaxy clustering analysis are marginalized over with wide flat priors. Since no priors from other data sets, e.g., cosmic microwave background (CMB), are adopted and no dark energy models are assumed, our results from BOSS CMASS galaxy clustering alone may be combined with other data sets, i.e., CMB, SNe, lensing or other galaxy clustering data to constrain the parameters of a given cosmological model. The uncertainty on the dark energy equation of state parameter, $w$, from CMB+CMASS is about 8 per cent. The uncertainty on the curvature fraction, $Ω_k$, is 0.3 per cent. We do not find deviation from flat $Λ$CDM.

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arXiv2015

SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12: galaxy target selection and large scale structure catalogues

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III project, has provided the largest survey of galaxy redshifts available to date, in terms of both the number of galaxy redshifts measured by a single survey, and the effective cosmological volume covered. Key to analysing the clustering of these data to provide cosmological measurements is understanding the detailed properties of this sample. Potential issues include variations in the target catalogue caused by changes either in the targeting algorithm or properties of the data used, the pattern of spectroscopic observations, the spatial distribution of targets for which redshifts were not obtained, and variations in the target sky density due to observational systematics. We document here the target selection algorithms used to create the galaxy samples that comprise BOSS. We also present the algorithms used to create large scale structure catalogues for the final Data Release (DR12) samples and the associated random catalogues that quantify the survey mask. The algorithms are an evolution of those used by the BOSS team to construct catalogues from earlier data, and have been designed to accurately quantify the galaxy sample. The code used, designated MKSAMPLE, is released with this paper.

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arXiv2015

The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies in a constrained hydrodynamical simulation: morphological evolution

We study the two main constituent galaxies of a constrained simulation of the Local Group as candidates for the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31). We focus on the formation of the stellar discs and its relation to the formation of the group as a rich system with two massive galaxies, and investigate the effects of mergers and accretion as drivers of morphological transformations. We use a state-of-the-art hydrodynamical code which includes star formation, feedback and chemical enrichment to carry out our study. We run two simulations, where we include or neglect the effects of radiation pressure from stars, to investigate the impact of this process on the morphologies and star formation rates of the simulated galaxies. We find that the simulated M31 and MW have different formation histories, even though both inhabit, at z=0, the same environment. These differences directly translate into and explain variations in their star formation rates, in-situ fractions and final morphologies. The M31 candidate has an active merger history, as a result of which its stellar disc is unable to survive unaffected until the present time. In contrast, the MW candidate has a smoother history with no major mergers at late times, and forms a disc that grows steadily; at z=0 the simulated MW has an extended, rotationally-supported disc which is dominant over the bulge. Our two feedback implementations predict similar evolution of the galaxies and their discs, although some variations are detected, the most important of which is the formation time of the discs: in the model with weaker/stronger feedback the discs form earlier/later. In summary, by comparing the formation histories of the two galaxies, we conclude that the particular merger/accretion history of a galaxy rather than its environment at the LG-scales is the main driver of the formation and subsequent growth or destruction of galaxy discs.

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arXiv2015

The Effect of Environment on Milky Way-mass galaxies in a Constrained Simulation of the Local Group

In this letter we present, for the first time, a study of star formation rate, gas fraction and galaxy morphology of a constrained simulation of the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) galaxies, compared to other MW-mass galaxies. By combining with unconstrained simulations we cover a sufficient volume to compare these galaxies environmental densities ranging from the field to that of the Local Group (LG). This is particularly relevant as it has been shown that, quite generally, galaxy properties depend intimately upon their environment, most prominently when galaxies in clusters are compared to those in the field. For galaxies in loose groups such as the LG, however, environmental effects have been less clear. We consider the galaxy's environmental density in spheres of 1200 kpc (comoving) and find that whilst environment does not appear to directly affect morphology, there is a positive trend with star formation rates. This enhancement in star formation occurs systematically for galaxies in higher density environments, regardless whether they are part of the LG or in filaments. Our simulations suggest that the richer environment at Mpc-scales may help replenish the star-forming gas, allowing higher specific star formation rates in galaxies such as the MW.

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arXiv2014

The cosmic web of the Local Universe: cosmic variance, matter content and its relation to galaxy morphology

We present, for the first time, a Local Universe (LU) characterization using high precision constrained $N$-body simulations based on self-consistent phase-space reconstructions of the large-scale structure in the Two-Micron All-Sky Galaxy Redshift Survey. We analyse whether we live in a special cosmic web environment by estimating cosmic variance from a set of unconstrained $Λ$CDM simulations as a function of distance to random observers. By computing volume and mass filling fractions for voids, sheets, filaments and knots, we find that the LU displays a typical scatter of about $1σ$ at scales $r>15\,h^{-1}\,{\rm Mpc}$, in agreement with $Λ$CDM, converging to a fair unbiased sample when considering spheres of about $60\,h^{-1}\,{\rm Mpc}$ radius. Additionally, we compute the matter density profile of the LU and found a reasonable agreement with the estimates of Karachentsev (2012) only when considering the contribution of dark haloes. This indicates that observational estimates may be biased towards low density values. As a first application of our reconstruction, we investigate the likelihood of different galaxy morphological types to inhabit certain cosmic web environments. In particular, we find that, irrespective of the method used to define the web, either based on the density or the peculiar velocity field, elliptical galaxies show a clear tendency to preferentially reside in clusters as opposed to voids (up to a level of $5.3σ$ and $9.8σ$ respectively) and conversely for spiral galaxies (up to a level of $5.6σ$ and $5.4σ$ respectively). These findings are compatible with previous works, albeit at higher confidence levels.

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arXiv2014

The distribution of gas in the Local Group from constrained cosmological simulations: the case for Andromeda and the Milky Way galaxies

We study the gas distribution in the Milky Way and Andromeda using a constrained cosmological simulation of the Local Group (LG) within the context of the CLUES (Constrained Local UniversE Simulations) project. We analyse the properties of gas in the simulated galaxies at $z=0$ for three different phases: `cold', `hot' and HI, and compare our results with observations. The amount of material in the hot halo ($M_{hot}\approx 4-5\times10^{10}\,$M$_{\odot}$), and the cold ($M_{cold}(r\lesssim10\,$kpc$)\approx10^{8}\,$M$_{\odot}$) and HI ($M_{HI}(r\lesssim50\,$kpc$)\approx 3-4\times10^8\,$M$_{\odot}$) components display a reasonable agreement with observations. We also compute the accretion/ejection rates together with the HI (radial and all-sky) covering fractions. The integrated HI accretion rate within $r=50\,$kpc gives $\sim$$0.2-0.3\,$M$_{\odot}\,$yr$^{-1}$, i.e. close to that obtained from high-velocity clouds in the Milky Way. We find that the global accretion rate is dominated by hot material, although ionized gas with $T\lesssim10^5\,$K can contribute significantly too. The $net$ accretion rates of $all$ material at the virial radii are $6-8\,$M$_{\odot}\,$yr$^{-1}$. At $z=0$, we find a significant gas excess between the two galaxies, as compared to any other direction, resulting from the overlap of their gaseous haloes. In our simulation, the gas excess first occurs at $z\sim1$, as a consequence of the kinematical evolution of the LG.

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arXiv2014

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 10 and 11 galaxy samples

We present a one per cent measurement of the cosmic distance scale from the detections of the baryon acoustic oscillations in the clustering of galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III). Our results come from the Data Release 11 (DR11) sample, containing nearly one million galaxies and covering approximately $8\,500$ square degrees and the redshift range $0.2<z<0.7$. We also compare these results with those from the publicly released DR9 and DR10 samples. Assuming a concordance $Λ$CDM cosmological model, the DR11 sample covers a volume of 13\,Gpc${}^3$ and is the largest region of the Universe ever surveyed at this density. We measure the correlation function and power spectrum, including density-field reconstruction of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature. The acoustic features are detected at a significance of over $7\,σ$ in both the correlation function and power spectrum. Fitting for the position of the acoustic features measures the distance relative to the sound horizon at the drag epoch, $r_d$, which has a value of $r_{d,{\rm fid}}=149.28\,$Mpc in our fiducial cosmology. We find $D_V=(1264\pm25\,{\rm Mpc})(r_d/r_{d,{\rm fid}})$ at $z=0.32$ and $D_V=(2056\pm20\,{\rm Mpc})(r_d/r_{d,{\rm fid}})$ at $z=0.57$. At 1.0 per cent, this latter measure is the most precise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey. Separating the clustering along and transverse to the line-of-sight yields measurements at $z=0.57$ of $D_A=(1421\pm20\,{\rm Mpc})(r_d/r_{d,{\rm fid}})$ and $H=(96.8\pm3.4\,{\rm km/s/Mpc})(r_{d,{\rm fid}}/r_d)$. Our measurements of the distance scale are in good agreement with previous BAO measurements and with the predictions from cosmic microwave background data for a spatially flat cold dark matter model with a cosmological constant.

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arXiv2013

The Clustering of Galaxies in the SDSS-III DR10 Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: No Detectable Colour Dependence of Distance Scale or Growth Rate Measurements

We study the clustering of galaxies, as a function of their colour, from Data Release Ten (DR10) of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. We select 122,967 galaxies with 0.43 < z < 0.7 into a "Blue" sample and 131,969 into a "Red" sample based on k+e corrected (to z=0.55) r-i colours and i band magnitudes. The samples are chosen to each contain more than 100,000 galaxies, have similar redshift distributions, and maximize the difference in clustering amplitude. The Red sample has a 40% larger bias than the Blue (b_Red/b_Blue = 1.39+-0.04), implying the Red galaxies occupy dark matter halos with an average mass that is 0.5 log Mo greater. Spherically averaged measurements of the correlation function, ξ0, and the power spectrum are used to locate the position of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature of both samples. Using ξ0, we obtain distance scales, relative to our reference LCDM cosmology, of 1.010+-0.027 for the Red sample and 1.005+-0.031 for the Blue. After applying reconstruction, these measurements improve to 1.013+/-0.020 for the Red sample and 1.008+-0.026 for the Blue. For each sample, measurements of ξ0 and the second multipole moment, ξ2, of the anisotropic correlation function are used to determine the rate of structure growth, parameterized by fσ8. We find fσ8,Red = 0.511+-0.083, fσ8,Blue = 0.509+/-0.085, and fσ8,Cross = 0.423+-0.061 (from the cross-correlation between the Red and Blue samples). We use the covariance between the bias and growth measurements obtained from each sample and their cross-correlation to produce an optimally-combined measurement of fσ8,comb = 0.443+-0.055. In no instance do we detect significant differences in distance scale or structure growth measurements obtained from the Blue and Red samples.

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arXiv2013

The clustering of galaxies at z~0.5 in the SDSS-III Data Release 9 BOSS-CMASS sample: a test for the LCDM cosmology

We present results on the clustering of 282,068 galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) sample of massive galaxies with redshifts 0.4 ~10%) in the correlation functions for scales less than ~1 Mpc/h and ~10-40 Mpc/h. A more realistic abundance matching model and better statistics from upcoming observations are needed to clarify the situation. We also estimate that about 12% of the "galaxies" in the abundance-matched sample are satellites inhabiting central haloes with mass M>~1e14 M_sun/h. Using the MultiDark simulation we also study the real space halo bias b(r) of the matched catalogue finding that b=2.00+/-0.07 at large scales, consistent with the one obtained using the measured BOSS projected correlation function. Furthermore, the linear large-scale bias depends on the number density n of the abundance-matched sample as b=-0.048-(0.594+/-0.02)*log(n/(h/Mpc)^3). Extrapolating these results to BAO scales we measure a scale-dependent damping of the acoustic signal produced by non-linear evolution that leads to ~2-4% dips at ~3 sigma level for wavenumbers k>~0.1 h/Mpc in the linear large-scale bias.

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arXiv2013

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Luminosity and Color Dependence and Redshift Evolution

We measure the luminosity and color dependence and the redshift evolution of galaxy clustering in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Ninth Data Release. We focus on the projected two-point correlation function (2PCF) of subsets of its CMASS sample, which includes about 260,000 galaxies over ~3,300 sq. deg in the redshift range 0.43<z<0.7. To minimize the selection effect on galaxy clustering, we construct well-defined luminosity and color subsamples by carefully accounting for the CMASS galaxy selection cuts. The 2PCF of the whole CMASS sample, if approximated by a power-law, has a correlation length of r_0=7.93\pm0.06Mpc/h and an index of γ=1.85\pm0.01. Clear dependences on galaxy luminosity and color are found for the projected 2PCF in all redshift bins, with more luminous and redder galaxies generally exhibiting stronger clustering and steeper 2PCF. The color dependence is also clearly seen for galaxies within the red sequence, consistent with the behavior of SDSS-II main sample galaxies at lower redshifts. At a given luminosity (k+e corrected), no significant evolution of the projected 2PCFs with redshift is detected for red sequence galaxies. We also construct galaxy samples of fixed number density at different redshifts, using redshift-dependent magnitude thresholds. The clustering of these galaxies in the CMASS redshift range is found to be consistent with that predicted by passive evolution. Our measurements of the luminosity and color dependence and redshift evolution of galaxy clustering will allow for detailed modeling of the relation between galaxies and dark matter halos and new constraints on galaxy formation and evolution.

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arXiv2012

Cosmic Structure and Dynamics of the Local Universe

We present a cosmography analysis of the Local Universe based on the recently released Two-Micron All-Sky Redshift Survey (2MRS). Our method is based on a Bayesian Networks Machine Learning algorithm (the Kigen-code) which self-consistently samples the initial density fluctuations compatible with the observed galaxy distribution and a structure formation model given by second order Lagrangian perturbation theory (2LPT). From the initial conditions we obtain an ensemble of reconstructed density and peculiar velocity fields which characterize the local cosmic structure with high accuracy unveiling nonlinear structures like filaments and voids in detail. Coherent redshift space distortions are consistently corrected within 2LPT. From the ensemble of cross-correlations between the reconstructions and the galaxy field and the variance of the recovered density fields we find that our method is extremely accurate up to k ~ 1 h Mpc^-1 and still yields reliable results down to scales of about 3-4 h^-1 Mpc. The motion of the local group we obtain within ~ 80 h^-1 Mpc (v_LG=522+-86 km s^-1, l_LG=291^o +- 16^o, b_LG=34^o+-8^o) is in good agreement with measurements derived from the CMB and from direct observations of peculiar motions and is consistent with the predictions of LambdaCDM.

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arXiv2012

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 9 Spectroscopic Galaxy Sample

We present measurements of galaxy clustering from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III). These use the Data Release 9 (DR9) CMASS sample, which contains 264,283 massive galaxies covering 3275 square degrees with an effective redshift z=0.57 and redshift range 0.43 < z < 0.7. Assuming a concordance Lambda-CDM cosmological model, this sample covers an effective volume of 2.2 Gpc^3, and represents the largest sample of the Universe ever surveyed at this density, n = 3 x 10^-4 h^-3 Mpc^3. We measure the angle-averaged galaxy correlation function and power spectrum, including density-field reconstruction of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature. The acoustic features are detected at a significance of 5σin both the correlation function and power spectrum. Combining with the SDSS-II Luminous Red Galaxy Sample, the detection significance increases to 6.7σ. Fitting for the position of the acoustic features measures the distance to z=0.57 relative to the sound horizon DV /rs = 13.67 +/- 0.22 at z=0.57. Assuming a fiducial sound horizon of 153.19 Mpc, which matches cosmic microwave background constraints, this corresponds to a distance DV(z=0.57) = 2094 +/- 34 Mpc. At 1.7 per cent, this is the most precise distance constraint ever obtained from a galaxy survey. We place this result alongside previous BAO measurements in a cosmological distance ladder and find excellent agreement with the current supernova measurements. We use these distance measurements to constrain various cosmological models, finding continuing support for a flat Universe with a cosmological constant.

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