arXiv subjects

Yingtian Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Yingtian Chen.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Resolving Star Cluster Formation in Galaxy Simulations with Cosmic Ray Feedback

Star clusters host the massive stars responsible for feedback in star-forming galaxies. Stellar feedback shapes the interstellar medium (ISM), affecting the formation of future star clusters. To self-consistently capture the interplay between feedback and star formation, a model must resolve the parsec-scale star formation sites and the multiphase ISM. Additionally, the dynamical impact of cosmic rays (CRs) on star formation rates (SFRs) must also be considered. We present the first simulations of the formation of an ensemble of star clusters with dynamically-coupled CRs, near-individual star particles, and a feedback-regulated ISM. We analyze tallbox simulations performed using the CRISP model in the moving-mesh code AREPO. We apply varied implementations of CR transport under the theory of self-confinement. We find that CRs simultaneously reduce the SFR, the power law slope of the cluster mass function, and the cluster formation efficiency. Each simulation is compatible with observations, and CR feedback tends to move results along observed star cluster relations. We see only modest changes in cluster radius and velocity dispersions, but significant differences in the virial parameters. Ultimately, the primary impact of CRs is to reduce SFRs. Lower SFRs imply fewer supernovae, and consequently a lower turbulent energy budget for gas. Star clusters formed in a CR-regulated ISM have lower velocity dispersions, and are therefore more bound under self-gravity. The effective clustering of supernovae is unchanged by CRs. Despite the idealized setup, the CRISP feedback model recovers many key aspects of star cluster formation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Tracing the relic nature of compact galaxies through their globular cluster systems

We investigate the synthetic model of globular cluster (GC) systems of 17 compact massive galaxies (CMGs) from the Illustris TNG100 simulation to explore their connection with massive relic galaxies, systems that have undergone little structural evolution across cosmic time. The co-evolution of the GC systems and their host galaxies is based on a GC formation and evolution model that assigns clusters to stellar particles according to age and local conditions, providing positional, kinematic, and chemical information for individual GCs. By combining stellar assembly histories, effective radius evolution, and GC properties such as in-situ vs. ex-situ origin, metallicity, and spatial distribution, we identify consistent signatures of early formation and late-time accretion. We find that the GC mass fraction traces the host assembly history more robustly than the GC number fraction, as massive clusters better preserve the imprint of the early accretion history. Three CMGs from TNG100 emerge as strong massive relic analogs, exhibiting high in-situ GC fractions, narrow metallicity distributions, and compact spatial distributions. A tight correlation between the host stripped fraction and the extent of the ex-situ GC population further reveals the possibility to consider GC spatial profiles as a signature to identify tidal stripping processes. These results indicate that the combined analysis of GC populations and host stellar assembly offers a robust diagnostic for identifying massive relic galaxies and constraining their evolutionary histories.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Catalog of Mock Stellar Streams in Milky Way-Like Galaxies

Dynamically cold stellar streams from tidally dissolved globular clusters (GCs) serve as excellent tools to measure the Galactic mass distribution and show promise to probe the nature of dark matter. For successful application of these tools to observations, it is essential to have models of stellar stream properties on the Galactic scale. To this end we produce a mock catalog of stellar streams in four Milky Way-mass galaxies from cosmological simulations. We build the catalog with three main components: a model for the formation and disruption of globular clusters based on cosmological simulations, time-dependent potentials constructed with basis function expansions for integrating stream orbits, and an improved particle-spray algorithm for efficient generation of stellar streams. We generate mock photometry for Gaia, LSST, and Roman, and find that the latter two surveys will increase the number of observable stars in GC stellar streams by several orders of magnitude, with LSST alone being able to observe 1000 or more stars in 40-100 streams beyond the stellar disk. In addition, we find that the observable widths and lengths of mock streams as a function of galactocentric radius are well described by power-laws with slopes of $-1.8$ and $-2$ for streams beyond 10~kpc. Our full catalog, containing stream populations across four different galaxy realizations, is publicly available and can be used to study stream population statistics and to calibrate models which use stellar streams to understand our Galaxy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

StarStream on Gaia: Stream discovery and mass loss rate of globular clusters

We apply the automatic stellar stream detection algorithm StarStream to Gaia Data Release 3 and identify 87 stellar streams associated with Galactic globular clusters (GCs), including 34 high-quality cases with median completeness and purity both exceeding 50%, as estimated from modeling mock streams. These detections double the number of known GC streams, and increase the fraction of GCs with tidal streams at high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 30 degree) to 75%. In contrast to visual expectations, many new streams are wide or short, or misaligned with their progenitors' orbits. Taking advantage of the unbiased density measurements enabled by our method, we also estimate the mass loss rate for the progenitor GCs. We find that several low-mass, large-size clusters have enhanced mass loss rates, indicating that they are approaching complete tidal disruption.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

StarStream: Automatic detection algorithm for stellar streams

The Gaia mission has led to the discovery of over 100 stellar streams in the Milky Way, most of which likely originated from globular clusters (GCs). As the upcoming wide-field surveys can potentially continue to increase the number of known streams, there is a growing need to shift focus from manual detection of individual streams to automated detection methods that prioritize both quality and quantity. Traditional techniques rely heavily on the visual expectation that GC streams are dynamically cold and thin. This assumption does not hold for all streams, whose morphologies and kinematics can vary significantly with the progenitor's mass and orbit. As a result, these methods are biased toward a subset of the whole stream population, with often unquantified purity and completeness. In this work, we present StarStream, an automatic stream detection algorithm based on a physics-inspired model rather than visual expectation. Our method provides a more accurate prediction of stream stars in the multi-dimensional space of observables, while using fewer free parameters to account for the diversity of streams. Applied to a mock GC stream catalog tailored for the Gaia DR3 dataset, our algorithm achieves both purity and completeness of at least 65% at Galactic latitudes |b| > 30 degree.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Stellar streams reveal the mass loss of globular clusters

Globular cluster (GC) streams, debris of stars that tidally stripped from their progenitor GCs, have densities that correlate positively with the GC mass loss rate. In this work, we employ a novel particle spray algorithm that can accurately reproduce the morphology of streams of various orbital types, enabling us to uncover the relationship between the GC mass loss history and stream density profiles. Using recent discoveries of GC streams from Gaia DR3, we present, for the first time, a catalog of directly observed mass loss rates for 12 Galactic GCs, ranging from 0.5 to 200 $\rm M_\odot\,Myr^{-1}$. By fitting power-law relations between mass loss rate and key GC properties, we identify positive correlations with GC mass and orbital frequency, consistent with the predictions from N-body simulations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Improved particle spray algorithm for modeling globular cluster streams

Stellar streams that emerge from globular clusters (GCs) are thin stellar structures spread along the orbits of progenitor clusters. Numerical modeling of these streams is essential for understanding their interaction with the host galaxy's mass distribution. Traditional methods are either computationally expensive or oversimplified, motivating us to develop a fast and accurate approach using a particle spray algorithm. By conducting a series of N-body simulations of GCs orbiting a host galaxy, we find that the position and velocity distributions of newly-escaped stream particles are consistent across various GC masses and orbital parameters. Based on these distributions, we develop a new algorithm that avoids computing the detailed internal cluster dynamics by directly drawing tracer particles from these distributions. This algorithm correctly reproduces the action space distribution of stream particles and achieves a 10% accuracy in stream morphology and velocities compared to N-body simulations. To facilitate broader use, we have implemented this algorithm in galactic dynamics codes agama, gala, galax, and galpy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Forecasting the Population of Globular Cluster Streams in Milky Way-type Galaxies

Thin stellar streams originating from globular clusters are among the most sensitive tracers of low-mass dark-matter subhalos. Joint analysis of the entire population of stellar streams will place the most robust constraints on the dark-matter subhalo mass function, and therefore the nature of dark matter. Here we use a hierarchical model of globular cluster formation to forecast the total number, masses and radial distribution of dissolved globular cluster in Milky Way-like galaxies. Furthermore, we generate mock stellar streams from these progenitors' orbital histories taking into account the clusters' formation and accretion time, mass, and metallicity. Out of $\sim$10,000 clusters more massive than $10^4$ M$_{\odot}$, $\sim$9000 dissolved in the central bulge and are fully phase-mixed at the present, while the remaining $\sim$1000 survive as coherent stellar streams. This suggests that the current census of $\sim$80 globular cluster streams in the Milky Way is severely incomplete. Beyond 15 kpc from the Galactic center we are missing hundreds of streams, of which the vast majority are from accreted GCs. Deep Rubin photometry $(g\lesssim27.5)$ would be able to detect these streams, even the most distant ones beyond $> 75$ kpc. We also find that M31 will have an abundance of streams at galactocentric radii of 30-100 kpc. We conclude that future surveys will find a multitude of stellar streams from globular clusters which can be used for dark matter subhalo searches.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Stellar bars form dark matter counterparts in TNG50

Dark matter (DM) bars that shadow stellar bars have been previously shown to form in idealized simulations of isolated disk galaxies. Here, we show that DM bars commonly occur in barred disk galaxies in the TNG50 cosmological simulation suite, but do not appear in unbarred disk galaxies. Consistent with isolated simulations, DM bars are typically shorter than their stellar counterparts and are $75\%$ weaker as measured by the Fourier $A_2$ moment. DM bars dominate the shape of the inner halo potential and are easily identified in the time series of quadrupolar coefficients. We present two novel methods for measuring the bar pattern speed using these coefficients, and use them to make a measurement of the pattern speed and rotation axis orientation for one sample galaxy located in one of the high-time resolution subboxes of TNG50. The stellar and dark bars in this galaxy remain co-aligned throughout the last 8 Gyr and have identical pattern speeds throughout. Both the pattern speed and rotation axis orientation of the bars evolve considerably over the last 8 Gyr, consistent with torques on the bars due to dynamical friction and gas accretion. While the bar pattern speed generally decreases over the time course, it is seen to increase after mergers. Rather than remaining static in time, the rotation axis displays both precession and nutation possibly caused by torques outside the plane of rotation. We find that the shape of the stellar and DM mass distributions are tightly correlated with the bar pattern speed.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Galaxy assembly revealed by globular clusters

Many observable properties of globular clusters (GCs) provide valuable insights for unveiling the hierarchical assembly of their host galaxy. For the Milky Way (MW) in particular, GCs from different accreted satellite galaxies show distinct chemical, spatial, kinematic, and age distributions. Here we examine such clustering features for model GC populations in simulated galaxies, which are carefully selected to match various observational constraints of the MW assembly. We evaluate several widely used clustering, dimensionality reduction, and supervised classification methods on these model GCs, using 10 properties that are observable in the MW. We can categorize in-situ and ex-situ formed GCs with about 90% accuracy, based solely on their clustering features in these 10 variables. The methods are also effective in distinguishing the last major merger in MW-analogs with similar accuracy. Although challenging, we still find it possible to identify one, and only one, additional smaller satellite. We develop a new technique to classify the progenitors of MW GCs by combining several methods and weighting them by the validated accuracy. According to this technique, about 60% of GCs belong to the in-situ group, 20% are associated with the Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus event, and 10% are associated with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. The remaining 10% of GCs cannot be reliably associated with any single accretion event.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Catalogue of model star clusters in the Milky Way and M31 galaxies

Detailed understanding of the formation and evolution of globular clusters (GCs) has been recently advanced through a combination of numerical simulations and analytical models. We employ a state-of-the-art model to create a comprehensive catalogue of simulated clusters in three Milky Way (MW) and three Andromeda (M31) analogue galaxies. Our catalogue aims to connect the chemical and kinematic properties of GCs to the assembly histories of their host galaxies. We apply the model to a selected sample of simulated galaxies that closely match the virial mass, circular velocity profile, and defining assembly events of the MW and M31. The resulting catalogue has been calibrated to successfully reproduce key characteristics of the observed GC systems, including total cluster mass, mass function, metallicity distribution, radial profile, and velocity dispersion. We find that clusters in M31 span a wider range of age and metallicity, relative to the MW, possibly due to M31's recent major merger. Such a merger also heated up the in-situ GC population to higher orbital energy and introduced a large number of ex-situ clusters at large radii. Understanding the impacts of galaxy mergers and accretion on the GC populations is crucial for uncovering the galaxy assembly histories.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Formation of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies of the Local Group

The existence of globular clusters (GCs) in a few satellite galaxies, and their absence in majority of dwarf galaxies, present a challenge for models attempting to understand the origins of GCs. In addition to GC presence appearing stochastic and difficult to describe with average trends, in the smallest satellite galaxies GCs contribute a substantial fraction of total stellar mass. We investigate the stochasticity and number of GCs in dwarf galaxies using an updated version of our model that links the formation of GCs to the growth of the host galaxy mass. We find that more than 50% of dwarf galaxies with stellar mass $M_\odot\lesssim 2\times10^7 M_\odot$ do not host GCs, whereas dwarfs with $M_\odot\sim10^8 M_\odot$ almost always contain some GCs, with a median number $\sim 10$ at $z=0$. These predictions are in agreement with the observations of the Local Volume dwarfs. We also confirm the near-linear GC system mass--halo mass relation down to $M_{\rm h}\simeq10^8 M_\odot$ under the assumption that GC formation and evolution in galaxies of all mass can be described by the same physical model. A detailed case study of two model dwarfs that resemble the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy shows that observational samples can be notably biased by incompleteness below detection limit and at large radii.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Modeling the kinematics of globular cluster systems

Globular clusters (GCs) are old massive star clusters that serve as `fossils' of galaxy formation. The advent of Gaia observatory has enabled detailed kinematics studies of the Galactic GCs and revolutionized our understanding of the connections between GC properties and galaxy assembly. However, lack of kinematic measurements of extragalactic GCs limits the sample size of GC systems that we can fully study. In this work, we present a model for GC formation and evolution, which includes positional and kinematic information of individual GCs by assigning them to particles in the Illustris TNG50-1 simulation based on age and location. We calibrate the three adjustable model parameters using observed properties of the Galactic and extragalactic GC systems, including the distributions of position, systemic velocity, velocity dispersion, anisotropy parameter, orbital actions, and metallicities. We also analyze the properties of GCs from different origins. In outer galaxy, ex-situ clusters are more dominant than the clusters formed in-situ. This leads to the GC metallicities decreasing outwards due to the increasing abundance of accreted, metal-poor clusters. We also find the ex-situ GCs to have greater velocity dispersions and orbital actions, in agreement with their accretion origin.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Novel pre-burst stage of gamma-ray bursts from machine learning

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), as extremely energetic explosions in the universe, are widely believed to consist of two stages: the prompt phase and the subsequent afterglow. Recent studies indicate that some high-energy photons are emitted earlier at source than the prompt phase. Due to the light speed variation, these high-energy photons travel slowly than the low-energy photons, so that they are observed after the prompt low-energy photons at the detector. Based on the data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST), we analyse the photon distribution before the prompt emission in detail and propose the existence of a hitherto unknown pre-burst stage of GRBs by adopting a classification method of machine learning. Analysis on the photons automatically selected by machine learning also produce a light speed variation at $E_{\mathrm{LV}}=\mathrm{3.55\times 10^{17} GeV}$.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Effects of initial density profiles on massive star cluster formation in giant molecular clouds

We perform a suite of hydrodynamic simulations to investigate how initial density profiles of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) affect their subsequent evolution. We find that the star formation duration and integrated star formation efficiency of the whole clouds are not sensitive to the choice of different profiles but are mainly controlled by the interplay between gravitational collapse and stellar feedback. Despite this similarity, GMCs with different profiles show dramatically different modes of star formation. For shallower profiles, GMCs first fragment into many self-gravitation cores and form sub-clusters that distributed throughout the entire clouds. These sub-clusters are later assembled ``hierarchically'' to central clusters. In contrast, for steeper profiles, a massive cluster is quickly formed at the center of the cloud and then gradually grows its mass via gas accretion. Consequently, central clusters that emerged from clouds with shallower profiles are less massive and show less rotation than those with the steeper profiles. This is because 1) a significant fraction of mass and angular momentum in shallower profiles is stored in the orbital motion of the sub-clusters that are not able to merge into the central clusters 2) frequent hierarchical mergers in the shallower profiles lead to further losses of mass and angular momentum via violent relaxation and tidal disruption. Encouragingly, the degree of cluster rotations in steeper profiles is consistent with recent observations of young and intermediate-age clusters. We speculate that rotating globular clusters are likely formed via an ``accretion'' mode from centrally-concentrated clouds in the early Universe.

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