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In this study of the 'Resolving supermAssive Black hole Binaries In galacTic hydrodynamical Simulations' (RABBITS) series, we focus on the hardening and coalescing process of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries in galaxy mergers. For simulations including different galaxy formation processes (i.e. gas cooling, star formation, SMBH accretion, stellar, and AGN feedback), we systematically control the effect of stochastic eccentricity by fixing it to similar values during the SMBH hardening phase. We find a strong correlation between the SMBH merger time-scales and the presence of nuclear star formation. Throughout the galaxy merging process, gas condenses at the centre due to cooling and tidal torques, leading to nuclear star formation. These recently formed stars, which inherit low angular momenta from the gas, contribute to the loss cone and assist in the SMBH hardening via three-body interactions. Compared to non-radiative hydrodynamical runs, the SMBH merger time-scales measured from the runs including cooling, stellar, and SMBH physical processes tend to be shortened by a factor of ∼1.7. After fixing the eccentricity to the range of e ∼ 0.6–0.8 during the hardening phase, the simulations with AGN feedback reveal merger time-scales of ∼100–500 Myr for disc mergers and ∼1–2 Gyr for elliptical mergers. With a semi-analytical approach, we find that the torque interaction between the binary and its circumbinary disc has minimal impact on the shrinking of the binary orbit in our retrograde galaxy merger. Our results are useful in improving the modelling of SMBH merger time-scales and gravitational-wave event rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the primary goals when studying galaxy formation is to understand how the luminous component of the Universe, galaxies, relate to the growth of structure which is dominated by the gravitational collapse of dark matter haloes. The stellar-to-halo mass relation probes how galaxies occupy dark matter haloes and what that entails for their star formation history. We deliver the first self-consistent empirical model that can place constraints on the stellar-to-halo mass relation down to log stellar mass log10(m */M⊙) ≤ 5.0 by fitting our model directly to Local Group dwarf data. This is accomplished by penalizing galaxy growth in late-forming, low-mass haloes by mimicking the effects of reionization. This process serves to regulate the number density of galaxies by altering the scatter in halo peak mass |$M^{\mathrm{peak}}_{h}$| at fixed stellar mass, creating a tighter scatter than would otherwise exist without a high- z quenching mechanism. Our results indicate that the previously established double-power law stellar-to-halo mass relation can be extended to include galaxies with |$\log _{10}(M^{\mathrm{peak}}_{\mathrm{h}}/{\rm M}_{\odot })\gtrsim 10.0$|⁠. Furthermore, we show that haloes with |$\log _{10}(M^{\mathrm{peak}}_{\mathrm{h}}/{\rm M}_{\odot })\lesssim 9.3$| by z = 4 are unlikely to host a galaxy with log10(m */M⊙) > 5.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the simulation of a |$2\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$| halo mass cosmological dwarf galaxy run to z = 0 at 4 solar mass gas resolution with resolved supernova feedback. We compare three simple subgrid implementations for the inhomogeneous chemical enrichment from Population III stars and compare them to constraints from Local Group dwarf galaxies. The employed model, LYRA, is a novel high-resolution galaxy formation model built for the moving mesh code arepo , which is marked by a resolved multiphase interstellar medium, single stars, and individual supernova events. The resulting reionization relic is characterized by a short (<1.5 Gyr) star formation history that is repeatedly brought to a standstill by violent bursts of feedback. Star formation is reignited for a short duration due to a merger at z ≈ 4 and then again at z ≈ 0.2−0 after sustained gas accretion. Our model z = 0 galaxy matches the stellar mass, size, stellar kinematics, and metallicity relations of Local Group dwarf galaxies well. The dark matter profile does not exhibit a core in any version of the model. We show that the host halo masses of Population III stars affect the assembly history of dwarf galaxies. This manifests itself through the initial gaseous collapse in the progenitor haloes, affecting the central density of the stellar component and through the accretion of luminous substructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stellar metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) have been measured for resolved stellar populations in the outer halos of many galaxies in nearby groups. Among them, the MDF of NGC 5128, the central giant elliptical in the Centaurus group, provides essential constraints for theories of massive galaxy formation and hierarchical assembly. To investigate the formation and chemical evolution history of the outer halo of giant elliptical galaxies, we examine the chemical properties of three zoom-in high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of an NGC 5128â€"like giant elliptical galaxy and compare their outer halo MDFs to the observed one of NGC 5128. Even though the simulated galaxies have different merging histories and age distributions, all predicted MDFs are in good qualitative agreement with the observed one. The median metallicity of the simulated galaxies is, on average, [M/H] = âˆ'0.41 ± 0.06 compared to the observed value of [M/H] = âˆ'0.38 ± 0.02 for NGC 5128, and the dispersion in metallicity is ∼0.77 dex for both observed and simulated galaxies. We investigate the origin of the stars ending up in the outer halo field of simulated galaxies and show that most have an “accreted” origin, formed in other small galaxies and later accreted in mergers. Only ∼15% of the stars are formed in situ within the main progenitor of the galaxy and radially migrate outward. We show that the contribution of metal-rich in situ stars is subdominant in the outer halos of our simulated galaxies but can be prominent in the inner regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the galaxy–galaxy merger rate with the empirical model for galaxy formation, emerge. On average, we find that between 2 per cent and 20 per cent of massive galaxies (log10(m */M⊙) ≥ 10.3) will experience a major merger per Gyr. Our model predicts galaxy merger rates that do not scale as a power law with redshift when selected by descendant stellar mass, and exhibit a clear stellar mass and mass-ratio dependence. Specifically, major mergers are more frequent at high masses and at low redshift. We show mergers are significant for the stellar mass growth of galaxies log10(m */M⊙) ≳ 11.0. For the most massive galaxies major mergers dominate the accreted mass fraction, contributing as much as 90 per cent of the total accreted stellar mass. We reinforce that these phenomena are a direct result of the stellar-to-halo mass relation, which results in massive galaxies having a higher likelihood of experiencing major mergers than low-mass galaxies. Our model produces a galaxy pair fraction consistent with recent observations, exhibiting a form best described by a power-law exponential function. Translating these pair fractions into merger rates results in an inaccurate prediction compared to the model intrinsic values when using published observation time-scales. We find the pair fraction can be well mapped to the intrinsic merger rate by adopting an observation time-scale that decreases linearly with redshift as T obs = −0.36(1 + z) + 2.39 [Gyr], assuming all observed pairs merge by z  = 0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present constraints on the emergence and evolution of passive galaxies with the empirical model emerge , which reproduces the evolution of stellar mass functions (SMFs), specific and cosmic star formation rates since |$z$|  ≈ 10, 'quenched' galaxy fractions, and correlation functions. At fixed halo mass, present-day passive galaxies are more massive than active galaxies, whereas at fixed stellar mass passive galaxies populate more massive haloes in agreement with observations. This effect naturally results from the shape and scatter of the stellar-to-halo mass relation. The stellar mass assembly of present-day passive galaxies is dominated by ' in situ ' star formation below ∼3 × 1011 M⊙ and by merging and accretion of ' ex situ ' formed stars at higher mass. The mass dependence is in tension with current cosmological simulations. Lower mass passive galaxies show extended star formation towards low redshift in agreement with IFU surveys. All passive galaxies have main progenitors on the 'main sequence of star formation' with the 'red sequence' appearing at |$z$|  ≈ 2. Above this redshift, over 95 per cent of the progenitors of passive galaxies are active. More than 90 per cent of |$z$|  ≈ 2 'main sequence' galaxies with m * > 1010 M⊙ evolve into present-day passive galaxies. Above redshift 6, more than 80 per cent of the observed SMFs above 109 M⊙ can be accounted for by progenitors of passive galaxies with m * > 1010 M⊙. This implies that high-redshift observations mainly probe the birth of present-day passive galaxies. emerge is available at github.com/bmoster/emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metals in the hot gaseous halos of galaxies encode the history of star formation as well as the feedback processes that eject metals from the galaxies. X-ray observations suggest that massive galaxies have extended distributions of metals in their gas halos. We present predictions for the metal properties of massive galaxies and their gaseous halos from recent high-resolution zoom-in simulations that include mechanical and radiation-driven feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). In these simulations, AGN launch high-velocity outflows, mimicking observed broad absorption line winds. By comparing two sets of simulations with and without AGN feedback, we show that our prescription for AGN feedback is capable of driving winds and enriching halo gas "inside-out" by spreading centrally enriched metals to the outskirts of galaxies, into the halo and beyond. The metal (iron) profiles of halos simulated with AGN feedback have a flatter slope than those without AGN feedback, consistent with recent X-ray observations. The predicted gas iron abundance of group scale galaxies simulated with AGN feedback is ZFe = 0.23 ZFe,⊙ at 0.5r500, which is 2.5 times higher than that in simulations without AGN feedback. In these simulations, AGN winds are also important for the metal enrichment of the intergalactic medium, as the vast majority of metals ejected from the galaxy by AGN-driven winds end up beyond the halo virial radius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a series of 10 × 2 cosmological zoom simulations of the formation of massive galaxies with and without a model for active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback. Differences in stellar population and kinematic properties are evaluated by constructing mock integral field unit maps. The impact of the AGN is weak at high redshift when all systems are mostly fast rotating and disc-like. After z ∼ 1 the AGN simulations result in lower mass, older, less metal rich, and slower rotating systems with less discy isophotes – in general agreement with observations. 2D kinematic maps of in situ and accreted stars show that these differences result from reduced in-situ star formation due to AGN feedback. A full analysis of stellar orbits indicates that galaxies simulated with AGN are typically more triaxial and have higher fractions of x-tubes and box orbits and lower fractions of z-tubes. This trend can also be explained by reduced late in-situ star formation. We introduce a global parameter, ξ3, to characterize the anticorrelation between the third-order kinematic moment h 3 and the line-of-sight velocity (V avg/σ), and compare to ATLAS3 D observations. The kinematic correlation parameter ξ3 might be a useful diagnostic for large integral field surveys as it is a kinematic indicator for intrinsic shape and orbital content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present emerge, an Empirical ModEl for the foRmation of GalaxiEs, describing the evolution of individual galaxies in large volumes from z ∼ 10 to the present day. We assign a star formation rate to each dark matter halo based on its growth rate, which specifies how much baryonic material becomes available, and the instantaneous baryon conversion efficiency, which determines how efficiently this material is converted to stars, thereby capturing the baryonic physics. Satellites are quenched following the delayed-then-rapid model, and they are tidally disrupted once their subhalo has lost a significant fraction of its mass. The model is constrained with observed data extending out to high redshift. The empirical relations are very flexible, and the model complexity is increased only if required by the data, assessed by several model selection statistics. We find that for the same final halo mass galaxies can have very different star formation histories. Galaxies that are quenched at z = 0 typically have a higher peak star formation rate compared to their star-forming counterparts. emerge predicts stellar-to-halo mass ratios for individual galaxies and introduces scatter self-consistently. We find that at fixed halo mass, passive galaxies have a higher stellar mass on average. The intracluster mass in massive haloes can be up to eight times larger than the mass of the central galaxy. Clustering for star-forming and quenched galaxies is in good agreement with observational constraints, indicating a realistic assignment of galaxies to haloes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galaxies occupy different regions of the [OIII]λ5007/H β-versus-[N II]λ6584/H α emissionline 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 redshift evolution of the optical-line ratios [OIII]λ5007/H β, [NII]λ6584/H α, [SII]λλ6717, 6731/H α and [O I]λ6300/H α. The line ratios of simulated galaxies agree well with observations of both star-forming and active local Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies. Towards higher redshifts, at fixed galaxy stellar mass, the average [O III]/H β is predicted to increase and [N II]/H α, [S II]/H α and [O I]/H α to 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 [N II]/H α. For [SII]/H α and [O I]/H α, this applies only to redshifts greater than z = 1.5, the evolution at lower redshift being driven in roughly equal parts by nebular emission from active galactic nuclei and post-AGB stellar populations. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse orbits of stars and dark matter out to three effective radii for 42 galaxies formed in cosmological zoom simulations. Box orbits always dominate at the centres and z-tubes become important at larger radii. We connect the orbital structure to the formation histories and specific features (e.g. disc, counter-rotating core, minor axis rotation) in two-dimensional kinematic maps. Globally, fast-rotating galaxies with significant recent in situ star formation are dominated by z-tubes. Slow rotators with recent mergers have significant box orbit and x-tube components. Rotation, quantified by the λR-parameter often originates from streaming motion of stars on z-tubes but sometimes from figure rotation. The observed anticorrelation of h3 and V0/σ in rotating galaxies can be connected to a dissipative formation history leading to high z-tube fractions. For galaxies with recent mergers in situ formed stars, accreted stars and dark matter particles populate similar orbits. Dark matter particles have isotropic velocity dispersions. Accreted stars are typically radially biased (β ≈ 0.2-0.4). In situ stars become tangentially biased (as low as β ≈ -1.0) if dissipation was relevant during the late assembly of the galaxy. We discuss the relevance of our analysis for integral field surveys and for constraining galaxy formation models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed two-dimensional stellar dynamical analysis of a sample of 44 cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of individual central galaxies with stellar masses of 2 × 1010 M⊙ ≲ M* ≲ 6 × 1011 M⊙. Kinematic maps of the stellar line-of-sight velocity, velocity dispersion and higher order Gauss–Hermite moments h3 and h4 are constructed for each central galaxy and for the most massive satellites. The amount of rotation is quantified using the λR-parameter. The velocity, velocity dispersion, h3 and h4 fields of the simulated galaxies show a diversity similar to observed kinematic maps of early-type galaxies in the ATLAS3D survey. This includes fast (regular), slow and misaligned rotation, hot spheroids with embedded cold disc components as well as galaxies with counter-rotating cores or central depressions in the velocity dispersion. We link the present-day kinematic properties to the individual cosmological formation histories of the galaxies. In general, major galaxy mergers have a significant influence on the rotation properties resulting in both a spin-down as well as a spin-up of the merger remnant. Lower mass galaxies with significant (≳18 per cent) in situ formation of stars since z ≈ 2, or with additional gas-rich major mergers – resulting in a spin-up – in their formation history, form elongated (ϵ ∼ 0.45) fast rotators (λR ∼ 0.46) with a clear anticorrelation of h3 and v/σ. An additional formation path for fast rotators includes gas-poor major mergers leading to a spin-up of the remnants (λR ∼ 0.43). This formation path does not result in anticorrelated h3 and v/σ. The formation histories of slow rotators can include late major mergers. If the merger is gas rich, the remnant typically is a less flattened slow rotator with a central dip in the velocity dispersion. If the merger is gas poor, the remnant is very elongated (ϵ ∼ 0.43) and slowly rotating (λR ∼ 0.11). The galaxies most consistent with the rare class of non-rotating round early-type galaxies grow by gas-poor minor mergers alone. In general, more massive galaxies have less in situ star formation since z ∼ 2, rotate slower and have older stellar populations. We discuss general implications for the formation of fast and slowly rotating galaxies as well as the weaknesses and strengths of the underlying models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One quarter of all nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs) outside Virgo host a disc/ring of H i with size from a few to tens of kpc and mass up to ∼109 M⊙. Here we investigate whether this H i is related to the presence of a stellar disc within the host making use of the classification of ETGs in fast and slow rotators (FR/SR). We find a large diversity of H i masses and morphologies within both families. Surprisingly, SRs are detected as often, host as much H i and have a similar rate of H i discs/rings as FRs. Accretion of H i is therefore not always linked to the growth of an inner stellar disc. The weak relation between H i and stellar disc is confirmed by their frequent kinematical misalignment in FRs, including cases of polar and counterrotating gas. In SRs the H i is usually polar. This complex picture highlights a diversity of ETG formation histories which may be lost in the relative simplicity of their inner structure and emerges when studying their outer regions. We find that Λ CDM hydrodynamical simulations have difficulties reproducing the H i properties of ETGs. The gas discs formed in simulations are either too massive or too small depending on the star formation feedback implementation. Kinematical misalignments match the observations only qualitatively. The main point of conflict is that nearly all simulated FRs and a large fraction of all simulated SRs host corotating H i. This establishes the H i properties of ETGs as a novel challenge to simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how feedback influences baryon infall on to galaxies using cosmological, zoom-in simulations of haloes with present mass Mvir = 6.9 × 1011 to 1.7 × 1012 M⊙. Starting at z = 4 from identical initial conditions, implementations of weak and strong stellar feedback produce bulge- and disc-dominated galaxies, respectively. Strong feedback favours disc formation: (1) because conversion of gas into stars is suppressed at early times, as required by abundance matching arguments, resulting in flat star formation histories and higher gas fractions; (2) because 50 per cent of the stars form in situ from recycled disc gas with angular momentum only weakly related to that of the z = 0 dark halo; (3) because late-time gas accretion is typically an order of magnitude stronger and has higher specific angular momentum, with recycled gas dominating over primordial infall; (4) because 25–30 per cent of the total accreted gas is ejected entirely before z ∼ 1, removing primarily low angular momentum material which enriches the nearby intergalactic medium. Most recycled gas roughly conserves its angular momentum, but material ejected for long times and to large radii can gain significant angular momentum before re-accretion. These processes lower galaxy formation efficiency in addition to promoting disc formation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) mechanical and radiation feedback on the formation of bulge dominated galaxies via mergers of disc galaxies. The merging galaxies have mass ratios of 1:1 to 6:1 and include pre-existing hot gaseous haloes to properly account for the global impact of AGN feedback. Using smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation code (gadget-3) we compare three models with different AGN feedback models: (1) no black hole and no AGN feedback; (2) thermal AGN feedback; and (3) mechanical and radiative AGN feedback. The last model is motivated by observations of broad absorption line quasars and heating associated with the central AGN X-ray radiation. Compared to thermal AGN feedback, the mechanical AGN feedback produces lower thermal X-ray luminosity, higher velocity galactic outflows, and a much greater AGN variability in better agreement with observations. All merger remnants with mechanical AGN feedback with vw ∼ 10 000 km s−1 and ϵf = 2 × 10−3, independent of their progenitor mass ratios, reproduce the observed relations between stellar velocity dispersion and black hole mass (MBH-σ) as well as X-ray luminosity (LX-σ), whereas thermal feedback leads to thermal X-ray luminosity in excess of observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the formation histories of 19 galaxies from cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics zoom-in resimulations. We construct mock three-colour images and show that the models reproduce observed trends in the evolution of galaxy colours and morphologies. However, only a small fraction of galaxies contains bars. Many galaxies go through phases of central mass growth by in situ star formation driven by gas-rich mergers or misaligned gas infall. These events lead to accretion of low angular momentum gas to the centres and leave imprints on the distributions of z = 0 stellar circularities, radii and metallicities as functions of age. Observations of the evolution of structural properties of samples of disc galaxies at z = 2.5-0.0 infer continuous mass assembly at all radii. Our simulations can only explain this if there is a significant contribution from mergers or misaligned infall, as expected in a Λ cold dark matter universe. Quiescent merger histories lead to high kinematic disc fractions and inside-out growth, but show little central growth after the last ‘destructive’ merger at z > 1.5. For sufficiently strong feedback, as assumed in our models, a moderate amount of merging does not seem to be a problem for the z = 0 disc galaxy population, but may rather be a requirement. The average profiles of simulated disc galaxies agree with observations at z ≥ 1.5. At z ≤ 1, there is too much growth in size and too little growth in central mass, possibly due to the underabundance of bars. The discrepancies may partly be caused by differences between the star formation histories of the simulations and those assumed for observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamical modeling and strong-lensing data indicate that the total density profiles of early-type galaxies are close to isothermal, i.e., ρtot ≈ rγ with γ ≈ -2. To understand the origin of this universal slope we study a set of simulated spheroids formed in isolated binary mergers as well as the formation within the cosmological framework. The total stellar plus darkmatter density profiles can always be described by a power law with an index of γ ≈ -2.1 with a tendency toward steeper slopes for more compact, lower-mass ellipticals. In the binary mergers the amount of gas involved in the merger determines the precise steepness of the slope. This agrees with results from the cosmological simulations where ellipticals with steeper slopes have a higher fraction of stars formed in situ. Each gas-poor merger event evolves the slope toward γ ∼ -2, once this slope is reached further merger events do not change it anymore. All our ellipticals have flat intrinsic combined stellar and dark matter velocity dispersion profiles. We conclude that flat velocity dispersion profiles and total density distributions with a slope of γ ∼ -2 for the combined system of stars and dark matter act as a natural attractor. The variety of complex formation histories as present in cosmological simulations, including major as well as minor merger events, is essential to generate the full range of observed density slopes seen for present-day elliptical galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Observational studies have revealed a 'downsizing' trend in black hole (BH) growth: the number densities of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) peak at higher redshifts than those of faint AGN. This would seem to imply that massive BHs formed before low-mass BHs, in apparent contradiction to hierarchical clustering scenarios. We investigate whether this observed 'downsizing' in BH growth is reproduced in a semi-analytic model for the formation and evolution of galaxies and BHs, set within the hierarchical paradigm for structure formation. In this model, BHs evolve from light seeds (∼100 M⊙) and their growth is merger driven. The original Somerville et al. model (baseline model) reproduces the number density of AGN at intermediate redshifts and luminosities, but underproduces luminous AGN at very high redshift ( z > 3) and overproduces them at low redshift ( z < 1). In addition, the baseline model underproduces low-luminosity AGN at low redshift ( z < 1). In order to solve these problems, we consider several modifications to the physical processes in the model: (1) a 'heavy' BH seeding scenario; (2) a sub-Eddington accretion rate ceiling that depends on the cold gas fraction and (3) an additional BH accretion mode due to disc instabilities. With these three modifications, the models can explain the observed downsizing, successfully reproduce the bolometric AGN luminosity function and simultaneously reproduce galaxy and BH properties in the local Universe. We also perform a comparison with the observed soft and hard X-ray luminosity functions of AGN, including an empirical correction for torus-level obscuration, and reach similar conclusions. Our best-fitting model suggests a scenario in which disc instabilities are the main driver for moderately luminous Seyfert galaxies at low redshift, while major mergers are the main trigger for luminous AGN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses theoretical challenges in understanding galaxy formation and evolution, the distribution of dark matter, and cosmological constants in the inflationary universe. Topics include fluctuations in cosmic microwave background radiation, three approaches to galaxy-formation modeling, and the concordance cosmological model of dark energy and matter.

ABSTRACT We study the evolution of the stellar and dark matter components in a galaxy cluster of 1015 M⊙ from z= 3 to the present epoch using the high-resolution collisionless simulations of Ruszkowski & Springel. At z= 3 the dominant progenitor haloes were populated with spherical model galaxies with and without accounting for adiabatic contraction. We apply a weighting scheme which allows us to change the relative amount of dark and stellar material assigned to each simulation particle in order to produce luminous properties which agree better with abundance-matching arguments and observed bulge sizes at z= 3. This permits the study of the effect of initial compactness on the evolution of the mass-size relation. We find that for more compact initial stellar distributions the size of the final brightest cluster galaxy grows with mass according to r∝ M2, whereas for more extended initial distributions, r∝ M. Our results show that collisionless mergers in a cosmological context can reduce the strength of inner dark matter cusps with changes in logarithmic slope of 0.3-0.5 at fixed radius. Shallow cusps such as those found recently in several strong lensing clusters thus do not necessarily conflict with cold dark matter, but may rather reflect on the initial structure of the progenitor galaxies, which was shaped at high redshift by their formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ hydrodynamical simulations to study the effects of dissipational gas physics on the vertical heating and thickening of disc galaxies during minor mergers. For the first time we present a suite of simulations that includes a diffuse, rotating, cooling, hot gaseous halo, as predicted by cosmological hydrodynamical simulations as well as models of galaxy formation. We study the effect of this new gaseous component on the vertical structure of a Milky Way-like stellar disc during 1:10 and 1:5 mergers. For 1:10 mergers, we find no increased final thin disc scale height compared to the isolated simulation, leading to the conclusion that thin discs can be present even after a 1:10 merger if a reasonable amount of hot gas is present. The reason for this is the accretion of new cold gas, leading to the formation of a massive new thin stellar disc that dominates the surface brightness profile. In a previous study, in which we included only cold gas in the disc, we showed that the presence of cold gas decreased the thickening by a minor merger relative to the no-gas case. Here, we show that the evolution of the scale height in the presence of a cooling hot halo is dominated by the formation of the new stellar disc. In this scenario, the thick disc is the old stellar disc that has been thickened in a minor merger at z≳ 1, while the thin disc is the new stellar disc that reforms after this merger. When galactic winds are also considered, the final scale height is larger due to two effects. First, the winds reduce the star formation rate, leading to a less massive new stellar disc, such that the thickened old disc still dominates. Secondly, the winds exert a pressure force on the gas in the disc, leading to a shallower gas profile and thus to a thicker new stellar disc. In addition, we study the evolution of the scale height during a 1:5 merger and find that a thin disc can be present even after this merger, provided enough hot gas is available. The final scale height in our simulations depends on the mass of the hot gaseous halo, the efficiency of the winds and the merger mass ratio. We find post-merger values in the range 0.5 ≲z0≲ 1.0 kpc in good agreement with observational constraints by local galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We present a detailed comparison between numerical cosmological hydrodynamic zoom simulations and the semi-analytic model (SAM) of Somerville et al., run within merger trees extracted from the simulations. The high-resolution simulations represent 48 individual haloes with virial masses in the range . They include radiative H and He cooling, photoionization, star formation and thermal supernova (SN) feedback. We compare with different SAM versions including only this complement of physical processes, and also ones including SN-driven winds, metal cooling and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our analysis is focused on the cosmic evolution of the baryon content in galaxies and its division into various components (stars, cold gas and hot gas), as well as how those galaxies acquired their gas and stellar mass. Both the SAMs and simulations are compared with observational relations between halo mass and stellar mass, and between stellar mass and star formation rate, at low and high redshifts. We find some points of agreement and some important disagreements. SAMs that include the same physical processes as the simulations reproduce the total baryon fraction in haloes and the fraction of cold gas plus stars in the central galaxy to better than 20 per cent. However, the simulations turn out to have much higher star formation efficiencies (by about a factor of 10) than the SAMs, despite nominally being both normalized to the same empirical Kennicutt relation at z= 0. Therefore the cold gas is consumed much more rapidly in the simulations, and stars form much earlier. Also, simulations show a transition from stellar mass growth that is dominated by in situ formation of stars to growth that is predominantly through accretion of stars formed in external galaxies. In SAMs, stellar growth is always dominated by in situ star formation, because they significantly underpredict the fraction of mass growth from accreted stars relative to the simulations. In addition, SAMs overpredict the overall gas accretion rates relative to the simulations, and overestimate the fraction of 'hot' relative to 'cold' accretion. We discuss the reasons for these discrepancies, and identify several physical processes that are missing in our SAM and in other SAMs but which should be included. We also highlight physical processes that are neglected in the simulations studied here, but which appear to be crucial in order to understand the properties of real galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We study the formation of early-type galaxies (ETGs) through mergers with a sample of 70 high-resolution (softening length <60 pc and 12 × 106 particles) numerical simulations of binary mergers of disc galaxies (with 10 per cent of gas) and 16 simulations of ETG remergers. These simulations, designed to accompany observations and models conducted within the ATLAS3D project, encompass various mass ratios (from 1:1 to 6:1), initial conditions and orbital parameters. The progenitor disc galaxies are spiral-like with bulge-to-disc ratios typical of Sb and Sc galaxies and high central baryonic angular momentum. We find that binary mergers of disc galaxies with mass ratios of 3:1 and 6:1 are nearly always classified as fast rotators according to the ATLAS3D criterion (based on the λR parameter - ATLAS3D Paper III): they preserve the structure of the input fast rotating spiral progenitors. They have intrinsic ellipticities larger than 0.5, cover intrinsic λR values between 0.2 and 0.6, within the range of observed fast rotators. The distribution of the observed fastest rotators does in fact coincide with the distribution of our disc progenitors. Major disc mergers (mass ratios of 2:1 and 1:1) lead to both fast and slow rotators. Most of the fast rotators produced in major mergers have intermediate flattening, with ellipticities ε between 0.4 and 0.6. Most slow rotators formed in these binary disc mergers hold a stellar kinematically distinct core (KDC) in their ∼1-3 central kiloparsec: these KDCs are built from the stellar components of the progenitors. However, these remnants are still very flat with ε often larger than 0.45 and sometimes as high as 0.65. Besides a handful of specific observed systems - the counter-rotating discs (2σ galaxies, ATLAS3D Paper II) - these therefore cannot reproduce the observed population of slow rotators in the nearby Universe. This sample of simulations supports the notion of slow and fast rotators: these two families of ETGs present distinct characteristics in term of their angular momentum content (at all radii) and intrinsic properties - the slow rotators are not simply velocity-scaled down versions of fast rotators. The mass ratio of the progenitors is a fundamental parameter for the formation of slow rotators in these binary mergers, but it also requires a retrograde spin for the earlier-type (Sb) progenitor galaxy with respect to the orbital angular momentum. We also study remergers of these merger remnants: these produce relatively round fast rotators or systems near the threshold for slow rotators. In such cases, the orbital angular momentum dominates the central region, and these systems no longer exhibit a KDC, as KDCs are destroyed during the remergers and do not re-form in these relatively dry events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrodynamic simulations of galaxies with active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have typically employed feedback that is purely local, i.e., an injection of energy to the immediate neighborhood of the black hole (BH). We perform GADGET-2 simulations of massive elliptical galaxies with an additional feedback component: an observationally calibrated X-ray radiation field which emanates from the BH and heats gas out to large radii from the galaxy center. We find that including the heating and radiation pressure associated with this X-ray flux in our simulations enhances the effects which are commonly reported from AGN feedback. This new feedback model is twice as effective as traditional feedback at suppressing star formation, produces three times less star formation in the last 6 Gyr, and modestly lowers the final BH mass (30%). It is also significantly more effective than an X-ray background in reducing the number of satellite galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BSTRACT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a large set of merger simulations of early-type disc galaxies with mass ratios of 1:1 and 3:1 and 10 per cent of the total disc mass in gas. The internal orbital structure and the kinematic and photometric properties of the remnants are analysed in detail and compared to pure stellar mergers. In contrast to the collisionless case, equal-mass mergers with gas do not result in very boxy remnants which is caused by the suppression of box orbits and the change of the projected shape of minor-axis tube orbits in the more axisymmetric remnants. The isophotal shape of 3:1 remnants and the global kinematic properties of 1:1 and 3:1 remnants are only weakly affected by the presence of gas. 1:1 remnants are slowly rotating, whereas 3:1 remnants are fast rotating and discy. The shape of the stellar line-of-sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) is strongly influenced by gas. Within the effective radius, the LOSVDs of collisionless remnants have broad leading wings while their gaseous counterparts show steep leading wings, more consistent with observations of elliptical galaxies. We show that this change is also caused by the suppressed populating of box orbits and it is amplified by the formation of extended gas discs in the merger remnants which might eventually turn into stars. If elliptical galaxies have formed from mergers, our results indicate that massive, slowly rotating boxy elliptical galaxies cannot have formed from dissipative mergers of discs. Pure stellar (dry) mergers are the more likely candidates. On the other hand, lower mass, fast rotating and discy ellipticals can have formed from dissipative (wet) mergers of early-type discs. So far, only unequal-mass disc mergers with gas can successfully explain their observed substructure. This is consistent with the revised morphological classification scheme of increasing importance of gas dissipation when moving from boxy to discy ellipticals and then to spiral galaxies, proposed by Kormendy & Bender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The projected kinematical properties of unequal-mass merger remnants of disc galaxies are analysed and shown to agree well with observations of discy, fast rotating elliptical galaxies. This supports the major merger hypothesis of early-type galaxy formation. However, in contrast to previous claims, the merger remnants are very anisotropic with values of the anisotropy parameter which are similar to equal-mass merger remnants that form boxy, slowly rotating ellipticals. Including gas in the simulations does not change this result, although the line-of-sight velocity profile and the intrinsic orbital structure are strongly affected by the presence of gas. The kinematical difference between boxy and discy ellipticals appears not to be the amount of anisotropy but rather the rotation and shape of the velocity dispersion tensor. The apparent isotropy of observed discy ellipticals is shown to result from inclination effects. Even small inclination angles strongly reduce the measured anisotropy of fast rotating systems, seen in projection. A second problem is the limited amount of information that is available when measuring only the central velocity dispersion and a characteristic rotation and ellipticity. Methods are investigated that allow a better determination of the intrinsic anisotropy of fast rotating early-type galaxies with known inclination angles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]