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We investigate low-mass central galaxies with Mstar = $10^{9.5}-10^{10}$ Msun/h, located near massive groups and galaxy clusters using the TNG300 and MDPL2-SAG simulations. We set out to study their evolution, aiming to find hints about the large-scale conformity signal they produce. We also use a control sample of low-mass central galaxies located far away from massive structures. For both samples, we find a sub-population of galaxies that were accreted by another halo in the past but are now considered central galaxies; we refer to these objects as former satellites. The fraction of former satellites is higher for quenched central galaxies near massive systems: 45% in TNG300 and 17% in MDPL2-SAG. Our results in TNG300 show that former satellites were typically hosted by massive dark matter halos (M200 $\geq 10^{13}$ Msun/h) at z$\sim$0.3, followed by a drop in halo mass at lower redshifts. In addition, we find a strong drop in the total gas mass at z$\leq$1 for quenched central galaxies near galaxy groups and clusters produced by these former satellites as well. By removing former satellites, the evolution of quenched central galaxies is fairly similar to those of the quenched control galaxies, showing small differences at low-z. For MDPL2-SAG, former satellites were hosted by less massive halos, with a mean halo mass around $10^{11}$ Msun/h, and the evolution remains equal before and after removing former satellites. We also measure the two-halo conformity, i.e., the correlation in the specific SFR between low-mass central galaxies and their neighbors at Mpc scales, and how former satellites contribute to the signal at z=0, 0.3, and 1. The conformity signal decreases from z=0 to z=1 in MDPL2-SAG but it increases in TNG300. However, after removing former satellites in TNG300, the signal is strongly reduced but almost does not change at z$\leq$0.3, and it disappears at z=1 (abridged)., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, submitted to A&A

A significant fraction of local galaxies exhibit stellar bars, non-axisymmetric structures composed of stars, gas, and dust. Identifying key differences between the properties of barred and unbarred galaxies can uncover clues about the conditions for triggering bar formation. We explore the early stages of bar formation in a small sample of disc barred galaxies extracted from the TNG50 cosmological simulation, and compare their properties to those of unbarred galaxies. According to our results, the most important difference between barred and unbarred galaxies is that the former have systematically higher fractions of stellar to dark matter mass in their inner regions, from very early stages and prior to the formation of the bars. They harbour high initial gas content, fostering increased star formation rates and leading to a central mass concentration that grows faster over time compared to unbarred galaxies. Examining the evolution of the halo spin within 10 ckpc reveals that barred galaxies have higher angular momentum transfer from the disc to the halo. Curiously, both barred and unbarred galaxies share similar initial low values of the halo spin, consistent with those proposed in the literature for bar formation. Furthermore, we evaluate existing stability criteria to capture the complexity of the process, and investigate the effects of mergers, flybys, and environment as possible drivers of bar formation. We find no clear link between mergers and disc instabilities resulting in the formation of bars, even though some of the simulated barred galaxies might have been influenced by these events., Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures, 2 tables

We study the properties of associations of dwarf galaxies and their dependence on the environment. Associations of dwarf galaxies are extended systems composed exclusively of dwarf galaxies, considering as dwarf galaxies those galaxies less massive than $M_{\star, \rm max} = 10^{9.0}$ ${\rm M}_{\odot}\,h^{-1}$. We identify these particular systems using a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation coupled to a dark matter only simulation in the $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter cosmological model. To classify the environment, we estimate eigenvalues from the tidal field of the dark matter particle distribution of the simulation. We find that the majority, two thirds, of associations are located in filaments ($ \sim 67$ per cent), followed by walls ($ \sim 26 $ per cent), while only a small fraction of them are in knots ($ \sim 6 $ per cent) and voids ($ \sim 1 $ per cent). Associations located in more dense environments present significantly higher velocity dispersion than those located in less dense environments, evidencing that the environment plays a fundamental role in their dynamical properties. However, this connection between velocity dispersion and the environment depends exclusively on whether the systems are gravitational bound or unbound, given that it disappears when we consider associations of dwarf galaxies that are gravitationally bound. Although less than a dozen observationally detected associations of dwarf galaxies are currently known, our results are predictions on the eve of forthcoming large surveys of galaxies, which will enable these very particular systems to be identified and studied., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We study the population of backsplash galaxies at $z=0$ in the outskirts of massive, isolated clusters of galaxies taken from the MDPL2-SAG semi-analytic catalogue. We consider four types of backsplash galaxies according to whether they are forming stars or passive at three stagesin their lifetimes: before entering the cluster, during their first incursion through the cluster, and after they exit the cluster. We analyse several geometric, dynamic, and astrophysical aspects of the four types at the three stages. Galaxies that form stars at all stages account for the majority of the backsplash population ($58\%$) and have stellar masses typically below $M_\star\sim 3\times 10^{10} h^{-1}{\rm M}_\odot$ that avoid the innermost cluster's regions and are only mildly affected by it. In a similar mass range, galaxies that become passive after exiting the cluster ($26\%$) follow orbits characterised by small pericentric distance and a strong deflection by the cluster potential well while suffering a strong loss of both dark matter and gas content. Only a small fraction of our sample ($4\%$) become passive while orbiting inside the cluster. These galaxies have experienced heavy pre-processing and the cluster's tidal stripping and ram pressure provide the final blow to their star formation. Finally, galaxies that are passive before entering the cluster for the first time ($12\%$) are typically massive and are not affected significantly by the cluster. Using the bulge/total mass ratio as a proxy for morphology, we find that a single incursion through a cluster do not result in significant morphological changes in all four types., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Comments are welcome

In this work, we combine the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation and evolution SAG with the $102$ relaxed simulated galaxy clusters from The Three Hundred project, and we study the link between the quenching of star formation (SF) and the physical processes that galaxies experience through their dynamical history in and around clusters. We classify galaxies in four populations based on their orbital history: recent and ancient infallers, and backsplash and neighbouring galaxies. We find that $\sim 85$ per cent of the current population of quenched galaxies located inside the clusters are ancient infallers with low or null content of hot and cold gas. The fraction of quenched ancient infallers increases strongly between the first and second pericentric passage, due to the removal of hot gas by the action of ram-pressure stripping (RPS). The majority of them quenches after the first pericentric passage, but a non-negligible fraction needs a second passage, specially galaxies with $M_\star \leq 10^{10.5} \, {\rm M_\odot}$. Recent infallers represent $\sim 15$ per cent of the quenched galaxies located inside the cluster and, on average, they contain a high proportion of hot and cold gas; moreover, pre-processing effects are the responsible for quenching the recent infallers prior to infall onto the main cluster progenitor. The $\sim 65$ per cent of quenched galaxies located around clusters are backsplash galaxies, for which the combination of RPS acting during a pre-processing stage and inside the cluster is necessary for the suppression of SF in this population., Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures + Supplementary material. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We analyse the connection between the star formation quenching of galaxies and their location in theoutskirts of clusters in the redshift range $z=[0,2]$ by estimating the fraction of red galaxies. More specifically, we focus on galaxies that infall isotropically from those that are infalling alongside filaments. We use a sample of galaxies obtained from the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG applied to the MultiDark simulation. {\textsc{mdpl2}}. In agreement with observational results, we find that the infall regions show levels of star formation that are intermediate between those of galaxies in clusters and in the field. Moreover, we show that, in the redshift range [0-0.85], the quenching of the star formation is stronger in the filamentary region than in the isotropic infall region. We also study the fraction of red galaxies as a function of the normalised distance to the cluster centre and find that, for radii $R/R_{200}> 3 $, the fraction of red galaxies in the filamentary region is considerably larger than in the isotropic infall region. From the analysis of properties of the main progenitors of galaxies identified at $z = 0$, we find that they have different evolutionary behaviours depending on the stellar mass and environment. Our results confirm the observational findings that suggest that the infall regions of clusters play an important role in the pre-processing of galaxies along most of the evolutionary history of galaxies., Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures

Measurements of the luminosity function of active galactic nuclei (AGN) at high redshift ($z\gtrsim 6$) are expected to suffer from field-to-field variance, including cosmic and Poisson variances. Future surveys, such as those from the Euclid telescope and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will also be affected by field variance. We use the Uchuu simulation, a state-of-the-art cosmological $N$-body simulation with 2.1 trillion particles in a volume of $25.7~\mathrm{Gpc}^3$, combined with a semi-analytic galaxy and AGN formation model, to generate the Uchuu-$\nu^2$GC catalog, publicly available, that allows us to investigate the field-to-field variance of the luminosity function of AGN. With this Uchuu-$\nu^2$GC model, we quantify the cosmic variance as a function of survey area, AGN luminosity, and redshift. In general, cosmic variance decreases with increasing survey area and decreasing redshift. We find that at $z\sim6-7$, the cosmic variance depends weakly on AGN luminosity. This is because the typical mass of dark matter haloes in which AGN reside does not significantly depend on luminosity. Due to the rarity of AGN, Poisson variance dominates the total field-to-field variance, especially for bright AGN. We also examine the effect of parameters related to galaxy formation physics on the field variance. We discuss uncertainties present in the estimation of the faint-end of the AGN luminosity function from recent observations, and extend this to make predictions for the expected number of AGN and their variance for upcoming observations with Euclid, JWST, and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)., Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS, Figs. 3, 4, 11, 13, and 14 revised, Figs. 14 and 16 in the original manuscript moved to the Appendix, All Uchuu-$\nu^2$GC data used in this paper are publicly available on our Skies & Universes website https://www.skiesanduniverses.org/Simulations/Uchuu/GalaxyCatalogues/

We connect galaxy properties with their orbital classification by analysing a sample of galaxies with stellar mass $M_{\star} \geq 10^{8.5}h^{-1}M_\odot$ residing in and around massive and isolated galaxy clusters with mass $M_{200} > 10^{15}h^{-1}M_\odot$ at redshift $z=0$. The galaxy population is generated by applying the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG on the cosmological simulation MultiDark Planck 2. We classify galaxies considering their real orbits (3D) and their projected phase-space position using the ROGER code (2D). We define five categories: cluster galaxies, galaxies that have recently fallen into a cluster, backsplash galaxies, infalling galaxies, and interloper galaxies. For each class, we analyse the $g-r$ colour, the specific star formation rate (sSFR), and the stellar age, as a function of the stellar mass. For the 3D classes, we find that cluster galaxies have the lowest sSFR, and are the reddest and the oldest, as expected from environmental effects. Backsplash galaxies have properties intermediate between the cluster and recent infaller galaxies. For each 2D class, we find an important contamination by other classes. We find it necessary to separate the galaxy populations in red and blue to perform a more realistic analysis of the 2D data. For the red population, the 2D results are in good agreement with the 3D predictions. Nevertheless, when the blue population is considered, the 2D analysis only provides reliable results for recent infallers, infalling galaxies and interloper galaxies., Comment: 5 figures, 12 pages, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journal

The environment within dark matter haloes can quench the star formation of galaxies. However, environmental effects beyond the virial radius of haloes ($\gtrsim$ 1 Mpc) are less evident. An example is the debated correlation between colour or star formation in central galaxies and neighbour galaxies in adjacent haloes at large separations of several Mpc, referred to as two-halo galactic conformity. We use two galaxy catalogues generated from different versions of the semi-analytic model SAG applied to the MDPL2 cosmological simulation and the IllustrisTNG300 cosmological hydrodynamical simulation to study the two-halo conformity by measuring the quenched fraction of neighbouring galaxies as a function of the real-space distance from central galaxies. We find that low-mass central galaxies in the vicinity of massive systems ($M_{\rm 200c}$ $\geq$ 10$^{13}$ $h^{-1}~\rm M_{\odot}$) out to 5 $h^{-1}$ Mpc are preferentially quenched compared to other central galaxies at fixed stellar mass $M_{\star}$ or fixed host halo mass $M_{\rm 200c}$ at $z$ ~ 0. In all the galaxies catalogues is consistent that the low-mass ($M_{\star} < 10^{10}$ $h^{-1}~\rm M_{\odot}$ or $M_{\rm 200c} < 10^{11.8}$ $h^{-1}~\rm M_{\odot}$) central galaxies in the vicinity of clusters and, especially, groups of galaxies mostly produce the two-halo galactic conformity. On average, the quenched low-mass central galaxies are much closer to massive haloes than star-forming central galaxies of the same mass (by a factor of ~5). Our results agree with other works regarding the environmental influence of massive haloes that can extend beyond the virial radius and affect nearby low-mass central galaxies., Comment: 15 pages and 10 figures without appendix. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We investigate the structural properties, distribution and abundance of LCDM dark matter subhaloes using the Phi-4096 and Uchuu suite of N-body cosmological simulations. Thanks to the combination of their large volume, high mass resolution and superb statistics, we are able to quantify -- for the first time consistently over more than seven decades in ratio of subhalo-to-host-halo mass -- dependencies of subhalo properties with mass, maximum circular velocity, Vmax, host halo mass and distance to host halo centre. We also dissect the evolution of these dependencies over cosmic time. We provide accurate fits for the subhalo mass and velocity functions, both exhibiting decreasing power-law slopes in the expected range of values and with no significant dependence on redshift. We also find subhalo abundance to depend weakly on host halo mass. We explore the distribution of subhaloes within their hosts and its evolution over cosmic time for subhaloes located as deep as ~0.1 per cent of the host virial radius. Subhalo structural properties are codified via a concentration parameter, cV, that does not depend on any specific, pre-defined density profile and relies only on Vmax. We derive the cV-Vmax relation in the range 7-1500 km/s and find an important dependence on distance of the subhalo to the host halo centre, as already described in Molin\'e et al. (2017). Interestingly, we also find subhaloes of the same mass to be significantly more concentrated into more massive hosts. Finally, we investigate the redshift evolution of cV, and provide accurate fits that take into account all mentioned dependencies. Our results offer an unprecedented detailed characterization of the subhalo population, consistent over a wide range of subhalo and host halo masses, as well as cosmic times. Our work enables precision work in any future research involving dark matter halo substructure., Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables. Comments welcome!

In theoretical models of galaxy evolution, AGN and star formation (SF) activity are closely linked and AGN feedback is routinely invoked to regulate galaxy growth. In order to constrain such models, we compare the hydrodynamical simulations IllustrisTNG and SIMBA, and the semi-analytical model SAG to the empirical results on AGN and SF at cosmic noon ($0.75 < z < 2.25$) reported in Florez et al. (2020). The empirical results are based on a large mass-complete sample drawn from 93,307 galaxies with and without high X-ray luminosity AGN ($L_X \gtrsim 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$), selected from a 11.8 deg$^2$ area ($\sim 0.18$ Gpc$^3$ comoving volume at $z=0.75-2.25$). The main results of our comparisons are: (i) SAG and IllustrisTNG both qualitatively reproduce the empirical result that galaxies with high X-ray luminosity AGN have higher mean SFR, at a given stellar mass, than galaxies without such AGN. SAG, however, strongly over-produces the number density of high X-ray luminosity AGN by a factor of 10 to 100, while IllustrisTNG shows a lack of high X-ray luminosity AGN at high stellar mass ($M* > 10^{11} \ M_{\odot}$) at $z \sim 2$. (ii) In SIMBA, the mean SFR of galaxies with high X-ray luminosity AGN is lower than the SFR of galaxies without such AGN. Contrary to the data, many high X-ray luminosity AGN in SIMBA have quenched SF, suggesting that AGN feedback, or other feedback modes in galaxies with such AGN, might be too efficient in SIMBA., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We studied a region of 1.636 square degrees corresponding to the VVV tile $b204$. Using SExtractor, we analysed photometric data generating a catalogue of extended sources in this area. In order to confirm these sources as galaxy candidates we visually inspected RGB images looking for typical galaxy features. Using 2MASX and GCMW catalogued sources we tested completeness and contamination of our catalogue and define suitable colour cuts to select galaxies. We also compared the observational results with those obtained from two semi-analytical models on Dark Matter simulations. One galaxy catalogue was constructed with the SAG semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, and the other one was constructed with the L-Galaxies semi-analytic model.By adopting CLASS-STAR$< 0.5$, $r_{1/2} > 0.7$ arcsec and specific colour cuts (J-Ks$>$0.97, J-H$>$0 and H-Ks$>$0) we generated an automatic catalogue of extended sources. After visual inspection we identified 624 sources with 10$<$Ks$<$17 as galaxy candidates. The contamination of the automatic catalogue is 28% when considering visually confirmed galaxies as reliable objects. The estimated completeness is 87% up to magnitude Ks=13.5. We analysed the spatial distribution of galaxy candidates, finding a high concentration of galaxies in a small region of 15 arcmin radius. This region has three times higher density than similar areas in the tile. We compared the number of galaxies in this small area with the mean density values obtained from a suitable sample of galaxies from semi-analytic models finding that our results are consistent with an overdensity region. Using VVV near-infrared data and mock catalogues we detect new extragalactic sources that have not been identified by other catalogues. We demonstrate the potentiality of the VVV survey studying a large number of galaxy candidates and extragalactic structures obscured by the Milky Way.

We present a model to track the orbital evolution of "unresolved subhaloes" (USHs) in cosmological simulations. USHs are subhaloes that are no longer distinguished by halo finders as self-bound overdensities within their larger host system due to limited mass resolution. These subhaloes would host "orphan galaxies" in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution (SAMs). Predicting the evolution of the phase-space components of USHs is crucial for the adequate modelling of environmental processes, interactions and mergers implemented in SAMs that affect the baryonic properties of orphan satellites. Our model takes into account dynamical friction drag, mass loss by tidal stripping and merger with the host halo, involving three free parameters. To calibrate this model, we consider two DM-only simulations of different mass resolution (MultiDark simulations). The simulation with higher-mass resolution ({\sc smdpl}; $ m_{\rm DM} = 9.6 \times 10^7 ~ h^{-1}\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) provides information about subhaloes that are not resolved in the lower-mass resolution one ({\sc mdpl2}; $ m_{\rm DM} = 1.5 \times 10^9 ~ h^{-1}\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$); the orbit of those USHs is tracked by our model. We use as constraining functions the subhalo mass function (SHMF) and the two-point correlation function (2PCF) obtained from {\sc smdpl}, being the latter a novel aspect of our approach. While the SHMF fails to put tight constraints on the efficiency of dynamical friction and the merger condition, the addition of clustering information helps to specify the parameters of the model related to the spatial distribution of subhaloes. Our model allows to achieve good convergence between the results of simulations of different mass resolution, with a precision better than 10 per cent for both SHMF and 2PCF., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. Replaced to match the version accepted by MNRAS

We present a new analytic fitting profile to model the ram pressure exerted over satellite galaxies on different environments and epochs. The profile is built using the information of the gas particle distribution in hydrodynamical simulations of groups and clusters of galaxies to measure the ram pressure directly. We show that predictions obtained by a previously introduced $\beta$-profile model can not consistently reproduce the dependence of the ram pressure on halocentric distance and redshift for a given halo mass. It features a systematic underestimation of the predicted ram pressure at high redshifts ($z > 1.5$), which increases towards the central regions of the haloes and it is independent of halo mass, reaching differences larger than two decades for satellites at $r<0.4R_\mathrm{vir}$. This behaviour reverses as redshift decreases, featuring an increasing over-estimation with halocentric distance at $z=0$. As an alternative, we introduce a new universal analytic model for the profiles which can recover the ram pressure dependence on halo mass, halocentric distance and redshift. We analyse the impact of our new profile on galaxy properties by applying a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation and evolution on top of the simulations. We show that galaxies experiencing large amounts of cumulative ram pressure stripping typically have low stellar masses ($M_\star \leq 10^{9.5} \text{M}_\odot$). Besides, their specific star formation histories depend on the ram pressure modelling applied, particularly at high redshifts ($z > 1.5$)., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We analyse the gas content evolution of infalling haloes in cluster environments from THE THREE HUNDRED project, a collection of 324 numerically modelled galaxy clusters. The haloes in our sample were selected within $5R_{200}$ of the main cluster halo at $z=0$ and have total halo mass $M_{200}\geq10^{11} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$. We track their main progenitors and study their gas evolution since their crossing into the infall region, which we define as $1-4R_{200}$. Studying the radial trends of our populations using both the full phase space information and a line-of-sight projection, we confirm the Arthur et al. (2019) result and identify a characteristic radius around $1.7R_{200}$ in 3D and at $R_{200}$ in projection at which infalling haloes lose nearly all of the gas prior their infall. Splitting the trends by subhalo status we show that subhaloes residing in group-mass and low-mass host haloes in the infall region follow similar radial gas-loss trends as their hosts, whereas subhaloes of cluster-mass host haloes are stripped of their gas much further out. Our results show that infalling objects suffer significant gaseous disruption that correlates with time-since-infall, cluster-centric distance and host mass, and that the gaseous disruption they experience is a combination of subhalo pre-processing and object gas depletion at a radius which behaves like an accretion shock., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS; 13 pages, 10 figures

We present the ROGER (Reconstructing Orbits of Galaxies in Extreme Regions) code, which uses three different machine learning techniques to classify galaxies in, and around, clusters, according to their projected phase-space position. We use a sample of 34 massive, $M_{200}>10^{15} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$, galaxy clusters in the MultiDark Planck 2 (MDLP2) simulation at redshift zero. We select all galaxies with stellar mass $M_{\star} \ge 10^{8.5} h^{-1}M_{\odot}$, as computed by the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG, that are located in, and in the vicinity of, the clusters and classify them according to their orbits. We train ROGER to retrieve the original classification of the galaxies out of their projected phase-space positions. For each galaxy, ROGER gives as output the probability of being a cluster galaxy, a galaxy that has recently fallen into a cluster, a backsplash galaxy, an infalling galaxy, or an interloper. We discuss the performance of the machine learning methods and potential uses of our code. Among the different methods explored, we find the K-Nearest Neighbours algorithm achieves the best performance., Comment: Acceptep for its publication in the MNRAS Journal. Code available at github repository

We explore the buildup of quiescent galaxies using a sample of 28,469 massive ($M_\star \ge 10^{11}$M$_\odot$) galaxies at redshifts $1.5

We introduce the Uchuu suite of large high-resolution cosmological $N$-body simulations. The largest simulation, named Uchuu, consists of 2.1 trillion ($12800^3$) dark matter particles in a box of side-length 2.0 Gpc/h, with particle mass $3.27 \times 10^{8}$ Msun/h. The highest resolution simulation, Shin-Uchuu, consists of 262 billion ($6400^3$) particles in a box of side-length 140 Mpc/h, with particle mass $8.97 \times 10^{5}$ Msun/h. Combining these simulations we can follow the evolution of dark matter halos and subhalos spanning those hosting dwarf galaxies to massive galaxy clusters across an unprecedented volume. In this first paper, we present basic statistics, dark matter power spectra, and the halo and subhalo mass functions, which demonstrate the wide dynamic range and superb statistics of the Uchuu suite. From an analysis of the evolution of the power spectra we conclude that our simulations remain accurate from the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation scale down to the very small. We also provide parameters of a mass-concentration model, which describes the evolution of halo concentration and reproduces our simulation data to within 5 per cent for halos with masses spanning nearly eight orders of magnitude at redshift 00.5, whereas no upturn is detected at z<0.5. We make publicly available various $N$-body products as part of Uchuu Data Release 1 on the Skies & Universes site. Future releases will include gravitational lensing maps and mock galaxy, X-ray cluster, and active galactic nuclei catalogues., Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, accepted by MNRAS. We release various $N$-body products as data release 1 on http://skiesanduniverses.org/ such as subsets of simulation particles, matter power spectra, halo/subhalo catalogues, and their merger trees

We study the effect of the gas accretion rate ($\dot M_{\rm accr}$) on the radial gas metallicity profile (RMP) of galaxies using the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, focusing on central galaxies of stellar mass $M_\star \gtrsim 10^9 \, {\rm M_\odot}$ at $z \le 1$. We find clear relations between $\dot M_{\rm accr}$ and the slope of the RMP (measured within an effective radius), where higher $\dot M_{\rm accr}$ are associated with more negative slopes. The slope of the RMPs depends more strongly on $\dot M_{\rm accr}$ than on stellar mass, star formation rate or gas fraction, suggesting $\dot M_{\rm accr}$ to be a more fundamental driver of the RMP slope of galaxies. We find that eliminating the dependence on stellar mass is essential for pinning down the properties that shape the slope of the RMP. Although $\dot M_{\rm accr}$ is the main property modulating the slope of the RMP, we find that it causes other correlations that are more easily testable observationally: at fixed stellar mass, galaxies with more negative RMP slopes tend to have higher gas fractions and SFRs, while galaxies with lower gas fractions and SFRs tend to have flatter metallicity profiles within an effective radius., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

One possible and natural derivation from the collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) standard cosmological framework is the assumption of the existence of interactions between dark matter (DM) and photons or neutrinos. Such possible interacting dark matter (IDM) model would imply a suppression of small-scale structures due to a large collisional damping effect, even though the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) can still be the DM candidate. Because of this, IDM models can help alleviate alleged tensions between standard CDM predictions and observations at small mass scales. In this work, we investigate the properties of DM halo substructure or subhalos formed in a high-resolution cosmological N-body simulation specifically run within these alternative models. We also run its CDM counterpart, which allowed us to compare subhalo properties in both cosmologies. We show that, in the lower mass range covered by our simulation runs, both subhalo concentrations and abundances are systematically lower in IDM compared to the CDM scenario. Yet, as in CDM, we find that median IDM subhalo concentration values increase towards the innermost regions of their hosts for same mass subhalos. Also similarly to CDM, we find IDM subhalos to be more concentrated than field halos of the same mass. Our work has a direct application on studies aimed at the indirect detection of DM where subhalos are expected to boost the DM signal of their host halos significantly. From our results, we conclude that the role of halo substructure in DM searches will be less important in interacting scenarios than in CDM, but is nevertheless far from being negligible., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures and 2 tables. Invited contribution submitted to Galaxies, Special Issue "The Role of Halo Substructure in Gamma-Ray Dark Matter Searches" v2: minor changes, matches the published version

We introduce the THE THREE HUNDRED project, an endeavour to model 324 large galaxy clusters with full-physics hydrodynamical re-simulations. Here we present the data set and study the differences to observations for fundamental galaxy cluster properties and scaling relations. We find that the modelled galaxy clusters are generally in reasonable agreement with observations with respect to baryonic fractions and gas scaling relations at redshift z = 0. However, there are still some (model-dependent) differences, such as central galaxies being too massive, and galaxy colours (g - r) being bluer (about 0.2 dex lower at the peak position) than in observations. The agreement in gas scaling relations down to 10^{13} h^{-1} M_{\odot} between the simulations indicates that particulars of the sub-grid modelling of the baryonic physics only has a weak influence on these relations. We also include - where appropriate - a comparison to three semi-analytical galaxy formation models as applied to the same underlying dark-matter-only simulation. All simulations and derived data products are publicly available., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables. MNRAS published version

We use the semi-analytic model (SAM) of galaxy formation and evolution SAG coupled with the MULTIDARK simulation MDPL2 to study the evolution of the stellar mass-gas metallicity relation of galaxies (MZR). We test several implementations of the dependence of the mass loading due to supernovae (SNe). We find that no evolution in the normalization of the MZR is obtained unless we introduce an explicit scaling of the reheated and ejected mass with redshift as $(1+z)^\beta$. The latter is in agreement with results from the FIRE simulations, and it should encompass small scale properties of the interstellar medium varying over time, which are not captured in SAMs, as well as other energy sources in addition to SNe. Increasing $\beta$ leads to stronger evolution of the MZR normalization; $\beta = 1.9$ reproduces the observed MZR in the range $0 < z < 3.5$. A stronger redshift dependence of outflows reduces the levels of star formation at earlier epochs with the consequent decrease of metal production. This leads to a slower increase of the gas metallicity compared to the stellar mass build-up. The cold gas can be contaminated either by receiving a direct injection of the material recycled by stellar winds and SNe or by gas cooling. The relative role of each process for a given stellar mass depends on the criterion adopted to regulate the fate of the recycled material. However, modifying the metal loading of the outflows has mild impact on the zero-point evolution and does not affect our conclusions., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures

We present a comparison of the observed evolving galaxy stellar mass functions with the predictions of eight semi-analytic models and one halo occupation distribution model. While most models are able to fit the data at low redshift, some of them struggle to simultaneously fit observations at high redshift. We separate the galaxies into 'passive' and 'star-forming' classes and find that several of the models produce too many low-mass star-forming galaxies at high redshift compared to observations, in some cases by nearly a factor of 10 in the redshift range $2.5 < z < 3.0$. We also find important differences in the implied mass of the dark matter haloes the galaxies inhabit, by comparing with halo masses inferred from observations. Galaxies at high redshift in the models are in lower mass haloes than suggested by observations, and the star formation efficiency in low-mass haloes is higher than observed. We conclude that many of the models require a physical prescription that acts to dissociate the growth of low-mass galaxies from the growth of their dark matter haloes at high redshift., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We use the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG to study the relevance of mass and environmental quenching on satellite galaxies. We find that environmental processes dominate the star formation (SF) quenching of low-mass satellites ($M_{\star} \lesssim 10^{10.5}\, {\rm M}_{\odot}$), whereas high-mass galaxies typically quench as centrals. High-mass galaxies that remain actively forming stars while being accreted are found to be mainly affected by mass quenching after their first infall. For a given stellar mass, our model predicts SF quenching to be less efficient in low-mass haloes both before and after infall, in contradiction with common interpretations of observational data. Our model supports a two-stage scenario to explain the SF quenching. Initially, the SF of satellites resembles that of centrals until the gas cooling rate is reduced to approximately half its value at infall. Then, the SF fades through secular processes that exhaust the cold gas reservoir. This reservoir is not replenished efficiently due to the action of either ram-pressure stripping (RPS) of the hot gas in low-mass satellites, or feedback from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in high-mass satellites. The delay times for the onset of SF quenching are found to range from $\approx 3\,{\rm Gyr}$ to $\approx 1\,{\rm Gyr}$ for low-mass ($M_{\star} \approx 10^{10}\, {\rm M}_{\odot}$) and high-mass ($M_{\star} \approx 10^{11}\, {\rm M}_{\odot}$) satellites, respectively. SF fades in $\approx 1.5\,{\rm Gyr}$, largely independent of stellar mass. We find that the SF quenching of low-mass satellites supports the so-called delay-then-rapid quenching scenario. However, the SF history of $z=0$ passive satellites of any stellar mass is better described by a delay-then-fade quenching scenario., Comment: Moderate changes introduced, added figures, revised discussion on quenching scenario. Submitted to MNRAS

We present results from the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG applied on the MultiDark simulation MDPL2. SAG features an updated supernova (SN) feedback scheme and a robust modelling of the environmental effects on satellite galaxies. This incorporates a gradual starvation of the hot gas halo driven by the action of ram pressure stripping (RPS), that can affect the cold gas disc, and tidal stripping (TS), which can act on all baryonic components. Galaxy orbits of orphan satellites are integrated providing adequate positions and velocities for the estimation of RPS and TS. The star formation history and stellar mass assembly of galaxies are sensitive to the redshift dependence implemented in the SN feedback model. We discuss a variant of our model that allows to reconcile the predicted star formation rate density at $z \gtrsim 3$ with the observed one, at the expense of an excess in the faint end of the stellar mass function at $z=2$. The fractions of passive galaxies as a function of stellar mass, halo mass and the halo-centric distances are consistent with observational measurements. The model also reproduces the evolution of the main sequence of star forming central and satellite galaxies. The similarity between them is a result of the gradual starvation of the hot gas halo suffered by satellites, in which RPS plays a dominant role. RPS of the cold gas does not affect the fraction of quenched satellites but it contributes to reach the right atomic hydrogen gas content for more massive satellites ($M_{\star}\gtrsim 10^{10}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$)., Comment: New figure added (Fig. 5); section 5 modified accordingly. Published in MNRAS

We present a comparison of nine galaxy formation models, eight semi-analytical and one halo occupation distribution model, run on the same underlying cold dark matter simulation (cosmological box of co-moving width 125$h^{-1}$ Mpc, with a dark-matter particle mass of $1.24\times 10^9 h^{-1}$ Msun) and the same merger trees. While their free parameters have been calibrated to the same observational data sets using two approaches, they nevertheless retain some 'memory' of any previous calibration that served as the starting point (especially for the manually-tuned models). For the first calibration, models reproduce the observed z = 0 galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) within 3-{\sigma}. The second calibration extended the observational data to include the z = 2 SMF alongside the z~0 star formation rate function, cold gas mass and the black hole-bulge mass relation. Encapsulating the observed evolution of the SMF from z = 2 to z = 0 is found to be very hard within the context of the physics currently included in the models. We finally use our calibrated models to study the evolution of the stellar-to-halo mass (SHM) ratio. For all models we find that the peak value of the SHM relation decreases with redshift. However, the trends seen for the evolution of the peak position as well as the mean scatter in the SHM relation are rather weak and strongly model dependent. Both the calibration data sets and model results are publicly available., Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures (+5 supplementary figures in the Appendix), accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the public release of the MultiDark-Galaxies: three distinct galaxy catalogues derived from one of the Planck cosmology MultiDark simulations (i.e. MDPL2, with a volume of (1 Gpc/$h$)$^{3}$ and mass resolution of $1.5 \times 10^{9} M_{\odot}/h$) by applying the semi-analytic models GALACTICUS, SAG, and SAGE to it. We compare the three models and their conformity with observational data for a selection of fundamental properties of galaxies like stellar mass function, star formation rate, cold gas fractions, and metallicities - noting that they sometimes perform differently reflecting model designs and calibrations. We have further selected galaxy subsamples of the catalogues by number densities in stellar mass, cold gas mass, and star formation rate in order to study the clustering statistics of galaxies. We show that despite different treatment of orphan galaxies, i.e. galaxies that lost their dark-matter host halo due to the finite mass resolution of the N-body simulation or tidal stripping, the clustering signal is comparable, and reproduces the observations in all three models - in particular when selecting samples based upon stellar mass. Our catalogues provide a powerful tool to study galaxy formation within a volume comparable to those probed by on-going and future photometric and redshift surveys. All model data consisting of a range of galaxy properties - including broad-band SDSS magnitudes - are publicly available., Comment: 29 pages, 16 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS. All data incl. the complete galaxy catalogues for all models are publicly available from the CosmoSim database (http://www.cosmosim.org); a selected set of galaxy properties is available via the Skies & Universes website (http://www.skiesanduniverses.org)

The use of high-quality simulated sky catalogs is essential for the success of cosmological surveys. The catalogs have diverse applications, such as investigating signatures of fundamental physics in cosmological observables, understanding the effect of systematic uncertainties on measured signals and testing mitigation strategies for reducing these uncertainties, aiding analysis pipeline development and testing, and survey strategy optimization. The list of applications is growing with improvements in the quality of the catalogs and the details that they can provide. Given the importance of simulated catalogs, it is critical to provide rigorous validation protocols that enable both catalog providers and users to assess the quality of the catalogs in a straightforward and comprehensive way. For this purpose, we have developed the DESCQA framework for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Dark Energy Science Collaboration as well as for the broader community. The goal of DESCQA is to enable the inspection, validation, and comparison of an inhomogeneous set of synthetic catalogs via the provision of a common interface within an automated framework. In this paper, we present the design concept and first implementation of DESCQA. In order to establish and demonstrate its full functionality we use a set of interim catalogs and validation tests. We highlight several important aspects, both technical and scientific, that require thoughtful consideration when designing a validation framework, including validation metrics and how these metrics impose requirements on the synthetic sky catalogs., Comment: 16+4 pages, 9 figures, 2+1 tables. Published in the ApJ Supplement. Code repository at https://github.com/LSSTDESC/descqa

We present a clustering comparison of 12 galaxy formation models (including Semi-Analytic Models (SAMs) and Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) models) all run on halo catalogues and merger trees extracted from a single {\Lambda}CDM N-body simulation. We compare the results of the measurements of the mean halo occupation numbers, the radial distribution of galaxies in haloes and the 2-Point Correlation Functions (2PCF). We also study the implications of the different treatments of orphan (galaxies not assigned to any dark matter subhalo) and non-orphan galaxies in these measurements. Our main result is that the galaxy formation models generally agree in their clustering predictions but they disagree significantly between HOD and SAMs for the orphan satellites. Although there is a very good agreement between the models on the 2PCF of central galaxies, the scatter between the models when orphan satellites are included can be larger than a factor of 2 for scales smaller than 1 Mpc/h. We also show that galaxy formation models that do not include orphan satellite galaxies have a significantly lower 2PCF on small scales, consistent with previous studies. Finally, we show that the 2PCF of orphan satellites is remarkably different between SAMs and HOD models. Orphan satellites in SAMs present a higher clustering than in HOD models because they tend to occupy more massive haloes. We conclude that orphan satellites have an important role on galaxy clustering and they are the main cause of the differences in the clustering between HOD models and SAMs., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will survey the southern sky from 2022--2032 with unprecedented detail. Since the observing strategy can lead to artifacts in the data, we investigate the effects of telescope-pointing offsets (called dithers) on the $r$-band coadded 5$\sigma$ depth yielded after the 10-year survey. We analyze this survey depth for several geometric patterns of dithers (e.g., random, hexagonal lattice, spiral) with amplitude as large as the radius of the LSST field-of-view, implemented on different timescales (per season, per night, per visit). Our results illustrate that per night and per visit dither assignments are more effective than per season. Also, we find that some dither geometries (e.g., hexagonal lattice) are particularly sensitive to the timescale on which the dithers are implemented, while others like random dithers perform well on all timescales. We then model the propagation of depth variations to artificial fluctuations in galaxy counts, which are a systematic for large-scale structure studies. We calculate the bias in galaxy counts caused by the observing strategy, accounting for photometric calibration uncertainties, dust extinction, and magnitude cuts; uncertainties in this bias limit our ability to account for structure induced by the observing strategy. We find that after 10 years of the LSST survey, the best dither strategies lead to uncertainties in this bias smaller than the minimum statistical floor for a galaxy catalog as deep as $r$$<$27.5. A few of these strategies bring the uncertainties close to the statistical floor for $r$$<$25.7 after only one year of survey., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Updated to match the version accepted by ApJ

We present a comparison of 14 galaxy formation models: 12 different semi-analytical models and 2 halo-occupation distribution models for galaxy formation based upon the same cosmological simulation and merger tree information derived from it. The participating codes have proven to be very successful in their own right but they have all been calibrated independently using various observational data sets, stellar models, and merger trees. In this paper we apply them without recalibration and this leads to a wide variety of predictions for the stellar mass function, specific star formation rates, stellar-to- halo mass ratios, and the abundance of orphan galaxies. The scatter is much larger than seen in previous comparison studies primarily because the codes have been used outside of their native environment within which they are well tested and calibrated. The purpose of the `nIFTy comparison of galaxy formation models' is to bring together as many different galaxy formation modellers as possible and to investigate a common approach to model calibration. This paper provides a unified description for all participating models and presents the initial, uncalibrated comparison as a baseline for our future studies where we will develop a common calibration framework and address the extent to which that reduces the scatter in the model predictions seen here., Comment: 35 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present a new technique for modeling submillimeter galaxies (SMGs): the "Count Matching" approach. Using lightcones drawn from a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we choose physical galaxy properties given by the model as proxies for their submillimeter luminosities, assuming a monotonic relationship. As recent interferometric observations of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South show that the brightest sources detected by single-dish telescopes are comprised by emission from multiple fainter sources, we assign the submillimeter fluxes so that the combined LABOCA plus bright-end ALMA observed number counts for this field are reproduced. After turning the model catalogs given by the proxies into submillimeter maps, we perform a source extraction to include the effects of the observational process on the recovered counts and galaxy properties. We find that for all proxies, there are lines of sight giving counts consistent with those derived from LABOCA observations, even for input sources with randomized positions in the simulated map. Comparing the recovered redshift, stellar mass and host halo mass distributions for model SMGs with observational data, we find that the best among the proposed proxies is that in which the submillimeter luminosity increases monotonically with the product between dust mass and SFR. This proxy naturally reproduces a positive trend between SFR and bolometric IR luminosity. The majority of components of blended sources are spatially unassociated., Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Galaxy surveys targeting emission lines are characterising the evolution of star-forming galaxies, but there is still little theoretical progress in modelling their physical properties. We predict nebular emission from star-forming galaxies within a cosmological galaxy formation model. Emission lines are computed by combining the semi-analytical model \sag\ with the photoionisation code \mapp. We characterise the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies by relating the ionisation parameter of gas in galaxies to their cold gas metallicity, obtaining a reasonable agreement with the observed \ha, \oii, \oiii\ luminosity functions, and the the BPT diagram for local star-forming galaxies. The average ionisation parameter is found to increase towards low star-formation rates and high redshifts, consistent with recent observational results. The predicted link between different emission lines and their associated star-formation rates is studied by presenting scaling relations to relate them. Our model predicts that emission line galaxies have modest clustering bias, and thus reside in dark matter haloes of masses below $M_{\rm halo} \lesssim 10^{12} {[\rm h^{-1} M_{\odot}]}$. Finally, we exploit our modelling technique to predict galaxy number counts up to $z\sim 10$ by targeting far-infrared (FIR) emission lines detectable with submillimetre facilities, Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Published in MNRAS after minor revision

The angular momentum of galactic discs in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation is usually updated in time as material is accreted to the disc by adopting a constant dimensionless spin parameter and little attention is paid to the effects of accretion with misaligned angular momenta. These effects are the subject of this paper, where we adopt a Monte-Carlo simulation for the changes in the direction of the angular momentum of a galaxy disc as it accretes matter based on accurate measurements from dark-matter haloes in the Millennium II simulation. In our semi-analytic model implementation, the flips seen the dark matter haloes are assumed to be the same for the cold baryons; however, we also assume that in the latter the flip also entails a difficulty for the disc to increase its angular momentum which causes the disc to become smaller relative to a no-flip case. This makes star formation to occur faster, specially in low mass galaxies at all redshifts allowing galaxies to reach higher stellar masses faster. We adopt a new condition for the triggering of starbursts during mergers. As these produce the largest flips it is natural to adopt the disc instability criterion to evaluate the triggering of bursts in mergers instead of one based on mass ratios as in the original model. The new implementation reduces the average lifetimes of discs by a factor of 2, while still allowing old ages for the present-day discs of large spiral galaxies. It also provides a faster decline of star formation in massive galaxies and a better fit to the bright end of the luminosity function at z = 0., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, MNRAS in press

We present a fast and accurate method to select an optimal set of parameters in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution (SAMs). Our approach compares the results of a model against a set of observables applying a stochastic technique called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a self-learning algorithm for localizing regions of maximum likelihood in multidimensional spaces that outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of computational cost. We apply the PSO technique to the SAG semi-analytic model combined with merger trees extracted from a standard $\Lambda$CDM N-body simulation. The calibration is performed using a combination of observed galaxy properties as constraints, including the local stellar mass function and the black hole to bulge mass relation. We test the ability of the PSO algorithm to find the best set of free parameters of the model by comparing the results with those obtained using a MCMC exploration. Both methods find the same maximum likelihood region, however the PSO method requires one order of magnitude less evaluations. This new approach allows a fast estimation of the best-fitting parameter set in multidimensional spaces, providing a practical tool to test the consequences of including other astrophysical processes in SAMs., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Comments are welcome

We investigate the origin of the color-magnitude relation (CMR) observed in cluster galaxies by using a combination of a cosmological N-body simulation of a cluster of galaxies and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. The departure of galaxies in the bright end of the CMR with respect to the trend defined by less luminous galaxies could be explained by the influence of minor mergers., Comment: Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 267, 2009. Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies

We investigate the development of the red sequence (RS) of cluster galaxies by using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. Results show good agreement between the general trend of the simulated RS and the observed relation in early-type galaxies. However, the most luminous galaxies ($M_V \lesssim -20$) depart from the linear fit to observed data, displaying almost constant colours. We analyze the dependence with redshift of the fraction of stellar mass contributed to each galaxy by different processes (i.e., quiescent star formation, disc instability and mergers), finding that the evolution of the bright end, since $z\approx 2$, is mainly driven by minor and major dry mergers. Since the most luminous galaxies have a narrow spread in ages ($1.0\times 10^{10}$ yr $

We investigate the development of the colour-magnitude re- lation (CMR) of cluster galaxies. This study is carried out using a semi- analytic model of galaxy formation and evolution coupled to a sample of simulated galaxy clusters of different masses, reinforcing the conclusions reached by Jim\'enez et al. (2009). We compare both simulated and obeserved CMRs in different colour-magnitude planes, finding a very good agreement in all cases. This indicates that model parameters are correctly tuned, giving accurate values of the main properties of galaxies for further use in our study. In the present work, we perform a statistical analysis of the relative contribution to the stellar mass and metallicity of galaxies along the CMR by the different processes involved in their formation and evolution (i.e. quiescent star formation, disc instability events and galaxy mergers). Our results show that a mix of minor and major dry mergers at low redshifts is relevant in the evolution of the most luminous galaxies in the CMR. These processes contribute with low metallicity stars to the remnant galaxies, thus increasing the galaxy masses without significantly altering their colours. These results are found for all simulated clusters, supporting the idea of the universality of the CMR in agreement with observational results., Comment: 4 pages,1 figure, to be published in BAAA vol. 53

We investigate the origin of the colour-magnitude relation (CMR) observed in cluster galaxies by using a combination of a cosmological N-body simulation of a cluster of galaxies and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. The departure of galaxies in the bright end of the CMR with respect to the trend denoted by less luminous galaxies could be explained by the influence of minor mergers, Comment: ASP Conference, Galaxies in Isolation; Exploring Nature vs. Nurture; 2010

We investigate the origin of the color-magnitude relation (CMR) observed in cluster galaxies by using a combination of cosmological N-body/SPH simulations of galaxy clusters, and a semi-analaytic model of galaxy formation (Lagos, Cora & Padilla 2008). Simulated results are compared with the photometric properties of early-type galaxies in the Antlia cluster (Smith Castelli et al. 2008). The good agreement obtained between observations and simulations allows us to use the information provided by the model for unveiling the physical processes that yield the tigh observed CMR., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, published in BAAA Vol. 51

Using a hybrid method which combines non-radiative hydrodynamical simulations with a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we determine the ram pressure as a function of halocentric distance experienced by galaxies in haloes with virial masses 12.5 <= log (M_200 h/M_Sun) < 15.35, for redshifts 0 <= z <= 3. The ram pressure is calculated with a self-consistent method which uses the simulation gas particles to obtain the properties of the intergalactic medium. The ram pressure profiles obtained can be well described by beta profile models, with parameters that depend on redshift and halo virial mass in a simple fashion. The fitting formulae provided here will prove useful to include ram pressure effects into semi-analytic models based on methods which lack gas physics, such as dark matter-only simulations or the Press-Schechter formalism., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We investigate the origin of the colour-magnitude relation (CMR) followed by early-type cluster galaxies by using a combination of cosmological N-body simulations of cluster of galaxies and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation (Lagos, Cora & Padilla 2008). Results show good agreement between the general trend of the simulated and observed CMR. However, in many clusters, the most luminous galaxies depart from the linear fit to observed data displaying almost constant colours. With the aim of understanding this behaviour, we analyze the dependence with redshift of the stellar mass contributed to each galaxy by different processes, i.e., quiescent star formation, and starburst during major/minor and wet/dry mergers, and disk instability events. The evolution of the metallicity of the stellar component, contributed by each of these processes, is also investigated. We find that the major contribution of stellar mass at low redshift is due to minor dry merger events, being the metallicity of the stellar mass accreted during this process quite low. Thus, minor dry merger events seem to increase the mass of the more luminous galaxies without changing their colours., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We test and present the application of the full rescaling method by Angulo & White (2010) to change the cosmology of halo catalogues in numerical simulations for cosmological parameter search using semi-analytic galaxy properties. We show that a reduced form of the method can be applied in small simulations with box side of ~50/h Mpc. We perform statistical tests on the accuracy of the properties of rescaled individual haloes, and also on the rescaled population as a whole. We find that individual positions and velocities are recovered with almost no detectable biases. The dispersion in the recovered halo mass does not seem to depend on the resolution of the simulation. Regardless of the halo mass, the individual accretion histories, spin parameter evolution and fraction of mass in substructures are well recovered. The mass of rescaled haloes can be underestimated (overestimated) for negative (positive) variations of either sigma_8 or Omega_m, in a way that does not depend on the halo mass. Statistics of abundances and correlation functions of haloes show also small biases of <10 percent when moving away from the base simulation by up to 2 times the uncertainty in the WMAP7 cosmological parameters. The merger tree properties related to the final galaxy population in haloes also show small biases; the time since the last major merger, the assembly time-scale, and a time-scale related to the stellar ages show correlated biases which indicate that the spectral shapes of galaxies would only be affected by global age changes of ~150 Myr. We show some of these biases for different separations in the cosmological parameters with respect to the desired cosmology so that these can be used to estimate the expected accuracy of the resulting halo population. We also present a way to construct grids of simulations to provide stable accuracy across the Omega_m vs sigma_8 parameter space., Comment: 14 pages, 2 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We determine the intrinsic shapes and orientations of 27,450 type I and II active galactic nucleus (AGN) galaxies in the spectroscopic sample of the SDSS DR7, by studying the distribution of projected axis ratios of AGN hosts. Our aim is to study possible alignments between the AGN and host galaxy systems (e.g. the accretion disc and the galaxy angular momentum) and the effect of dust obscuration geometry on the AGN type. We define control samples of non-AGN galaxies that mimic the morphology, colour, luminosity and concentration distributions of the AGN population, taking into account the effects of dust extinction and reddening. Assuming that AGN galaxies have the same underlying three-dimensional shape distribution as their corresponding control samples, we find that the spiral and elliptical type I AGN populations are strongly skewed toward face-on galaxies, while ellipticals and spirals type II AGN are skewed toward edge-on orientations. These findings rule out random orientations for AGN hosts at high confidence for type I spirals (delta chi^2~230) and type II ellipticals (delta chi^2~15), while the signal for type I ellipticals and type II spirals is weaker (delta chi^2~3 and delta chi^2~6, respectively). We obtain a much stronger tendency for the type II spirals to be edge-on when just high [OIII] equivalent width (EW) AGN are considered, suggesting that >20% of low [OIII] EW edge-on type II AGN may be missing from the optical sample. Galactic dust absorption of the broad-line region alone cannot explain the observed inclination angle and projected axis ratio distributions of type I and II Seyfert types, implying that obscuration by a small-scale circumnuclear torus is necessary. These results favour a scenario in which the angular momentum of the material which feeds the black hole retains a memory of its original gas source at least to some small, non-negligible degree., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted in MNRAS

We develop a new numerical approach to describe the action of ram pressure stripping (RPS) within a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation and evolution which works in combination with non-radiative hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters. The new feature in our method is the use of the gas particles to obtain the kinematical and thermodynamical properties of the intragroup and intracluster medium (ICM). This allows a self-consistent estimation of the RPS experienced by satellite galaxies. We find that the ram pressure (RP) in the central regions of clusters increases approximately one order of magnitude between z = 1 and 0, consistent with the increase in the density of the ICM. The mean RP experienced by galaxies within the virial radius increases with decreasing redshift. In clusters with virial masses M_vir ~10^15 h^-1 M_Sun, over 50 per cent of satellite galaxies have experienced RP ~10^(-11) h^2 dyn cm^-2 or higher for z <= 0.5. In smaller clusters (M_vir ~10^14 h^-1 M_Sun) the mean RP are approximately one order of magnitude lower at all redshifts. RPS has a strong effect on the cold gas content of galaxies for all cluster masses. At z = 0, over 70 per cent of satellite galaxies within the virial radius are completely depleted of cold gas. For the more massive clusters the fraction of depleted galaxies is already established at z ~ 1, whereas for the smaller clusters this fraction increases appreciably between z = 1 and 0. This indicates that the rate at which the cold gas is stripped depends on the virial mass of the host cluster. Compared to our new approach, the use of an analytic profile to describe the ICM results in an overestimation of the RP larger than 50 per cent for z >= 0.5., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Minor changes to match published version

We study the properties of building blocks (BBs, i.e. accreted satellites) and surviving satellites of present-day galaxies using the SAG semi-analytic model of galaxy formation in the context of a concordance Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) cosmology. We consider large numbers of DM halo merger trees spanning a wide range of masses (~1x10^10 - 2.14x10^15 Msun). We find higher metallicities for BBs with respect to surviving satellites, an effect produced by the same processes behind the build-up of the mass-metallicity relation. We prove that these metallicity differences arise from the higher peak height in the density fluctuation field occupied by BBs and central galaxies which have collapsed into a single object earlier than surviving satellites. BBs start to form stars earlier, during the peak of the merger activity in LCDM, and build-up half of their final stellar mass (measured at the moment of disruption) up to four times faster than surviving satellites. Surviving satellites keep increasing their stellar masses rather quiescently down to z~1. The difference between the metallicities of satellites, BBs and central galaxies depends on the host DM halo mass, in a way that can be used as a further test for the concordance cosmology., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

We use a combination of a cosmological N-body simulation of the concordance Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) paradigm and a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to investigate the spin development of central supermassive black holes (BHs) and its relation to the BH host galaxy properties. In order to compute BH spins, we use the alpha-model of Shakura & Sunyaev and consider the King et al. warped disc alignment criterion. The orientation of the accretion disc is inferred from the angular momentum of the source of accreted material, which bears a close relationship to the large-scale structure in the simulation. We find that the final BH spin depends almost exclusively on the accretion history and only weakly on the warped disc alignment. The main mechanisms of BH spin-up are found to be gas cooling processes and disc instabilities, a result that is only partially compatible with Monte-Carlo models where the main spin-up mechanisms are major mergers and disc instabilities; the latter results are reproduced when implementing randomly oriented accretion discs in our model. Regarding the BH population, we find that more massive BHs, which are hosted by massive ellipticals, have higher spin values than less-massive BHs, hosted by spiral galaxies. We analyse whether gas accretion rates and BH spins can be used as tracers of the radio loudness of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find that the current observational indications of an increasing trend of radio-loud AGN fractions with stellar and BH mass can be easily obtained when placing lower limits on the BH spin, with a minimum influence from limits on the accretion rates; a model with random accretion disc orientations is unable to reproduce this trend. (ABRIDGED), Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS