C. M. Booth

Bio: C. M. Booth is an academic researcher from University of Chicago. The author has contributed to research in topics: Galaxy & Star formation. The author has an hindex of 38, co-authored 63 publications receiving 8713 citations. Previous affiliations of C. M. Booth include Leiden University & Durham University.

The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments

Abstract: We introduce the Virgo Consortium's EAGLE project, a suite of hydrodynamical simulations that follow the formation of galaxies and black holes in representative volumes. We discuss the limitations of such simulations in light of their finite resolution and poorly constrained subgrid physics, and how these affect their predictive power. One major improvement is our treatment of feedback from massive stars and AGN in which thermal energy is injected into the gas without the need to turn off cooling or hydrodynamical forces, allowing winds to develop without predetermined speed or mass loading factors. Because the feedback efficiencies cannot be predicted from first principles, we calibrate them to the z~0 galaxy stellar mass function and the amplitude of the galaxy-central black hole mass relation, also taking galaxy sizes into account. The observed galaxy mass function is reproduced to ≲0.2 dex over the full mass range, 108

Cosmological simulations of the growth of supermassive black holes and feedback from active galactic nuclei: method and tests

Abstract: We present a method that self-consistently tracks the growth of supermassive black holes (BHs) and the feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations. Our model is a substantially modified version of the one introduced by Springel, Di Matteo & Hernquist implemented in a significantly expanded version of the gadget III code, which contains new prescriptions for star formation, supernova feedback, radiative cooling and chemodynamics. We simulate the growth of BHs from an initial seed state via Eddington-limited accretion of the surrounding gas, and via mergers with other BHs. Because cosmological simulations at present lack both the resolution and the physics to model the multiphase interstellar medium, they tend to strongly underestimate the Bondi–Hoyle accretion rate. To allow low-mass BHs to grow, it is therefore necessary to increase the predicted Bondi–Hoyle rates in star-forming gas by large factors, either by explicitly multiplying the accretion rate by a numerical correction factor or by using an unresolved, subgrid model for the gas close to the BH. We explore the physical regimes where the use of such multiplicative factors is reasonable, and through this introduce a new prescription for gas accretion by BHs. Feedback from AGN is modelled by coupling a fraction of the rest-mass energy of the accreted gas thermally into the surrounding medium. We describe the implementation as well as the limitations of the model in detail and motivate all the changes relative to previous work. We demonstrate how general physical considerations can be used to choose many of the parameters of the model and demonstrate that the fiducial model reproduces observational constraints. We employ a large suite of cosmological simulations, in which the parameters of the BH model are varied away from their fiducial values, to investigate the robustness of the predictions for the cosmic star formation history and the redshift zero cosmic BH density, BH scaling relations and galaxy-specific star formation rates. We find that the freedom introduced by the need to increase the predicted accretion rates by hand, the standard procedure in the literature, is the most significant source of uncertainty. Our simulations demonstrate that supermassive BHs are able to regulate their growth by releasing a fixed amount of energy for a given halo mass, independent of the assumed efficiency of AGN feedback, which sets the normalization of the BH scaling relations. Regardless of whether BH seeds are initially placed above or below the BH scaling relations, they grow on to the same scaling relations. AGN feedback efficiently suppresses star formation in high-mass galaxies.

The physics driving the cosmic star formation history

Abstract: We investigate the physics driving the cosmic star formation (SF) history using the more than 50 large, cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations that together comprise the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations project. We systematically vary the parameters of the model to determine which physical processes are dominant and which aspects of the model are robust. Generically, we find that SF is limited by the build-up of dark matter haloes at high redshift, reaches a broad maximum at intermediate redshift and then decreases as it is quenched by lower cooling rates in hotter and lower density gas, gas exhaustion and self-regulated feedback from stars and black holes. The higher redshift SF is therefore mostly determined by the cosmological parameters and to a lesser extent by photoheating from reionization. The location and height of the peak in the SF history, and the steepness of the decline towards the present, depend on the physics and implementation of stellar and black hole feedback. Mass loss from intermediate-mass stars and metal-line cooling both boost the SF rate at late times. Galaxies form stars in a self-regulated fashion at a rate controlled by the balance between, on the one hand, feedback from massive stars and black holes and, on the other hand, gas cooling and accretion. Paradoxically, the SF rate is highly insensitive to the assumed SF law. This can be understood in terms of self-regulation: if the SF efficiency is changed, then galaxies adjust their gas fractions so as to achieve the same rate of production of massive stars. Self-regulated feedback from accreting black holes is required to match the steep decline in the observed SF rate below redshift 2, although more extreme feedback from SF, for example in the form of a top-heavy initial stellar mass function at high gas pressures, can help.

The effects of galaxy formation on the matter power spectrum: a challenge for precision cosmology

Abstract: Upcoming weak lensing surveys, such as LSST, EUCLID and WFIRST, aim to measure the matter power spectrum with unprecedented accuracy. In order to fully exploit these observations, models are needed that, given a set of cosmological parameters, can predict the non-linear matter power spectrum at the level of 1 per cent or better for scales corresponding to comoving wavenumbers 0.1 k 10h Mpc −1 . We have employed the large suite of simulations from the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS) project to investigate the effects of various baryonic processes on the matter power spectrum. In addition, we have examined the distribution of power over different mass components, the back-reaction of the baryons on the cold dark matter and the evolution of the dominant effects on the matter power spectrum. We find that single baryonic processes are capable of changing the power spectrum by up to several tens of per cent. Our simulation that includes AGN feedback, which we consider to be our most realistic simulation as, unlike those used in previous studies, it has been shown to solve the overcooling problem and to reproduce optical and X-ray observations of groups of galaxies, predicts a decrease in power relative to a dark matter only simulation ranging, at z = 0, from 1 per cent at k ≈ 0.3h Mpc −1 to 10 per cent at k ≈ 1h Mpc −1 and to 30 per cent at k ≈ 10h Mpc −1 . This contradicts the naive view that baryons raise the power through cooling, which is the dominant effect only for k 70h Mpc −1 . Therefore, baryons, and particularly AGN feedback, cannot be ignored in theoretical power spectra for k 0.3h Mpc −1 . It will thus be necessary to improve our understanding of feedback processes

The case for AGN feedback in galaxy groups

Abstract: The relatively recent insight that energy input from supermassive black holes (BHs) can have a substantial effect on the star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies motivates us to examine the effects of BH feedback on the scale of galaxy groups. At present, groups contain most of the galaxies and a significant fraction of the overall baryon content of the universe and, along with massive clusters, they represent the only systems for which it is possible to measure both the stellar and gaseous baryonic components directly. To explore the effects of BH feedback on groups, we analyse two high resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS) project. While both include galactic winds driven by supernovae, only one of the models includes feedback from accreting BHs. We compare the properties of the simulated galaxy groups to a wide range of observational data, including the entropy and temperature profiles of the intragroup medium, hot gas mass fractions, the luminosity temperature and mass temperature scaling relations, the K-band luminosity of the group and its central brightest galaxy (CBG), star formation rates and ages of the CBG, and gas- and stellar-phase metallicities. Both runs yield entropy distributions similar to the data, while the run without AGN feedback yields highly peaked temperature profiles, in discord with the observations. Energy input from supermassive BHs significantly reduces the gas mass fractions of galaxy groups with masses less than a few times 10 14 M� , yielding a gas mass fraction and X-ray luminosity scaling with system temperature that is in excellent agreement with the data, although the detailed scatter in the L T relation is not quite correct. The run without AGN feedback suffers from the well known overcooling problem — the resulting stellar mass fractions are several times larger than observed and present-day cooling flows operate uninhibitedly. By contrast, the run that includes BH feedback yields stellar mass fractions, SFRs, and stellar age distributions in excellent agreement with current estimates, thus resolving the long standing ‘cooling crisis’ of simulations on the scale of groups. Both runs yield very similar gas-phase metal abundance profiles that match X-ray measurements, but they predict very different stellar metallicities. Based on the above, galaxy groups provide a compelling case that feedback from supermassive BHs is a crucial ingredient in the formation of massive galaxies.

Cosmic Star-Formation History

Abstract: Over the past two decades, an avalanche of data from multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopic surveys has revolutionized our view of galaxy formation and evolution. Here we review the range of complementary techniques and theoretical tools that allow astronomers to map the cosmic history of star formation, heavy element production, and reionization of the Universe from the cosmic "dark ages" to the present epoch. A consistent picture is emerging, whereby the star-formation rate density peaked approximately 3.5 Gyr after the Big Bang, at z~1.9, and declined exponentially at later times, with an e-folding timescale of 3.9 Gyr. Half of the stellar mass observed today was formed before a redshift z = 1.3. About 25% formed before the peak of the cosmic star-formation rate density, and another 25% formed after z = 0.7. Less than ~1% of today's stars formed during the epoch of reionization. Under the assumption of a universal initial mass function, the global stellar mass density inferred at any epoch matches reasonably well the time integral of all the preceding star-formation activity. The comoving rates of star formation and central black hole accretion follow a similar rise and fall, offering evidence for co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies. The rise of the mean metallicity of the Universe to about 0.001 solar by z = 6, one Gyr after the Big Bang, appears to have been accompanied by the production of fewer than ten hydrogen Lyman-continuum photons per baryon, a rather tight budget for cosmological reionization.

The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments

Abstract: We introduce the Virgo Consortium's EAGLE project, a suite of hydrodynamical simulations that follow the formation of galaxies and black holes in representative volumes. We discuss the limitations of such simulations in light of their finite resolution and poorly constrained subgrid physics, and how these affect their predictive power. One major improvement is our treatment of feedback from massive stars and AGN in which thermal energy is injected into the gas without the need to turn off cooling or hydrodynamical forces, allowing winds to develop without predetermined speed or mass loading factors. Because the feedback efficiencies cannot be predicted from first principles, we calibrate them to the z~0 galaxy stellar mass function and the amplitude of the galaxy-central black hole mass relation, also taking galaxy sizes into account. The observed galaxy mass function is reproduced to ≲0.2 dex over the full mass range, 108

Observational Evidence of Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback

Abstract: Radiation, winds, and jets from the active nucleus of a massive galaxy can interact with its interstellar medium, and this can lead to ejection or heating of the gas. This terminates star formation in the galaxy and stifles accretion onto the black hole. Such active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback can account for the observed proportionality between the central black hole and the host galaxy mass. Direct observational evidence for the radiative or quasar mode of feedback, which occurs when AGN are very luminous, has been difficult to obtain but is accumulating from a few exceptional objects. Feedback from the kinetic or radio mode, which uses the mechanical energy of radio-emitting jets often seen when AGN are operating at a lower level, is common in massive elliptical galaxies. This mode is well observed directly through X-ray observations of the central galaxies of cool core clusters in the form of bubbles in the hot surrounding medium. The energy flow, which is roughly continuous, heats the hot intraclu...

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Abstract: Monthly Notices is one of the three largest general primary astronomical research publications. It is an international journal, published by the Royal Astronomical Society. This article 1 describes its publication policy and practice.

Introducing the Illustris Project: simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe

Abstract: We introduce the Illustris Project, a series of large-scale hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. The highest resolution simulation, Illustris-1, covers a volume of (106.5 Mpc)^3, has a dark mass resolution of 6.26 × 10^6 M_⊙, and an initial baryonic matter mass resolution of 1.26 × 10^6 M_⊙. At z = 0 gravitational forces are softened on scales of 710 pc, and the smallest hydrodynamical gas cells have an extent of 48 pc. We follow the dynamical evolution of 2 × 1820^3 resolution elements and in addition passively evolve 1820^3 Monte Carlo tracer particles reaching a total particle count of more than 18 billion. The galaxy formation model includes: primordial and metal-line cooling with self-shielding corrections, stellar evolution, stellar feedback, gas recycling, chemical enrichment, supermassive black hole growth, and feedback from active galactic nuclei. Here we describe the simulation suite, and contrast basic predictions of our model for the present-day galaxy population with observations of the local universe. At z = 0 our simulation volume contains about 40 000 well-resolved galaxies covering a diverse range of morphologies and colours including early-type, late-type and irregular galaxies. The simulation reproduces reasonably well the cosmic star formation rate density, the galaxy luminosity function, and baryon conversion efficiency at z = 0. It also qualitatively captures the impact of galaxy environment on the red fractions of galaxies. The internal velocity structure of selected well-resolved disc galaxies obeys the stellar and baryonic Tully–Fisher relation together with flat circular velocity curves. In the well-resolved regime, the simulation reproduces the observed mix of early-type and late-type galaxies. Our model predicts a halo mass dependent impact of baryonic effects on the halo mass function and the masses of haloes caused by feedback from supernova and active galactic nuclei.