Cosmological SPH simulations: A hybrid multi-phase model for star formation
Volker Springel,Lars Hernquist +1 more
TLDR
In this article, a model for star formation and supernova feedback that describes the multi-phase structure of star forming gas on scales that are typically not resolved in cosmological simulations is presented.Abstract:
We present a model for star formation and supernova feedback that describes the multi-phase structure of star forming gas on scales that are typically not resolved in cosmological simulations Our approach includes radiative heating and cooling, the growth of cold clouds embedded in an ambient hot medium, star formation in these clouds, feedback from supernovae in the form of thermal heating and cloud evaporation, galactic winds and outflows, and metal enrichment Implemented using SPH, our scheme is a significantly modified and extended version of the grid-based method of Yepes et al (1997), and enables us to achieve high dynamic range in simulations of structure formation We discuss properties of the feedback model in detail and show that it predicts a self-regulated, quiescent mode of star formation, which, in particular, stabilises the star forming gaseous layers of disk galaxies The parameterisation of this mode can be reduced to a single free quantity which determines the overall timescale for star formation We fix this parameter to match the observed rates of star formation in local disk galaxies When normalised in this manner, cosmological simulations nevertheless overproduce the observed cosmic abundance of stellar material We are thus motivated to extend our feedback model to include galactic winds associated with star formation Using small-scale simulations of individual star-forming disk galaxies, we show that these winds produce either galactic fountains or outflows, depending on the depth of the gravitational potential Moreover, outflows from galaxies in these simulations drive chemical enrichment of the intergalactic medium, in principle accounting for the presence of metals in the Lyman alpha forest (abridged)read more
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The Cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
TL;DR: GADGET-2 as mentioned in this paper is a massively parallel tree-SPH code, capable of following a collisionless fluid with the N-body method, and an ideal gas by means of smoothed particle hydrodynamics.
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Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies
TL;DR: Simulations that simultaneously follow star formation and the growth of black holes during galaxy–galaxy collisions find that, in addition to generating a burst of star formation, a merger leads to strong inflows that feed gas to the supermassive black hole and thereby power the quasar.
Journal ArticleDOI
Cosmic Star-Formation History
Piero Madau,Mark Dickinson +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors 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.
Journal ArticleDOI
The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
Joop Schaye,Robert A. Crain,Richard G. Bower,Michelle Furlong,Matthieu Schaller,Tom Theuns,Tom Theuns,Claudio Dalla Vecchia,Claudio Dalla Vecchia,Carlos S. Frenk,Ian G. McCarthy,John C. Helly,Adrian Jenkins,Yetli Rosas-Guevara,Simon D. M. White,Maarten Baes,C. M. Booth,C. M. Booth,Peter Camps,Julio F. Navarro,Yan Qu,Alireza Rahmati,Till Sawala,Peter A. Thomas,James W. Trayford +24 more
TL;DR: The Virgo Consortium's EAGLE project as discussed by the authors is a suite of hydrodynamical simulations that follow the formation of galaxies and black holes in representative volumes, where thermal energy is injected into the gas, allowing winds to develop without predetermined speed or mass loading factors.
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How do galaxies get their gas
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that at low z < 1, the cosmic star formation rate degrades due to geometry, as the typical cross section of filaments begins to exceed that of the galaxies at their intersections.
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