Person:

Torrey, P

We present a series of numerical galaxy formation studies which apply new numerical methods to produce increasingly realistic galaxy formation models. We first investigate the metallicity evolution of a large set of idealized hydrodynamical galaxy merger simulations of colliding galaxies. We find that inflows of metal--poor interstellar gas triggered by galaxy tidal interactions can account for the systematically lower central oxygen abundances observed in local interacting galaxies. We show the central metallicity evolution during merger events is determined by a competition between the inflow of low--metallicity gas and enrichment from star formation. We find a time-averaged depression in the galactic nuclear metallicity of ~0.07 dex for gas--poor disk--disk interactions, which explains the observed close pair mass-metallicity and separation-metallicity relationships.

We employ a suite of 75 simulations of galaxies in idealized major mergers (stellar mass ratio ∼2.5:1), with a wide range of orbital parameters, to investigate the spatial extent of interaction-induced star formation. Although the total star formation in galaxy encounters is generally elevated relative to isolated galaxies, we find that this elevation is a combination of intense enhancements within the central kpc and moderately suppressed activity at larger galactocentric radii. The radial dependence of the star formation enhancement is stronger in the less massive galaxy than in the primary, and is also more pronounced in mergers of more closely aligned disc spin orientations. Conversely, these trends are almost entirely independent of the encounter's impact parameter and orbital eccentricity. Our predictions of the radial dependence of triggered star formation, and specifically the suppression of star formation beyond kpc-scales, will be testable with the next generation of integral-field spectroscopic surveys.

Comparisons between observational surveys and galaxy formation models find that dark matter haloes’ mass can largely explain their galaxies’ stellar mass. However, it remains uncertain whether additional environmental variables, known as assembly bias, are necessary to explain other galaxy properties. We use the Illustris simulation to investigate the role of assembly bias in producing galactic conformity by considering 18 000 galaxies with Mstellar > 2 × 109 M⊙. We find a significant signal of galactic conformity: out to distances of about 10 Mpc, the mean red fraction of galaxies around redder galaxies is higher than around bluer galaxies at fixed stellar mass. Dark matter haloes exhibit an analogous conformity signal, in which the fraction of haloes formed at earlier times (old haloes) is higher around old haloes than around younger ones at fixed halo mass. A plausible interpretation of galactic conformity is the combination of the halo conformity signal with the galaxy colour–halo age relation: at fixed stellar mass, particularly towards the low-mass end, Illustris’ galaxy colours correlate with halo age, with the reddest galaxies (often satellites) preferentially found in the oldest haloes. We explain the galactic conformity effect with a simple semi-empirical model, assigning stellar mass via halo mass (abundance matching) and galaxy colour via halo age (age matching). Regarding comparison to observations, we conclude that the adopted selection/isolation criteria, projection effects, and stacking techniques can have a significant impact on the measured amplitude of the conformity signal.

Supermassive black hole (BH) mergers produce powerful gravitational wave emission. Asymmetry in this emission imparts a recoil kick to the merged BH, which can eject the BH from its host galaxy altogether. Recoiling BHs could be observed as offset active galactic nuclei (AGN). Several candidates have been identified, but systematic searches have been hampered by large uncertainties regarding their observability. By extracting merging BHs and host galaxy properties from the Illustris cosmological simulations, we have developed a comprehensive model for recoiling AGN. Here, for the first time, we model the effects of BH spin alignment and recoil dynamics based on the gas richness of host galaxies. We predict that if BH spins are not highly aligned, seeing-limited observations could resolve offset AGN, making them promising targets for all-sky surveys. For randomly oriented spins, ≲ 10 spatially offset AGN may be detectable in Hubble Space Telescope-Cosmological Evolution Survey, and >103 could be found with the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), Euclid, and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). Nearly a thousand velocity offset AGN are predicted within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint; the rarity of large broad-line offsets among SDSS quasars is likely due in part to selection effects but suggests that spin alignment plays a role in suppressing recoils. None the less, in our most physically motivated model where alignment occurs only in gas-rich mergers, hundreds of offset AGN should be found in all-sky surveys. Our findings strongly motivate a dedicated search for recoiling AGN.

We use the Illustris simulation to study the relative contributions of in situ star formation and stellar accretion to the build-up of galaxies over an unprecedentedly wide range of masses (M* = 109-1012 M⊙), galaxy types, environments, and assembly histories. We find that the ‘two-phase’ picture of galaxy formation predicted by some models is a good approximation only for the most massive galaxies in our simulation – namely, the stellar mass growth of galaxies below a few times 1011 M⊙ is dominated by in situ star formation at all redshifts. The fraction of the total stellar mass of galaxies at z = 0 contributed by accreted stars shows a strong dependence on galaxy stellar mass, ranging from about 10 per cent for Milky Way-sized galaxies to over 80 per cent for M* ≈ 1012 M⊙ objects, yet with a large galaxy-to-galaxy variation. At a fixed stellar mass, elliptical galaxies and those formed at the centres of younger haloes exhibit larger fractions of ex situ stars than disc-like galaxies and those formed in older haloes. On average, ∼50 per cent of the ex situ stellar mass comes from major mergers (stellar mass ratio μ > 1/4), ∼20 per cent from minor mergers (1/10 < μ < 1/4), ∼20 per cent from very minor mergers (μ < 1/10), and ∼10 per cent from stars that were stripped from surviving galaxies (e.g. flybys or ongoing mergers). These components are spatially segregated, with in situ stars dominating the innermost regions of galaxies, and ex situ stars being deposited at larger galactocentric distances in order of decreasing merger mass ratio.

Observationally, the fraction of blue satellite galaxies decreases steeply with host halo mass, and their radial distribution around central galaxies is significantly shallower in massive (M* ≥ 1011 M⊙) than in Milky Way-like systems. Theoretical models, based primarily on semi-analytical techniques, have had a long-standing problem with reproducing these trends, instead predicting too few blue satellites in general but also estimating a radial distribution that is too shallow, regardless of primary mass. In this Letter, we use the Illustris cosmological simulation to study the properties of satellite galaxies around isolated primaries. For the first time, we find good agreement between theory and observations. We identify the main source of this success relative to earlier work to be a consequence of the large gas contents of satellites at infall, a factor ∼5–10 times larger than in semi-analytical models. Because of their relatively large gas reservoirs, satellites can continue to form stars long after infall, with a typical time-scale for star-formation to be quenched ∼2 Gyr in groups but more than ∼5 Gyr for satellites around Milky Way-like primaries. The gas contents we infer are consistent with z = 0 observations of H i gas in galaxies, although we find large discrepancies among reported values in the literature. A testable prediction of our model is that the gas-to-stellar mass ratio of satellite progenitors should vary only weakly with cosmic time.

Galaxy clusters contain a large population of low-mass dwarf elliptical galaxies whose exact origin is unclear: their colours, structural properties and kinematics differ substantially from those of dwarf irregulars in the field. We use the Illustris cosmological simulation to study differences in the assembly histories of dwarf galaxies (3 × 108 < M*/M⊙ < 1010) according to their environment. We find that cluster dwarfs achieve their maximum total and stellar mass on average ∼8 and ∼4.5 Gyr ago (or redshifts z = 1.0 and 0.4, respectively), around the time of infall into the clusters. In contrast, field dwarfs not subjected to environmental stripping reach their maximum mass at z = 0. These different assembly trajectories naturally produce a colour bimodality, with blue isolated dwarfs and redder cluster dwarfs exhibiting negligible star formation today. The cessation of star formation happens over median times 3.5–5 Gyr depending on stellar mass, and shows a large scatter (∼1–8 Gyr), with the lower values associated with starburst events that occur at infall through the virial radius or pericentric passages. We argue that such starbursts together with the early assembly of cluster dwarfs can provide a natural explanation for the higher specific frequency of globular clusters (GCs) in cluster dwarfs, as found observationally. We present a simple model for the formation and stripping of GCs that supports this interpretation. The origin of dwarf ellipticals in clusters is, therefore, consistent with an environmentally driven evolution of field dwarf irregulars. However, the z = 0 field analogues of cluster dwarf progenitors have today stellar masses a factor of ∼3 larger – a difference arising from the early truncation of star formation in cluster dwarfs.

We use particle data from the Illustris simulation, combined with individual kinematic constraints on the mass of the Milky Way (MW) at specific distances from the Galactic Centre, to infer the radial distribution of the MW's dark matter halo mass. Our method allows us to convert any constraint on the mass of the MW within a fixed distance to a full circular velocity profile to the MW's virial radius. As primary examples, we take two recent (and discrepant) measurements of the total mass within 50 kpc of the Galaxy and find that they imply very different mass profiles and stellar masses for the Galaxy. The dark-matter-only version of the Illustris simulation enables us to compute the effects of galaxy formation on such constraints on a halo-by-halo basis; on small scales, galaxy formation enhances the density relative to dark-matter-only runs, while the total mass density is approximately 20 per cent lower at large Galactocentric distances. We are also able to quantify how current and future constraints on the mass of the MW within specific radii will be reflected in uncertainties on its virial mass: even a measurement of M(<50 kpc) with essentially perfect precision still results in a 20 per cent uncertainty on the virial mass of the Galaxy, while a future measurement of M(<100 kpc) with 10 per cent errors would result in the same level of uncertainty. We expect that our technique will become even more useful as (1) better kinematic constraints become available at larger distances and (2) cosmological simulations provide even more faithful representations of the observable Universe.