Hopkins, Philip F.Kereš, DusanMurray, NormanQuataert, EliotHernquist, Lars2019-09-202012Hopkins, Philip F., Dusan Kereš, Norman Murray, Eliot Quataert, and Lars Hernquist. 2012. “Stellar Feedback and Bulge Formation in Clumpy Discs.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 427 (2): 968–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21981.x.0035-87111365-2966http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41381866We use numerical simulations of isolated galaxies to study the effects of stellar feedback on the formation and evolution of giant star-forming gas 'clumps' in high-redshift, gas-rich galaxies. Such galactic discs are unstable to the formation of bound gas-rich clumps whose properties initially depend only on global disc properties, not the microphysics of feedback. In simulations without stellar feedback, clumps turn an order-unity fraction of their mass into stars and sink to the centre, forming a large bulge and kicking most of the stars out into a much more extended stellar envelope. By contrast, strong radiative stellar feedback disrupts even the most massive clumps after they turn similar to 10-20 per cent of their mass into stars, in a time-scale of similar to 10-100 Myr, ejecting some material into a superwind and recycling the rest of the gas into the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). This suppresses the bulge formation rate by direct 'clump coalescence' by a factor of several. However, the galactic discs do undergo significant internal evolution in the absence of mergers: clumps form and disrupt continuously and torque gas to the galactic centre. The resulting evolution is qualitatively similar to bar/spiral evolution in simulations with a more homogeneous ISM.en-USJournal Article2019-09-2010.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21981.x