Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

We forecast the abilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) to detect CO and H I emission lines in galaxies at redshift z = 3. A particular focus is set on Milky Way (MW) progenitors at z = 3 since their detection within 24hr constitutes a key science goal of ALMA. The analysis relies on a semi-analytic model, which permits the construction of an MW progenitor sample by backtracking the cosmic history of all simulated present-day galaxies similar to the real MW. Results are as follows: (1) ALMA can best observe an MW at z = 3 by looking at CO(3-2) emission. The probability of detecting a random model MW at 3σ in 24hr using 75 km s-1channels is roughly 50%, and these odds can be increased by co-adding the CO(3-2) and CO(4-3) lines. These lines fall into ALMA band 3, which therefore represents the optimal choice toward MW detections at z = 3. (2) Higher CO transitions contained in the ALMA bands ≥6 will be invisible, unless the considered MW progenitor coincidentally hosts a major starburst or an active black hole. (3) The high-frequency array of SKA, fitted with 28.8GHz receivers, would be a powerful instrument for observing CO(1-0) at z = 3, able to detect nearly all simulated MWs in 24hr. (4) H I detections in MWs at z = 3 using the low-frequency array of SKA will be impossible in any reasonable observing time. (5) SKA will nonetheless be a supreme H I survey instrument through its enormous instantaneous field of view (FoV). A one-year pointed H I survey with an assumed FoV of 410 deg2 would reveal at least 105 galaxies at z = 2.95-3.05. (6) If the positions and redshifts of those galaxies are known from an optical/infrared spectroscopic survey, stacking allows the detection of H I at z = 3 in less than 24hr. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

Two of the dominant channels for galaxy mass assembly are cold flows (cold gas supplied via the filaments of the cosmic web) and mergers. How these processes combine in a cosmological setting, at both low and high redshift, to produce the whole zoo of galaxies we observe is largely unknown. Indeed there is still much to understand about the detailed physics of each process in isolation. While these formation channels have been studied using hydrodynamical simulations, here we study their impact on gas properties and star formation (SF) with some of the first simulations that capture the multiphase, cloudy nature of the interstellar medium (ISM), by virtue of their high spatial resolution (and corresponding low temperature threshold). In this regime, we examine the competition between cold flows and a supernovae(SNe)-driven outflow in a very high-redshift galaxy (z {\approx} 9) and study the evolution of equal-mass galaxy mergers at low and high redshift, focusing on the induced SF. We find that SNe-driven outflows cannot reduce the cold accretion at z {\approx} 9 and that SF is actually enhanced due to the ensuing metal enrichment. We demonstrate how several recent observational results on galaxy populations (e.g. enhanced HCN/CO ratios in ULIRGs, a separate Kennicutt Schmidt (KS) sequence for starbursts and the population of compact early type galaxies (ETGs) at high redshift) can be explained with mechanisms captured in galaxy merger simulations, provided that the multiphase nature of the ISM is resolved.