Disk galaxies at z=2 in OWLS
Abstract
We use the OWLS (OverWhelmingly Large Simulations) set of cosmological Nbody/gasdynamical simulations to study the properties of simulated galaxies at z=2. We focus on the effect of supernova feedback from evolving stars on the baryonic mass and angular momentum content of galaxies that assemble at the center of 1e11-3e12 h^{-1}M_\odot halos. Our main finding is that the mass and angular momentum of such galaxies are strongly coupled, in a way that is approximately independent of feedback: varying the feedback implementation leads, in a given halo, to large variations in galaxy mass but leaves the galaxy mass-angular momentum correlation largely unaltered. In particular, the ratio between the angular momentum of a galaxy and that of its surrounding halo (j_d=J_gal/J_vir) correlates closely with the galaxy mass (expressed in units of the virial mass of the halo; m_d=M_gal/M_vir). This correlation differs substantially from the m_d=j_d assumption commonly adopted in semianalytic models of galaxy formation. We use these results to infer the sizes of disk galaxies at z=2 expected in the LCDM scenario and to interpret recent observations of extended disks at z~2 by the SINS collaboration
Cite
@article{arxiv.0905.3555,
title = {Disk galaxies at z=2 in OWLS},
author = {Julio F. Navarro and Laura V. Sales and Joop Schaye and Claudio Dalla Vecchia and Volker Springel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.3555},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Conference Proceeding: "Galaxy Evolution: Emerging Insights and Future Challenges", November 11-14, 2008. The University of Texas at Austin. 8 pages, 7 figures