Related papers: Modelling Galaxy Merger Timescales and Tidal Destr…
The internal structure and abundance of dark matter halos and subhalos are powerful probes of the nature of dark matter. In order to compare observations with dark matter models, accurate theoretical predictions of these quantities are…
We extend the random-walk model of Vitvitska et al. for predicting the spins of dark matter halos from their merger histories. Using updated merger rates, orbital parameter distributions, and N-body constraints we show that this model can…
In hierarchical structure formation, dark matter halos that merge with larger halos can persist as subhalos. These subhalos are likely hosts of visible galaxies. While the dense halo environment rapidly strips subhalos of their dark mass,…
N-body simulations suggest that the substructures that survive inside dark matter haloes follow universal distributions in mass and radial number density. We demonstrate that a simple analytical model can explain these subhalo distributions…
We develop a hybrid galaxy formation model which uses outputs from an N-body simulation to follow the merger histories (or ``merger trees'') of dark matter halos and treats baryonic processes, such as the cooling of gas within halos and…
The current status of numerical simulations of galaxy formation is reviewed. After a short description of the main numerical simulation techniques, three sample applications illustrate how numerical simulations have provided deeper insight…
Hierarchical models of structure formation predict that dark matter halo assembly histories are characterised by episodic mergers and interactions with other haloes. An accurate description of this process will provide insights into the…
Accurately predicting the abundance and structural evolution of dark matter subhaloes is crucial for understanding galaxy formation, modeling galaxy clustering, and constraining the nature of dark matter. Due to the nonlinear nature of…
A common approach in semi-analytic modeling of galaxy formation is to construct Monte Carlo realizations of merger histories of dark matter halos whose masses are sampled from a halo mass function. Both the mass function itself, and the…
By using direct N-body numerical simulations, we model the dynamical co-evolution of two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the surrounding stars in merging galaxies. In order to investigate how different stellar components evolve during…
We explore whether stellar tidal streams can provide information on the secular, cosmological evolution of the Milky Way's gravitational potential and on the presence of subhalos. We carry out long-term (~t_hubble) N-body simulations of…
According to the hierarchical formation paradigm, galaxies form through mergers of smaller entities and massive black holes (MBHs), if lurking at their centers, migrate to the nucleus of the newly formed galaxy, where they form binary…
We describe a semi-analytic model to predict the triaxial shapes of dark matter halos utilizing the sequences of random merging events captured in merger trees to follow the evolution of each halo's energy tensor. When coupled with a simple…
We use the Millennium Simulation, a 10 billion particle simulation of the growth of cosmic structure, to construct a new model of galaxy clustering. We adopt a methodology that falls midway between the traditional semi-analytic approach and…
We perform collisionless N-body simulations of 1:1 galaxy mergers, using models which include a galaxy halo, disc and bulge, focusing on the behaviour of the halo component. The galaxy models are constructed without recourse to a Maxwellian…
We present a new approach to study galaxy evolution in a cosmological context. We combine cosmological merger trees and semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to provide the initial conditions for multi-merger hydrodynamic simulations. In…
The analysis of cosmological galaxy surveys requires realistic simulations for their interpretation. Forward modelling is a powerful method to simulate galaxy clustering without the need for an underlying complex model. This approach…
We model the acquisition of spin by dark-matter halos in semi-analytic merger trees. We explore two different algorithms; one in which halo spin is acquired from the orbital angular momentum of merging satellites, and another in which halo…
An analytical model is developed for the mass function of cold dark matter subhalos at the time of accretion and for the distribution of their accretion times. Our model is based on the model of Zhao et al. (2009) for the median assembly…
Tidal interactions between disc galaxies depend on galaxy structure, but the details of this relationship are incompletely understood. I have constructed a three-parameter grid of bulge/disc/halo models broadly consistent with $\Lambda$CDM,…