No Arabic abstract
We study the contribution of galaxies with different properties to the global densities of star formation rate (SFR), atomic (HI) and molecular hydrogen (H2) as a function of redshift. We use the GALFORM model of galaxy formation, which is set in the LCDM framework. This model includes a self-consistent calculation of the SFR, which depends on the H2 content of galaxies. The predicted SFR density and how much of this is contributed by galaxies with different stellar masses and infrared luminosities are in agreement with observations. The model predicts a modest evolution of the HI density at z<3, which is also in agreement with the observations. The HI density is predicted to be always dominated by galaxies with SFR<1Msun/yr. This contrasts with the H2 density, which is predicted to be dominated by galaxies with SFR>10Msun/yr. Current high-redshift galaxy surveys are limited to detect carbon monoxide in galaxies with SFR>30Msun/yr, which in our model make up, at most, 20% of the H2 in the universe. In terms of stellar mass, the predicted H2 density is dominated by massive galaxies, Mstellar>10^10Msun, while the HI density is dominated by low mass galaxies, Mstellar<10^9Msun. In the context of upcoming neutral gas surveys, we suggest that the faint nature of the galaxies dominating the HI content of the Universe will hamper the identification of optical counterparts, while for H2, we expect follow up observations of molecular emission lines of already existing galaxy catalogues to be able to uncover the H2 density of the Universe.
Measurements of the neutral hydrogen gas content of a sample of 93 post-merger galaxies are presented, from a combination of matches to the ALFALFA.40 data release and new Arecibo observations. By imposing completeness thresholds identical to that of the ALFALFA survey, and by compiling a mass-, redshift- and environment-matched control sample from the public ALFALFA.40 data release, we calculate gas fraction offsets (Delta f_gas) for the post-mergers, relative to the control sample. We find that the post-mergers have HI gas fractions that are consistent with undisturbed galaxies. However, due to the relative gas richness of the ALFALFA.40 sample, from which we draw our control sample, our measurements of gas fraction enhancements are likely to be conservative lower limits. Combined with comparable gas fraction measurements by Fertig et al. in a sample of galaxy pairs, who also determine gas fraction offsets consistent with zero, we conclude that there is no evidence for significant neutral gas consumption throughout the merger sequence. From a suite of 75 binary merger simulations we confirm that star formation is expected to decrease the post-merger gas fraction by only 0.06 dex, even several Gyr after the merger. Moreover, in addition to the lack of evidence for gas consumption from gas fraction offsets, the observed HI detection fraction in the complete sample of post-mergers is twice as high as the controls, which suggests that the post-merger gas fractions may actually be enhanced. We demonstrate that a gas fraction enhancement in post-mergers, relative to a stellar mass-matched control sample, would indeed be the natural result of merging randomly drawn pairs from a parent population which exhibits a declining gas fraction with increasing stellar mass.
We measure the projected cross-correlation between low redshift (z < 0.5) far-IR selected galaxies in the SDP field of the Herschel-ATLAS (H-ATLAS) survey and optically selected galaxies from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) redshift survey. In order to obtain robust correlation functions, we restrict the analysis to a subset of 969 out of 6900 H-ATLAS galaxies, which have reliable optical counterparts with r<19.4 mag and well-determined spectroscopic redshifts. The overlap region between the two surveys is 12.6 sq. deg; the matched sample has a median redshift of z ~ 0.2. The cross-correlation of GAMA and H-ATLAS galaxies within this region can be fitted by a power law, with correlation length r_0 ~ 4.63 +/- 0.51 Mpc. Comparing with the corresponding auto-correlation function of GAMA galaxies within the SDP field yields a relative bias (averaged over 2-8 Mpc) of H-ATLAS and GAMA galaxies of b_H/b_G ~ 0.6. Combined with clustering measurements from previous optical studies, this indicates that most of the low redshift H-ATLAS sources are hosted by halos with masses comparable to that of the Milky Way. The correlation function appears to depend on the 250 um luminosity, L_250, with bright (median luminosity u L_250 ~ 1.6 x 10^10 L_sun) objects being somewhat more strongly clustered than faint ( u L_250 ~ 4.0 x 10^9 L_sun) objects. This implies that galaxies with higher dust-obscured star formation rates are hosted by more massive halos.
We combine high-resolution images from GEMS with redshifts and spectral energy distributions from COMBO-17 to explore the morphological types of galaxies that dominate the z~0.7 UV luminosity density. We analysed rest-frame 280 nm and V-band luminosities of 1483 galaxies with 0.65<z< 0.75, combining these with visual morphological classifications from F850LP images (approximately rest-frame V-band) taken with HST/ACS on the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. We derive UV luminosity functions and j_280 luminosity densities for spheroid-dominated galaxies, spiral galaxies, Magellanic irregulars, and clearly-interacting galaxies with morphologies suggestive of ongoing major mergers. We check the reliability of GEMS morphologies against the deeper GOODS images and quantify an incompleteness of the GEMS merger identification at the faint end. We derive the fractions of the global UV luminosity density j_280 originating from the galaxy types, and find that spiral galaxies and Magellanic irregulars dominate with about 40% each. Interacting and merging galaxies account for roughly 20% of j_280, while the contribution of early types is negligible. These results imply that the strong decline in the UV luminosity density of the Universe observed from z~1 until today is dominated by the decreasing UV luminosities of normal spiral galaxies, accompanied by the migration of UV-luminous star formation in irregular galaxies to systems of progressively lower mass and luminosity. (abridged)
We examine the global HI properties of galaxies in quarter-billion particle cosmological simulations using Gadget-2, focusing on how galactic outflows impact HI content. We consider four outflow models, including a new one (ezw) motivated by recent interstellar medium simulations in which the wind speed and mass loading factor scale as expected for momentum-driven outflows for larger galaxies and energy-driven outflows for dwarfs (sigma<75 km/s). To obtain predicted HI masses, we employ a simple but effective local correction for particle self-shielding, and an observationally-constrained transition from neutral to molecular hydrogen. Our ezw simulation produces an HI mass function whose faint-end slope of -1.3 agrees well with observations from the ALFALFA survey; other models agree less well. Satellite galaxies have a bimodal distribution in HI fraction versus halo mass, with smaller satellites and/or those in larger halos more often being HI-deficient. At a given stellar mass, HI content correlates with star formation rate and inversely correlates with metallicity, as expected if driven by stochasticity in the accretion rate. To higher redshifts, massive HI galaxies disappear and the mass function steepens. The global cosmic HI density conspires to remain fairly constant from z~5-0, but the relative contribution from smaller galaxies increases with redshift.
We present an analysis of the neutral hydrogen (HI) properties of a fully cosmological hydrodynamical dwarf galaxy, run with varying simulation parameters. As reported by Governato et al. (2010), the high resolution, high star formation density threshold version of this galaxy is the first simulation to result in the successful reproduction of a (dwarf) spiral galaxy without any associated stellar bulge. We have set out to compare in detail the HI distribution and kinematics of this simulated bulgeless disk with what is observed in a sample of nearby dwarfs. To do so, we extracted the radial gas density profiles, velocity dispersion (e.g., velocity ellipsoid, turbulence), and the power spectrum of structure within the cold interstellar medium from the simulations. The highest resolution dwarf, when using a high density star formation threshold comparable to densities of giant molecular clouds, possesses bulk characteristics consistent with those observed in nature, though the cold gas is not as radially extended as that observed in nearby dwarfs, resulting in somewhat excessive surface densities. The lines-of-sight velocity dispersion radial profiles have values that are in good agreement with observed dwarf galaxies, but due to the fact that only the streaming velocities of particles are tracked, a correction to include the thermal velocities can lead to profiles that are quite flat. The ISM power spectra of the simulations appear to possess more power on smaller spatial scales than that of the SMC. We conclude that unavoidable limitations remain due to the unresolved physics of star formation and feedback within pc-scale molecular clouds.