Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userA Predicted Correlation Between Age Gradient and Star Formation History in FIRE Dwarf Galaxies
51
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We explore the radial variation of star formation histories in dwarf galaxies simulated with Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) physics. The sample contains 9 low-mass field dwarfs with M_ star = 10^5 - 10^7 M_sun from previous FIRE results, and a new suite of 17 higher mass field dwarfs with M_star = 10^7 - 10^9 M_sun introduced here. We find that age gradients are common in our dwarfs, with older stars dominant at large radii. The strength of the gradient correlates with overall galaxy age such that earlier star formation produces a more pronounced gradient. The relation between formation time and strength of the gradient is driven by both mergers and star-formation feedback. Mergers can both steepen and flatten the age gradient depending on the timing of the merger and star formation history of the merging galaxy. In galaxies without significant mergers, early feedback pushes stars to the outskirts at early times. Interestingly, among galaxies without mergers, those with large dark matter cores have flatter age gradients because these galaxies have more late-time feedback. If real galaxies have age gradients as we predict, stellar population studies that rely on sampling a limited fraction of a galaxy can give a biased view of its global star formation history. We show that central fields can be biased young by a few Gyrs while outer fields are biased old. Fields positioned near the 2D half-light radius will provide the least biased measure of a dwarf galaxys global star formation history.
rate research
Read More
We have obtained deep images of the highly isolated (d = 1 Mpc) Aquarius dwarf irregular galaxy (DDO 210) with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The resulting color-magnitude diagram (CMD) reaches more than a magnitude below the oldest main-sequence turnoff, allowing us to derive the star formation history (SFH) over the entire lifetime of the galaxy with a timing precision of ~10% of the lookback time. Using a maximum likelihood fit to the CMD we find that only ~10% of all star formation in Aquarius took place more than 10 Gyr ago (lookback time equivalent to redshift z ~2). The star formation rate increased dramatically ~6-8 Gyr ago (z ~ 0.7-1.1) and then declined until the present time. The only known galaxy with a more extreme confirmed delay in star formation is Leo A, a galaxy of similar M(HI)/M(stellar), dynamical mass, mean metallicity, and degree of isolation. The delayed stellar mass growth in these galaxies does not track the mean dark matter accretion rate from CDM simulations. The similarities between Leo A and Aquarius suggest that if gas is not removed from dwarf galaxies by interactions or feedback, it can linger for several gigayears without cooling in sufficient quantity to form stars efficiently. We discuss possible causes for the delay in star formation including suppression by reionization and late-time mergers. We find reasonable agreement between our measured SFHs and select cosmological simulations of isolated dwarfs. Because star formation and merger processes are both stochastic in nature, delayed star formation in various degees is predicted to be a characteristic (but not a universal) feature of isolated small galaxies.
We derive the star formation history in four regions of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using the deepest VI color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) ever obtained for this galaxy. The images were obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope and are located at projected distances of 0.5-2 degrees from the SMC center, probing the main body and the wing of the galaxy. We derived the star-formation histories (SFH) of the four fields using two independent procedures to fit synthetic CMDs to the data. We compare the SFHs derived here with our earlier results for the SMC bar to create a deep pencil-beam survey of the global history of the central SMC. We find in all the six fields observed with HST a slow star formation pace from 13 to 5-7 Gyr ago, followed by a ~ 2-3 times higher activity. This is remarkable because dynamical models do not predict a strong influence of either the LMC or the Milky Way (MW) at that time. The level of the intermediate-age SFR enhancement systematically increases towards the center, resulting in a gradient in the mean age of the population, with the bar fields being systematically younger than the outer ones. Star formation over the most recent 500 Myr is strongly concentrated in the bar, the only exception being the area of the SMC wing. The strong current activity of the latter is likely driven by interaction with the LMC. At a given age, there is no significant difference in metallicity between the inner and outer fields, implying that metals are well mixed throughout the SMC. The age-metallicity relations we infer from our best fitting models are monotonically increasing with time, with no evidence of dips. This may argue against the major merger scenario proposed by Tsujimoto and Bekki 2009, although a minor merger cannot be ruled out.
We explore the origin of stellar metallicity gradients in simulated and observed dwarf galaxies. We use FIRE-2 cosmological baryonic zoom-in simulations of 26 isolated galaxies as well as existing observational data for 10 Local Group dwarf galaxies. Our simulated galaxies have stellar masses between $10^{5.5}$ and $10^{8.6} msun$. Whilst gas-phase metallicty gradients are generally weak in our simulated galaxies, we find that stellar metallicity gradients are common, with central regions tending to be more metal-rich than the outer parts. The strength of the gradient is correlated with galaxy-wide median stellar age, such that galaxies with younger stellar populations have flatter gradients. Stellar metallicty gradients are set by two competing processes: (1) the steady puffing of old, metal-poor stars by feedback-driven potential fluctuations, and (2) the accretion of extended, metal-rich gas at late times, which fuels late-time metal-rich star formation. If recent star formation dominates, then extended, metal-rich star formation washes out pre-existing gradients from the puffing process. We use published results from ten Local Group dwarf galaxies to show that a similar relationship between age and stellar metallicity-gradient strength exists among real dwarfs. This suggests that observed stellar metallicity gradients may be driven largely by the baryon/feedback cycle rather than by external environmental effects.
Recent hydrodynamical simulations predict that stellar feedback in intermediate mass galaxies (IMGs) can drive strong fluctuations in structure (e.g., half-light radius, $R_e$). This process operates on timescales of only a few hundred Myr and persists even at late cosmic times. One prediction of this quasi-periodic, galactic-scale breathing is an $anti$-correlation between star formation rate (SFR) and half-light radius as central gas overdensities lead to starbursts whose feedback drags stars to larger radii while star formation dwindles. We test this prediction with a sample of 322 $isolated$ IMGs with stellar masses of $10^{9.0} leq M/M_{odot} leq 10^{9.5}$ at $0.3<z<0.4$ in the HST $I_{814}$ COSMOS footprint. We find that IMGs with higher specific SFRs (SSFR $>10^{-10}$ yr$^{-1}$) are the most extended with median sizes of $R_e sim 3-3.4$ kpc and are mostly disk-dominated systems. In contrast, IMGs with lower SSFRs ($<10^{-10}$ yr$^{-1}$) are a factor of $sim 2-3$ more compact with median sizes of $R_e sim 0.9-1.6$ kpc and have more significant bulge contributions to their light. These observed trends are opposite the predictions for stellar feedback that operate via the breathing process described above. We discuss various paths to reconcile the observations and simulations, all of which likely require a different implementation of stellar feedback in IMGs that drastically changes their predicted formation history.
We examine the past and current work on the star formation (SF) histories of dwarf galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. The results obtained from different numerical methods are still somewhat mixed, but the differences are understandable if we consider the numerical and resolution effects. It remains a challenge to simulate the episodic nature of SF history in dwarf galaxies at late times within the cosmological context of a cold dark matter model. More work is needed to solve the mysteries of SF history of dwarf galaxies employing large-scale hydrodynamic simulations on the next generation of supercomputers.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
