No Arabic abstract
We present a revised and extended version of the analytic model for cosmic star formation originally given by Hernquist & Springel in 2003. The key assumption of this formalism is that star formation proceeds from cold gas, at a rate that is limited by an internal consumption timescale at early times, or by the rate of generation of gas via cooling at late times. These processes are analysed as a function of the mass of dark matter haloes and integrated over the halo population. We modify this approach in two main ways to make it more general: (1) halo collapse times are included explicitly, so that the behaviour is physically reasonable at late times; (2) allowance is made for a mass-dependent baryon fraction in haloes, which incorporates feedback effects. This model reproduces the main features of the observed baryonic Tully-Fisher relationship, and is consistent with observational estimates of the baryon mass fraction in the intergalactic medium. With minimal adjustment of parameters, our approach reproduces the observed history of cosmic star formation within a factor of two over the redshift range $0 < z < 10$. This level of agreement is comparable to that achieved by state-of-the-art cosmological simulations. Our simplified apparatus has pedagogical value in illuminating the results of such detailed calculations, and also serves as a means for rapid approximate exploration of non-standard cosmological models.
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the primary reservoirs of cold, star-forming molecular gas in the Milky Way and similar galaxies, and thus any understanding of star formation must encompass a model for GMC formation, evolution, and destruction. These models are necessarily constrained by measurements of interstellar molecular and atomic gas, and the emergent, newborn stars. Both observations and theory have undergone great advances in recent years, the latter driven largely by improved numerical simulations, and the former by the advent of large-scale surveys with new telescopes and instruments. This chapter offers a thorough review of the current state of the field.
We explore how the star formation efficiency in a protocluster clump is regulated by metallicity dependent stellar winds from the newly formed massive OB stars (Mstar >5 Msol). The model describes the co-evolution of the mass function of gravitationally bound cores and of the IMF in a protocluster clump. Dense cores are generated uniformly in time at different locations in the clump, and contract over lifetimes that are a few times their free fall times. The cores collapse to form stars that power strong stellar winds whose cumulative kinetic energy evacuates the gas from the clump and quenches further core and star formation. This sets the final star formation efficiency, SFEf. Models are run with various metallicities in the range Z/Zsol=[0.1,2]. We find that the SFEf decreases strongly with increasing metallicity.The SFEf-metallicity relation is well described by a decaying exponential whose exact parameters depend weakly on the value of the core formation efficiency. We find that there is almost no dependence of the SFEf-metallicity relation on the clump mass. This is due to the fact that an increase (decrease) in the clump mass leads to an increase (decrease) in the feedback from OB stars which is opposed by an increase (decrease) in the gravitational potential of the clump. The clump mass-cluster mass relations we find for all of the different metallicity cases imply a negligible difference between the exponent of the mass function of the protocluster clumps and that of the young clusters mass function. By normalizing the SFEs to their value for the solar metallicity case, we compare our results to SFE-metallicity relations derived on galactic scales and find a good agreement. As a by-product of this study, we also provide ready-to-use prescriptions for the power of stellar winds of main sequence OB stars in the mass range [5,80] Msol in the metallicity range we have considered
We compare the impacts of uncertainties in both binary population synthesis models and the cosmic star formation history on the predicted rates of Gravitational Wave compact binary merger (GW) events. These uncertainties cause the predicted rates of GW events to vary by up to an order of magnitude. Varying the volume-averaged star formation rate density history of the Universe causes the weakest change to our predictions, while varying the metallicity evolution has the strongest effect. Double neutron-star merger rates are more sensitive to assumed neutron-star kick velocity than the cosmic star formation history. Varying certain parameters affects merger rates in different ways depending on the mass of the merging compact objects; thus some of the degeneracy may be broken by looking at all the event rates rather than restricting ourselves to one class of mergers.
Understanding infrared (IR) luminosity is fundamental to understanding the cosmic star formation history and AGN evolution, since their most intense stages are often obscured by dust. Japanese infrared satellite, AKARI, provided unique data sets to probe this both at low and high redshifts. The AKARI performed all sky survey in 6 IR bands (9, 18, 65, 90, 140, and 160$mu$m) with 3-10 times better sensitivity than IRAS, covering the crucial far-IR wavelengths across the peak of the dust emission. Combined with a better spatial resolution, AKARI can much more precisely measure the total infrared luminosity ($L_{TIR}$) of individual galaxies, and thus, the total infrared luminosity density of the local Universe. In the AKARI NEP deep field, we construct restframe 8$mu$m, 12$mu$m, and total infrared (TIR) luminosity functions (LFs) at 0.15$<z<$2.2 using 4128 infrared sources. A continuous filter coverage in the mid-IR wavelength (2.4, 3.2, 4.1, 7, 9, 11, 15, 18, and 24$mu$m) by the AKARI satellite allows us to estimate restframe 8$mu$m and 12$mu$m luminosities without using a large extrapolation based on a SED fit, which was the largest uncertainty in previous work. By combining these two results, we reveal dust-hidden cosmic star formation history and AGN evolution from $z$=0 to $z$=2.2, all probed by the AKARI satellite.
We matched the 1.4 GHz local luminosity functions of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and active galactic nuclei to the 1.4 GHz differential source counts from $0.25 mumathrm{Jy}$ to 25 Jy using combinations of luminosity and density evolution. We present the most robust and complete local far-infrared (FIR)/radio luminosity correlation to date in a volume-limited sample of $approx 4.3 times 10^3$ nearby SFGs, finding that it is very tight but distinctly sub-linear: $L_mathrm{FIR} propto L_mathrm{1.4,GHz}^{0.85}$. If the local FIR/radio correlation does not evolve, the evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function of SFGs yields the evolving star-formation rate density (SFRD) $psi (M_odot mathrm{year}^{-1} mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}$) as a function of time since the big bang. The SFRD measured at 1.4 GHz grows rapidly at early times, peaks at cosmic noon when $t approx 3 mathrm{Gyr}$ and $z approx 2$, and subsequently decays with an $e$-folding time scale $tau = 3.2 mathrm{Gyr}$. This evolution is similar to, but somewhat stronger than, SFRD evolution estimated from UV and FIR data.