No Arabic abstract
We present a new cosmological galaxy formation model, $ u^2$GC, as an updated version of our previous model $ u$GC. We adopt the so-called semi-analytic approach, in which the formation history of dark matter halos is computed by ${it N}$-body simulations, while the baryon physics such as gas cooling, star formation and supernova feedback are simply modeled by phenomenological equations. Major updates of the model are as follows: (1) the merger trees of dark matter halos are constructed in state-of-the-art ${it N}$-body simulations, (2) we introduce the formation and evolution process of supermassive black holes and the suppression of gas cooling due to active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity, (3) we include heating of the intergalactic gas by the cosmic UV background, and (4) we tune some free parameters related to the astrophysical processes using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. Our ${it N}$-body simulations of dark matter halos have unprecedented box size and mass resolution (the largest simulation contains 550 billion particles in a 1.12 Gpc/h box), enabling the study of much smaller and rarer objects. The model was tuned to fit the luminosity functions of local galaxies and mass function of neutral hydrogen. Local observations, such as the Tully-Fisher relation, size-magnitude relation of spiral galaxies and scaling relation between the bulge mass and black hole mass were well reproduced by the model. Moreover, the model also well reproduced the cosmic star formation history and the redshift evolution of rest-frame ${it K}$-band luminosity functions. The numerical catalog of the simulated galaxies and AGNs is publicly available on the web.
We construct the Numerical Galaxy Catalog ($ u$GC), based on a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation combined with high-resolution N-body simulations in a $Lambda$-dominated flat cold dark matter ($Lambda$CDM) cosmological model. The model includes several essential ingredients for galaxy formation, such as merging histories of dark halos directly taken from N-body simulations, radiative gas cooling, star formation, heating by supernova explosions (supernova feedback), mergers of galaxies, population synthesis, and extinction by internal dust and intervening HI clouds. As the first paper in a series using this model, we focus on basic photometric, structural and kinematical properties of galaxies at present and high redshifts. Two sets of model parameters are examined, strong and weak supernova feedback models, which are in good agreement with observational luminosity functions of local galaxies in a range of observational uncertainty. Both models agree well with many observations such as cold gas mass-to-stellar luminosity ratios of spiral galaxies, HI mass functions, galaxy sizes, faint galaxy number counts and photometric redshift distributions in optical pass-bands, isophotal angular sizes, and cosmic star formation rates. In particular, the strong supernova feedback model is in much better agreement with near-infrared (K-band) faint galaxy number counts and redshift distribution than the weak feedback model and our previous semi-analytic models based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism. (Abridged)
We present the latest results of a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, New Numerical Galaxy Catalogue, which is combined with large cosmological N-body simulations. This model can reproduce statistical properties of galaxies at z < 6.0. We focus on the properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and supermassive black holes, especially on the accretion timescale onto black holes. We find that the number density of AGNs at z < 1.5 and at hard X-ray luminosity 10^{ 44 }< erg/s is underestimated compared with recent observational estimates when we assume the exponentially decreasing accretion rate and the accretion timescale which is proportional to the dynamical time of the host halo or the bulge, as is often assumed in semi-analytic models. We show that to solve this discrepancy, the accretion timescale of such less luminous AGNs instead should be a function of the black hole mass and the accreted gas mass. This timescale can be obtained from a phenomenological modelling of the gas angular momentum loss in the circumnuclear torus and/or the accretion disc. Such models predict a longer accretion timescale for less luminous AGNs at z < 1.0 than bright QSOs whose accretion timescale would be 10^{ 7-8 } yr. With this newly introduced accretion timescale, our model can explain the observed luminosity functions of AGNs at z < 6.0.
We construct a model of H$alpha$ emitters (HAEs) based on a semi-analytic galaxy formation model, the New Numerical Galaxy Catalog ($ u^2$GC). In this paper, we report our estimate for the field variance of the HAE distribution. By calculating the H$alpha$ luminosity from the star-formation rate of galaxies, our model well reproduces the observed H$alpha$ luminosity function (LF) at $z=0.4$. The large volume of the $ u^2$GC makes it possible to examine the spatial distribution of HAEs over a region of (411.8 Mpc)$^3$ in the comoving scale. The surface number density of $z=0.4$ HAEs with $L_{rm Halpha} geq 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$ is 308.9 deg$^{-2}$. We have confirmed that the HAE is a useful tracer for the large-scale structure of the Universe because of their significant overdensity ($>$ 5$sigma$) at clusters and the filamentary structures. The H$alpha$ LFs within a survey area of $sim$2 deg$^2$ (typical for previous observational studies) show a significant field variance up to $sim$1 dex. Based on our model, one can estimate the variance on the H$alpha$ LFs within given survey areas.
This is the first paper of a series that describes the methods and basic results of the GalICS model (for Galaxies In Cosmological Simulations). GalICS is a hybrid model for hierarchical galaxy formation studies, combining the outputs of large cosmological N-body simulations with simple, semi-analytic recipes to describe the fate of the baryons within dark matter halos. The simulations produce a detailed merging tree for the dark matter halos including complete knowledge of the statistical properties arising from the gravitational forces. We intend to predict the overall statistical properties of galaxies, with special emphasis on the panchromatic spectral energy distribution emitted by galaxies in the UV/optical and IR/submm wavelength ranges. In this paper, we outline the physically motivated assumptions and key free parameters that go into the model, comparing and contrasting with other parallel efforts. We specifically illustrate the success of the model in comparison to several datasets, showing how it is able to predict the galaxy disc sizes, colours, luminosity functions from the ultraviolet to far infrared, the Tully--Fisher and Faber--Jackson relations, and the fundamental plane in the local universe. We also identify certain areas where the model fails, or where the assumptions needed to succeed are at odds with observations, and pay special attention to understanding the effects of the finite resolution of the simulations on the predictions made. Other papers in this series will take advantage of different data sets available in the literature to extend the study of the limitations and predictive power of GalICS, with particular emphasis put on high-redshift galaxies.
We present a simple semi-numerical model designed to explore black hole growth and galaxy evolution. This method builds on a previous model for black hole accretion that uses a semi-numerical galaxy formation model and universal Eddington ratio distribution to describe the full AGN population by independently connecting galaxy and AGN growth to the evolution of the host dark matter halos. We fit observed X-ray luminosity functions up to a redshift of z ~ 4, as well as investigate the evolution of the Eddington ratio distributions. We find that the Eddington ratio distribution evolves with redshift such that the slope of the low-Eddington accretion rate distribution increases with cosmic time, consistent with the behavior predicted in hydrodynamical simulations for galaxies with different gas fractions. We also find that the evolution of our average Eddington ratio is correlated with observed star formation histories, supporting a picture in which black holes and galaxies evolve together in a global sense. We further confirm the impact of luminosity limits on observed galaxy and halo properties by applying selection criteria to our fiducial model and comparing to surveys across a wide range of redshifts.