We present a first study of the effect of local photoionising radiation on gas cooling in smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of galaxy formation. We explore the combined effect of ionising radiation from young and old stellar populations. Th
e method computes the effect of multiple radiative sources using the same tree algorithm used for gravity, so it is computationally efficient and well resolved. The method foregoes calculating absorption and scattering in favour of a constant escape fraction for young stars to keep the calculation efficient enough to simulate the entire evolution of a galaxy in a cosmological context to the present day. This allows us to quantify the effect of the local photoionisation feedback through the whole history of a galaxy`s formation. The simulation of a Milky Way like galaxy using the local photoionisation model forms ~ 40 % less stars than a simulation that only includes a standard uniform background UV field. The local photoionisation model decreases star formation by increasing the cooling time of the gas in the halo and increasing the equilibrium temperature of dense gas in the disc. Coupling the local radiation field to gas cooling from the halo provides a preventive feedback mechanism which keeps the central disc light and produces slowly rising rotation curves without resorting to extreme feedback mechanisms. These preliminary results indicate that the effect of local photoionising sources is significant and should not be ignored in models of galaxy formation.
We analyse the structure and chemical enrichment of a Milky Way-like galaxy with a stellar mass of 2 10^{10} M_sun, formed in a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. It is disk-dominated with a flat rotation curve, and has a disk scale length simil
ar to the Milky Ways, but a velocity dispersion that is ~50% higher. Examining stars in narrow [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] abundance ranges, we find remarkable qualitative agreement between this simulation and observations: a) The old stars lie in a thickened distribution with a short scale length, while the young stars form a thinner disk, with scale lengths decreasing, as [Fe/H] increases. b) Consequently, there is a distinct outward metallicity gradient. c) Mono-abundance populations exist with a continuous distribution of scale heights (from thin to thick). However, the simulated galaxy has a distinct and substantive very thick disk (h_z~1.5 kpc), not seen in the Milky Way. The broad agreement between simulations and observations allows us to test the validity of observational proxies used in the literature: we find in the simulation that mono-abundance populations are good proxies for single age populations (<1 Gyr) for most abundances.
Within a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, we form a disc galaxy with sub- components which can be assigned to a thin stellar disc, thick disk, and a low mass stellar halo via a chemical decomposition. The thin and thick disc populations so sel
ected are distinct in their ages, kinematics, and metallicities. Thin disc stars are young (<6.6 Gyr), possess low velocity dispersion ({sigma}U,V,W = 41, 31, 25 km/s), high [Fe/H], and low [O/Fe]. The thick disc stars are old (6.6<age<9.8 Gyrs), lag the thin disc by sim21 km/s, possess higher velocity dispersion ({sigma}U,V,W = 49, 44, 35 km/s), relatively low [Fe/H] and high [O/Fe]. The halo component comprises less than 4% of stars in the solar annulus of the simulation, has low metallicity, a velocity ellipsoid defined by ({sigma}U,V,W = 62, 46, 45 km/s) and is formed primarily in-situ during an early merger epoch. Gas-rich mergers during this epoch play a major role in fuelling the formation of the old disc stars (the thick disc). This is consistent with studies which show that cold accretion is the main source of a disc galaxys baryons. Our simulation initially forms a relatively short (scalelength sim1.7 kpc at z=1) and kinematically hot disc, primarily from gas accreted during the galaxys merger epoch. Far from being a competing formation scenario, migration is crucial for reconciling the short, hot, discs which form at high redshift in {Lambda}CDM, with the properties of the thick disc at z=0. The thick disc, as defined by its abundances maintains its relatively short scale-length at z = 0 (2.31 kpc) compared with the total disc scale-length of 2.73 kpc. The inside-out nature of disc growth is imprinted the evolution of abundances such that the metal poor {alpha}-young population has a larger scale-length (4.07 kpc) than the more chemically evolved metal rich {alpha}-young population (2.74 kpc).
We simulate the collapse of isolated dwarf galaxies using SPH + N-Body simulations including a physically motivated description of the effects of supernova feedback. As the gas collapses and stars form, the supernova feedback disrupts enough gas to t
emporarily quench star formation. The gas flows outward into a hot halo, where it cools until star formation can continue once more and the cycle repeats. The star formation histories of isolated Local Group dwarf galaxies exhibit similar episodic bursts of star formation. We examine the mass dependence of the stellar velocity dispersions and find that they are no less than half the velocity of the halos measured at the virial radius.
