Recent high precision proper motions from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) suggest that the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively) are either on their first passage or on an eccentric long period (>6 Gyr) orbit about the Milky
Way (MW). This differs markedly from the canonical picture in which the Clouds travel on a quasi-periodic orbit about the MW (period of ~2 Gyr). Without a short period orbit about the MW, the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a young (1-2 Gyr old) coherent stream of HI gas that trails the Clouds ~150 degrees across the sky, can no longer be attributed to stripping by MW tides and/or ram pressure stripping by MW halo gas. We propose an alternative formation mechanism in which material is removed by LMC tides acting on the SMC before the system is accreted by the MW. We demonstrate the feasibility and generality of this scenario using an N-body/SPH simulation with cosmologically motivated initial conditions constrained by the observations. Under these conditions we demonstrate that it is possible to explain the origin of the Magellanic Stream in a first infall scenario. This picture is generically applicable to any gas-rich dwarf galaxy pair infalling towards a massive host or interacting in isolation.
Massive galaxies at high-z have smaller effective radii than those today, but similar central densities. Their size growth therefore relates primarily to the evolving abundance of low-density material. Various models have been proposed to explain thi
s evolution, which have different implications for galaxy, star, and BH formation. We compile observations of spheroid properties as a function of redshift and use them to test proposed models. Evolution in progenitor gas-richness with redshift gives rise to initial formation of smaller spheroids at high-z. These systems can then evolve in apparent or physical size via several channels: (1) equal-density dry mergers, (2) later major or minor dry mergers with less-dense galaxies, (3) adiabatic expansion, (4) evolution in stellar populations & mass-to-light-ratio gradients, (5) age-dependent bias in stellar mass estimators, (6) observational fitting/selection effects. If any one of these is tuned to explain observed size evolution, they make distinct predictions for evolution in other galaxy properties. Only model (2) is consistent with observations as a dominant effect. It is the only model which allows for an increase in M_BH/M_bulge with redshift. Still, the amount of merging needed is larger than that observed or predicted. We therefore compare cosmologically motivated simulations, in which all these effects occur, & show they are consistent with all the observational constraints. Effect (2), which builds up an extended low-density envelope, does dominate the evolution, but effects 1,3,4, & 6 each contribute ~20% to the size evolution (a net factor ~2). This naturally also predicts evolution in M_BH-sigma similar to that observed.
We employ numerical simulations and simple analytical estimates to argue that dark matter substructures orbiting in the inner regions of the Galaxy can be efficiently destroyed by disk shocking, a dynamical process known to affect globular star clust
ers. We carry out a set of fiducial high-resolution collisionless simulations in which we adiabatically grow a disk, allowing us to examine the impact of the disk on the substructure abundance. We also track the orbits of dark matter satellites in the high-resolution Aquarius simulations and analytically estimate the cumulative halo and disk shocking effect. Our calculations indicate that the presence of a disk with only 10% of the total Milky Way mass can significantly alter the mass function of substructures in the inner parts of halos. This has important implications especially for the relatively small number of satellites seen within ~30 kpc of the Milky Way center, where disk shocking is expected to reduce the substructure abundance by a factor of ~2 at 10^9 M$_{odot}$ and ~3 at 10^7 M$_{odot}$. The most massive subhalos with 10^10 M$_{odot}$ survive even in the presence of the disk. This suggests that there is no inner missing satellite problem, and calls into question whether these substructures can produce transient features in disks, like multi-armed spiral patterns. Also, the depletion of dark matter substructures through shocking on the baryonic structures of the disk and central bulge may aggravate the problem to fully account for the observed flux anomalies in gravitational lens systems, and significantly reduces the dark matter annihilation signal expected from nearby substructures in the inner halo.
We use the observed distribution of Eddington ratios as a function of supermassive black hole (BH) mass to constrain models of AGN lifetimes and lightcurves. Given the observed AGN luminosity function, a model for AGN lifetimes (time above a given lu
minosity) translates directly to a predicted Eddington ratio distribution. Models for self-regulated BH growth, in which feedback produces a blowout decay phase after some peak luminosity (shutting down accretion) make specific predictions for the lifetimes distinct from those expected if AGN are simply gas starved (without feedback) and very different from simple phenomenological light bulb models. Present observations of the Eddington ratio distribution, spanning 5 decades in Eddington ratio, 3 in BH mass, and redshifts z=0-1, agree with the predictions of self-regulated models, and rule out light-bulb, pure exponential, and gas starvation models at high significance. We compare the Eddington ratio distributions at fixed BH mass and fixed luminosity (both are consistent, but the latter are much less constraining). We present empirical fits to the lifetime distribution and show how the Eddington ratio distributions place tight limits on AGN lifetimes at various luminosities. We use this to constrain the shape of the typical AGN lightcurve, and provide simple analytic fits. Given independent constraints on episodic lifetimes, most local BHs must have gained their mass in no more than a couple of bright episodes, in agreement with merger-driven fueling models.
We develop a model for the origins and redshift evolution of spheroid scaling relations. We consider spheroid sizes, velocity dispersions, masses, profile shapes (Sersic indices), and black hole (BH) masses, and their related scalings. Our approach c
ombines advantages of observational constraints in halo occupation models and hydrodynamic merger simulations. This allows us to separate the relative roles of dissipation, dry mergers, formation time, and progenitor evolution, and identify their effects on scalings at each redshift. Dissipation is the most important factor determining spheroid sizes and fundamental plane (FP) scalings, and can account for the FP tilt and differences between disk and spheroid scalings. Because disks at high-z have higher gas fractions, mergers are more gas-rich, yielding more compact spheroids. This predicts mass-dependent evolution in spheroid sizes, in agreement with observations. This relates to subtle evolution in the FP, important to studies that assume a fixed intrinsic FP. This also predicts mild evolution in BH-host correlations, towards larger BHs at higher z. Dry mergers are significant, but only for massive systems which form early: they form compact, but undergo dry mergers (consistent with observations) such that their sizes at later times are similar to spheroids of similar mass formed more recently. We model descendants of observed compact high-z spheroids: most will become cores of BCGs, with sizes, velocity dispersions, and BH masses consistent with observations, but we identify a fraction that might survive to z=0 intact.
Previous models of galactic disk heating in interactions invoke restrictive assumptions not necessarily valid in modern LCDM contexts: that satellites and orbits are rigid and circular, with slow decay over many orbital times from dynamical friction.
This leads to a linear scaling of disk heating with satellite mass: disk heights and velocity dispersions scale ~M_sat/M_disk. In turn, observed disk thicknesses present strong constraints on merger histories: the implication for the Milky Way is that <5% of its mass could come from mergers since z~2, in conflict with cosmological predictions. More realistically, satellites merge on nearly radial orbits, and once near the disk, resonant interactions efficiently remove angular momentum while tidal effects strip mass, leading to rapid merger/destruction in a couple of free-fall plunges. Under these conditions the proper heating efficiency is non-linear in mass ratio, ~(M_sat/M_disk)^2. We derive the scaling of disk scale heights and velocity dispersions as a function of mass ratio and disk gas content in this regime, and show this accurately describes the results of simulations with proper live halos and disks. Under realistic circumstances, disk heating in minor mergers is suppressed by an order of magnitude relative to expectations of previous models. We show that the Milky Way disk could have absorbed ~5-10 1:10 mass-ratio mergers since z=2, in agreement with cosmological models. These distinctions lead to dramatic differences in which mass ratios are most important for disk heating and in the isophotal shapes of disk+bulge systems.
We develop observational tests of the idea that dissipation in gas-rich mergers produces the fundamental plane (FP) and related correlations obeyed by ellipticals. The FP tilt implies lower-mass ellipticals have a higher ratio of stellar to dark matt
er within their stellar effective radii. Models argue that mergers between more gas-rich (typically lower-mass) disks yield larger mass fractions formed in compact starbursts, giving a smaller stellar R_e and higher M_stellar/M_tot within that R_e. Such starbursts leave a characteristic imprint in the surface brightness profile: a central excess above an outer profile established by the dissipationless violent relaxation of disk stars. In previous work, we developed empirical methods to decompose the observed profiles of ellipticals and robustly estimate the amount of dissipation in the original spheroid-forming merger(s). Applying this to a large sample of observed ellipticals, we test whether or not their location on the FP and its tilt are driven by dissipation. At fixed mass, ellipticals formed in more dissipational events are smaller and have higher M_stellar/M_tot. At fixed degree of dissipation, there is no tilt in the FP. We show that the dynamical mass estimator R_e*sigma^2/G is a good estimator of the true mass: the observed FP tilt cannot primarily owe to other forms of non-homology. Removing the effects of dissipation, observed ellipticals obey the same FP correlations as disks: unusual progenitors are not required to make typical ellipticals. Dissipation appears to be both necessary and sufficient to explain the FP tilt.
We investigate the relationship between the star formation rate (SFR) and dense molecular gas mass in the nuclei of galaxies. To do this, we utilize the observed 850 micron luminosity as a proxy for the infrared luminosity and SFR, and correlate this
with the observed CO (J=3-2) luminosity. We find tentative evidence that the LIR-CO (J=3-2) index is similar to the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) index (N ~ 1.5) in the central ~1.7 kpc of galaxies, and flattens to a roughly linear index when including emission from the entire galaxy. This result may imply that the volumetric Schmidt relation is the underlying driver behind the observed SFR-dense gas correlations, and provides tentative confirmation for recent numerical models. While the data exclude the possibility of a constant LIR-CO (J=3-2) index for both galaxy nuclei and global measurements at the ~80% confidence level, the considerable error bars cannot preclude alternative interpretations.
We study the origin and properties of extra or excess central light in the surface brightness profiles of gas-rich merger remnants. Combining a large set of hydrodynamical simulations with data on observed mergers (spanning a broad range of profiles
at various masses and degrees of relaxation), we show how to robustly separate the physically meaningful extra light -- stellar populations formed in a compact central starburst during a gas-rich merger -- from the outer profile established by violent relaxation acting on stars already present in the progenitors prior to the final merger. This separation is sensitive to the profile treatment, and we demonstrate that certain fitting procedures can yield physically misleading results. We show that our method reliably recovers the younger starburst population, and examine how the properties of this component scale with mass, gas content, and other aspects of the progenitors. We consider the time evolution of profiles in different bands, and estimate biases introduced by observational studies at different times and wavelengths. We show that extra light is ubiquitous in observed and simulated gas-rich merger remnants, with sufficient mass (~3-30% of the stellar mass) to explain the discrepancy in the maximum phase-space densities of ellipticals and their progenitor spirals. The nature of this central component provides powerful new constraints on the formation histories of observed systems.
We study observed correlations between supermassive black hole (BHs) and the properties of their host galaxies, and show that the observations define a BH fundamental plane (BHFP), of the form M_BH sigma^(3.0+-0.3)*R_e^(0.43+-0.19), or M_BH M_bulge^(
0.54+-0.17)*sigma^(2.2+-0.5), analogous to the FP of elliptical galaxies. The BHFP is preferred over a simple relation between M_BH and any of sigma, M_bulge, M_dyn, or R_e alone at >99.9% significance. The existence of this BHFP has important implications for the formation of supermassive BHs and the masses of the very largest black holes, and immediately resolves several apparent conflicts between the BH masses expected and measured for outliers in both the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-M_bulge relations.
