We investigate the effects of ram pressure on the molecular ISM in the disk of the Coma cluster galaxy NGC 4921, via high resolution CO observations. We present 6 resolution CARMA CO(1-0) observations of the full disk, and 0.4 resolution ALMA CO(2-1)
observations of the leading quadrant, where ram pressure is strongest. We find evidence for compression of the dense interstellar medium (ISM) on the leading side, spatially correlated with intense star formation activity in this zone. We also detect molecular gas along kiloparsec-scale filaments of dust extending into the otherwise gas stripped zone of the galaxy, seen in HST images. We find the filaments are connected kinematically as well as spatially to the main gas ridge located downstream, consistent with cloud decoupling inhibited by magnetic binding, and inconsistent with a simulated filament formed via simple ablation. Furthermore, we find several clouds of molecular gas $sim 1-3$ kpc beyond the main ring of CO that have velocities which are blueshifted by up to 50 km s$^{-1}$ with respect to the rotation curve of the galaxy. These are some of the only clouds we detect that do not have any visible dust extinction associated with them, suggesting that they are located behind the galaxy disk midplane and are falling back towards the galaxy. Simulations have long predicted that some gas removed from the galaxy disk will fall back during ram pressure stripping. This may be the first clear observational evidence of gas re-accretion in a ram pressure stripped galaxy.
The simplest scheme for predicting real galaxy properties after performing a dark matter simulation is to rank order the real systems by stellar mass and the simulated systems by halo mass and then simply assume monotonicity - that the more massive h
alos host the more massive galaxies. This has had some success, but we study here if a better motivated and more accurate matching scheme is easily constructed by looking carefully at how well one could predict the simulated IllustrisTNG galaxy sample from its dark matter computations. We find that using the dark matter rotation curve peak velocity, $v_{max}$, for normal galaxies reduces the error of the prediction by 30% (18% for central galaxies and 60% for satellite systems) - following expectations from Faber-Jackson and the physics of monolithic collapse. For massive systems with halo mass $>$ 10$^{12.5}$ M$_{odot}$ hierarchical merger driven formation is the better model and dark matter halo mass remains the best single metric. Using a new single variable that combines these effects, $phi$ $=$ $v_{max}$/$v_{max,12.7}$ + M$_{peak}$/(10$^{12.7}$ M$_{odot}$) allows further improvement and reduces the error, as compared to ranking by dark matter mass at $z=0$ by another 6% from $v_{max}$ ranking. Two parameter fits -- including environmental effects produce only minimal further impact.
Ram Pressure Stripping can remove gas from satellite galaxies in clusters via a direct interaction between the intracluster medium (ICM) and the interstellar medium. This interaction is generally thought of as a contact force per area, however we poi
nt out that these gases must interact in a hydrodynamic fashion, and argue that this will lead to mixing of the galactic gas with the ICM wind. We develop an analytic framework for how mixing is related to the acceleration of stripped gas from a satellite galaxy. We then test this model using three wind-tunnel simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies interacting with a moving ICM, and find excellent agreement with predictions using the analytic framework. Focusing on the dense clumps in the stripped tails, we find that they are nearly uniformly mixed with the ICM, indicating that all gas in the tail mixes with the surroundings, and dense clumps are not separate entities to be modeled differently than diffuse gas. We find that while mixing drives acceleration of stripped gas, the density and velocity of the surrounding wind will determine whether the mixing results in the heating of stripped gas into the ICM, or the cooling of the ICM into dense clouds.
We investigate the importance of varying the ram pressure to more realistically mimic the infall of a cluster satellite galaxy when comparing ram pressure stripping simulations to observations. We examine the gas disk and tail properties of stripped
cluster galaxies in eight wind-tunnel hydrodynamical simulations with either varying or constant ram pressure strength. In simulations without radiative cooling, applying a varying wind leads to significantly different density and velocity structure in the tail than found when applying a constant wind, although the stripping rate, disk mass, and disk radius remain consistent in both scenarios. In simulations with radiative cooling, the differences between a constant and varying wind are even more pronounced. Not only is there a difference in morphology and velocity structure in the tails, but a varying wind leads to a much lower stripping rate, even after the varying wind has reached the ram pressure strength of the constant wind. Also, galaxies in constant and varying wind simulations with the same gas disk mass do not have in the same gas disk radius. A constant wind cannot appropriately model the ram pressure stripping of a galaxy entering a cluster. We conclude that simulations attempting detailed comparisons with observations must take the variation of the ram pressure profile due to a galaxys orbit into consideration.
Based on MUSE data from the GASP survey, we study the Halpha-emitting extraplanar tails of 16 cluster galaxies at z~0.05 undergoing ram pressure stripping. We demonstrate that the dominating ionization mechanism of this gas (between 64% and 94% of th
e Halpha emission in the tails depending on the diagnostic diagram used) is photoionization by young massive stars due to ongoing star formation (SF) taking place in the stripped tails. This SF occurs in dynamically quite cold HII clumps with a median Halpha velocity dispersion sigma = 27 km s^-1. We study the characteristics of over 500 star-forming clumps in the tails and find median values of Halpha luminosity L_{Halpha} = 4 X 10^38 erg s^-1, dust extinction A_V=0.5 mag, star formation rate SFR=0.003 M_sun yr^-1, ionized gas density n_e =52 cm^-3, ionized gas mass M_gas = 4 X 10^4 Msun, and stellar mass M_{*} = 3 X 10^6 Msun. The tail clumps follow scaling relations (M_gas-M_{*}, L_{Halpha} -sigma, SFR-M_gas) similar to disk clumps, and their stellar masses are comparable to Ultra Compact Dwarfs and Globular Clusters.The diffuse gas component in the tails is ionized by a combination of SF and composite/LINER-like emission likely due to thermal conduction or turbulence. The stellar photoionization component of the diffuse gas can be due either to leakage of ionizing photons from the HII clumps with an average escape fraction of 18%, or lower luminosity HII regions that we cannot individually identify.
The connection between dark matter halos and galactic baryons is often not well-constrained nor well-resolved in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Thus, Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) models that assign galaxies to halos based on halo mass
are frequently used to interpret clustering observations, even though it is well-known that the assembly history of dark matter halos is related to their clustering. In this paper we use high-resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulations to compare the halo and stellar mass growth of galaxies in a large-scale overdensity to those in a large-scale underdensity (on scales of about 20 Mpc). The simulation reproduces assembly bias, that halos have earlier formation times in overdense environments than in underdense regions. We find that the stellar mass to halo mass ratio is larger in overdense regions in central galaxies residing in halos with masses between 10$^{11}$-10$^{12.9}$ M$_{odot}$. When we force the local density (within 2 Mpc) at z=0 to be the same for galaxies in the large-scale over- and underdensities, we find the same results. We posit that this difference can be explained by a combination of earlier formation times, more interactions at early times with neighbors, and more filaments feeding galaxies in overdense regions. This result puts the standard practice of assigning stellar mass to halos based only on their mass, rather than considering their larger environment, into question.
Recent large surveys have found a reversal of the star formation rate (SFR)-density relation at z=1 from that at z=0 (e.g. Elbaz et al.; Cooper et al.), while the sign of the slope of the color-density relation remains unchanged (e.g. Cucciati et al.
; Quadri et al.). We use state-of-the-art adaptive mesh refinement cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of a 21x24x20 (Mpc/h)$^3$ region centered on a cluster to examine the SFR-density and color-density relations of galaxies at z=0 and z=1. The local environmental density is defined by the dark matter mass in spheres of radius 1 Mpc/h, and we probe two decades of environmental densities. Our simulations produce a large increase of SFR with density at z=1, as in the observations of Elbaz et al. We also find a significant evolution to z=0, where the SFR-density relation is much flatter. The color-density relation in our simulations is consistent from z=1 to z=0, in agreement with observations. We find that the increase in the median SFR with local density at z=1 is due to a growing population of star-forming galaxies in higher-density environments. At z=0 and z=1 both the SFR and cold gas mass are tightly correlated with the galaxy halo mass, and therefore the correlation between median halo mass and local density is an important cause of the SFR-density relation at both redshifts. We also show that the local density on 1 Mpc/h scales affects galaxy SFRs as much as halo mass at z=0. Finally, we find indications that the role of the 1 Mpc/h scale environment reverses from z=0 to z=1: at z=0 high-density environments depress galaxy SFRs, while at z=1 high-density environments tend to increase SFRs.
Galaxies moving through the intracluster medium (ICM) of a cluster of galaxies can lose gas via ram pressure stripping. This stripped gas forms a tail behind the galaxy which is potentially observable. In this paper, we carry out hydrodynamical simul
ations of a galaxy undergoing stripping with a focus on the gas properties in the wake and their observational signatures. We include radiative cooling in an adaptive hydrocode in order to investigate the impact of a clumpy, multi-phase interstellar medium. We find that including cooling results in a very different morphology for the gas in the tail, with a much wider range of temperatures and densities. The tail is significantly narrower in runs with radiative cooling, in agreement with observed wakes. In addition, we make detailed predictions of H I, Halpha and X-ray emission for the wake, showing that we generally expect detectable H I and Halpha signatures, but no observable X-ray emission (at least for our chosen ram-pressure strength and ICM conditions). We find that the relative strength of the Halpha diagnostic depends somewhat on our adopted minimum temperature floor (below which we set cooling to zero to mimic physics processes not included in the simulation).
