Day 1572

Thursday.

1905.08799
Revealing the galaxy-halo connection in IllustrisTNG
Bose, Eisenstein, et al

We use the IllustrisTNG (TNG) simulations to explore the galaxy-halo connection as inferred from state-of-the-art cosmological, magnetohydrodynamical simulations. With the high mass resolution and large volume achieved by combining the 100 Mpc (TNG100) and 300 Mpc (TNG300) volumes, we establish the mean occupancy of central and satellite galaxies and their dependence on the properties of the dark matter haloes hosting them. We derive best-fitting HOD parameters from TNG100 and TNG300 for target galaxy number densities of $\bar{n}_g = 0.032\,h^3$Mpc$^{-3}$ and $\bar{n}_g = 0.016\,h^3$Mpc$^{-3}$, respectively, corresponding to a minimum galaxy stellar mass of $M_\star\sim1.9\times10^9\,{\rm M}_\odot$ and $M_\star\sim3.5\times10^9\,{\rm M}_\odot$, respectively, in hosts more massive than $10^{11}\,{\rm M}_\odot$. Consistent with previous work, we find that haloes located in dense environments, with low concentrations, later formation times, and high angular momenta are richest in their satellite population. At low mass, highly-concentrated haloes and those located in overdense regions are more likely to contain a central galaxy. The degree of environmental dependence is sensitive to the definition adopted for the physical boundary of the host halo. We examine the extent to which correlations between galaxy occupancy and halo properties are independent and demonstrate that HODs predicted by halo mass and present-day concentration capture the qualitative dependence on the remaining halo properties. At fixed halo mass, concentration is a strong predictor of the stellar mass of the central galaxy, which may play a defining role in the fate of the satellite population. The radial distribution of satellite galaxies, which exhibits a universal form across a wide range of host halo mass, is described accurately by the best-fit NFW density profile of their host haloes.

1905.08803

The Galactic mid plane is not a plane: implications for dynamical analysis with Gaia data and beyond

Beane, et al

Orbital properties of stars, computed from their six-dimensional phase space measurements and an assumed Galactic potential, are used to understand the structure and evolution of the Galaxy. Stellar actions, computed from orbits, have the attractive quality of being invariant under certain assumptions and are therefore used as quantitative labels of a star's orbit. We report a subtle but important systematic error that is induced in the actions as a consequence of local midplane variations expected for the Milky Way. This error is difficult to model because it is non-Gaussian and bimodal, with neither mode peaking on the null value. An offset in the vertical position of the Galactic midplane of $\sim15\,\text{pc}$ for a thin disk-like orbit or $\sim 120\,\text{pc}$ for a thick disk-like orbit induces a $25\%$ systematic error in the vertical action $J_z$. In FIRE simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies, these variations are on the order of $\sim100\,\text{pc}$ at the solar circle. From observations of the mean vertical velocity variation of $\sim5\text{--}10\,\text{km}\,\text{s}^{-1}$ with radius, we estimate that the Milky Way midplane variations are $\sim60\text{--}170\,\text{pc}$, consistent with three-dimensional dust maps. Action calculations and orbit integrations, which assume the global and local midplanes are identical, are likely to include this induced error, depending on the volume considered. Variation in the local standard of rest or distance to the Galactic center causes similar issues. The variation of the midplane must be taken into account when performing dynamical analysis across the large regions of the disk accessible to Gaia and future missions.

1905.08892

From Centaurs to comets - 40 years

Pixinho, et al

In 1977, while Apple II and Atari computers were being sold, a tiny dot was observed in an inconvenient orbit. The minor body 1977 UB, to be named (2060) Chiron, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, became the first Centaur, a new class of minor bodies orbiting roughly between Jupiter and Neptune. The observed overabundance of short-period comets lead to the downfall of the Oort Cloud as exclusive source of comets and to the rise of the need for a Trans-Neptunian comet belt. Centaurs were rapidly seen as the transition phase between Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), also known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and the Jupiter-Family Comets (JFCs). Since then, a lot more has been discovered about Centaurs: they can have cometary activity and outbursts, satellites, and even rings. Over the past four decades since the discovery of the first Centaur, rotation periods, surface colors, reflectivity spectra and albedos have been measured and analyzed. However, despite such a large number of studies and complementary techniques, the Centaur population remains a mystery as they are in so many ways different from the TNOs and even more so from the JFCs.

1905.08951

Globular cluster formation from colliding substructure

Madau, et al

We investigate a scenario where the formation of Globular Clusters (GCs) is triggered by high-speed collisions between infalling atomic-cooling subhalos during the assembly of the main galaxy host, a special dynamical mode of star formation that operates at high gas pressures and is intimately tied to LCDM hierarchical galaxy assembly. The proposed mechanism would give origin to "naked" globulars, as colliding dark matter subhalos and their stars will simply pass through one another while the warm gas within them clashes at highly supersonic speed and decouples from the collisionless component, in a process reminiscent of the Bullet galaxy cluster. We find that the resulting shock-compressed layer cools on a timescale that is tipically shorter than the crossing time, first by atomic line emission and then via fine-structure metal-line emission, and is subject to gravitational instability and fragmentation. Through a combination of kinetic theory approximation and high-resolution N-body simulations, we show that this model may produce: (a) a GC number-halo mass relation that is linear down to dwarf galaxy scales and agrees with the trend observed over five orders of magnitude in galaxy mass; (b) a population of old globulars with a median age of 12 Gyr and an age spread similar to that observed; (c) a spatial distribution that is biased relative to the overall mass profile of the host. This is because, in an inelastic collision, the splash remnant will lose orbital energy and fall deeper into the Galactic potential rather than sharing the orbits of the progenitor subhalos; and (d) a bimodal metallicity distribution with a spread similar to that observed in massive galaxies. Additional, hydrodynamic simulations of subhalo-subhalo high-speed impacts should be performed to further validate a collision-driven scenario for the formation of GCs.

1905.08991

Weak lensing measurement of filamentary structure with the SDSS BOSS and Subr Hyper Suprime-Cam Data

Kondo, et al

We report the weak lensing measurement of filaments between Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III/Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) CMASS galaxy pairs at $z\sim0.55$, using the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) first-year galaxy shape catalogue. Despite of the small overlap of $140$ deg$^2$ between these surveys we detect the filament lensing signal at 3.9$\sigma$ significance, which is the highest signal-to-noise lensing measurement of filaments between galaxy-scale halos at this redshift range. We derive a theoretical prediction and covariance using mock catalogues based on full-sky ray-tracing simulations. We find that the intrinsic scatter of filament properties and the fluctuations in large scale structure along the line-of-sight are the primary component of the covariance and the intrinsic shape noise from source galaxies no longer limits our lensing measurement. This fact demonstrates the statistical power of the HSC survey due to its deep observations and high number density of source galaxies. Our result is consistent with the theoretical prediction and supports the "thick" filament model. As the HSC survey area increases, we will be able to study detailed filament properties such as the dark matter distributions and redshift evolution of filaments.

1905.08993

Morphological diversity of spiral galaxies originating int the cold gas inflow from cosmic webs

Noguchi

Spiral galaxies comprise three major structural components; thin discs, thick discs, and central bulges. Relative dominance of these components is known to correlate with the total mass of the galaxy, and produces a remarkable morphological variety of spiral galaxies. Although there are many formation scenarios regarding individual components, no unified theory exists which explains this systematic variation. The cold-flow hypothesis predicts that galaxies grow by accretion of cold gas from cosmic webs (cold accretion) when their mass is below a certain threshold, whereas in the high-mass regime the gas that entered the dark matter halo is first heated by shock waves to high temperatures and then accretes to the forming galaxy as it cools emitting radiation (cooling flow). This hypothesis also predicts that massive galaxies at high redshifts have a hybrid accretion structure in which filaments of cold inflowing gas penetrate surrounding hot gas. In the case of Milky Way, the previous study suggested that the cold accretion created its thick disc in early times and the cooling flow formed the thin disc in later epochs. Here we report that extending this idea to galaxies with various masses and associating the hybrid accretion with the formation of bulges reproduces the observed mass-dependent structures of spiral galaxies: namely, more massive galaxies have lower thick disc mass fractions and higher bulge mass fractions. The proposed scenario predicts that thick discs are older in age and poorer in iron than thin discs, the trend observed in the Milky Way (MW) and other spiral galaxies.