Galaxy Formation at Different Epochs and in Different Environments: Comparison with Observational Data
| Project | GALFOBS |
| Research Area | Astrophysics |
| Principal Investigator(s) | Rosa Dominguez-Tenreiro |
| Institution(s) |
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Abstract
One of the main challenges for astronomers and cosmologists is to understand how galaxies have formed and evolved, from tiny density perturbations shortly after the Bing-Bang, until they acquired the properties of the adult galaxies we observe today. We can now afford this challenge by studying this problem in a cosmological context by means of hydrodynamical simulations that combine high spatial and temporal resolution on large enough computational volumes with a careful modelling of physical processes acting on sub-resolution scales.
In this project we plan to run high-resolution simulations using P-DEVA, an AP3M-SPH code designed to accurately follow the physical processes that are relevant at galactic scales, both from the point of view of the conservation laws and the novel and sophisticated modelling of sub-resolution processes like chemical evolution (a probabilistic algorithm using the Qij matrix formalism), metal-dependent cooling and feedback. The aim of these simulations is to study:
1) Generic statistical properties of galaxies, such as: their mass and luminosity functions, the age distributions of their stellar populations, their metal composition and the spatial distribution of their different metal components. For each of these issues, we plan to study the dependence on environment, on morphological type and evolution with redshift.
2) Specific details concerning individual galaxies, such as a) the physics of disk formation, stability and evolution, b) the physics of bulge formation and evolution; and c) the physics of satellite and dwarf galaxies, and their relationship with their host galaxies. We will analyze structural, dynamical, thermohydrodynamical and chemical aspects, as well as mutual interplays.
3) Comparison with observational data at high, intermediate and low redshifts using, at any redshift, synthetic images of virtual objects based on their spectral energy distributions. We will pay particular attention to obscured star formation and its relationship with its observational manifestations.
