2018/10/31 by Claudia del P. Lagos, Lagos, Claudia del P.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1810.13074
Invited review at Focus Meeting "Galactic Angular Momentum" IAU GA Vienna 2018; to appear in IAU GA proceedings
arxiv created 2018/10/31 · arxiv updated 2018/11/01
Until a decade ago, galaxy formation simulations were unable to simultaneously reproduce the observed angular momentum (AM) of galaxy disks and bulges. Improvements in the interstellar medium and stellar feedback modelling, together with advances in computational capabilities, have allowed the current generation of cosmological galaxy formation simulations to reproduce the diversity of AM and morphology that is observed in local galaxies. In this review I discuss where we currently stand in this area from the perspective of hydrodynamical simulations, specifically how galaxies gain their AM, and the effect galaxy mergers and gas accretion have on this process. I discuss results which suggest that a revision of the classical theory of disk formation is needed, and finish by discussing what the current challenges are.