2005/08/31 by C. B. Brook, D. Kawata, H. Martel +2
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/499154
published as Astrophys.J.639:126-135,2006 · accepted version, to appear in ApJ 01 March 2006, v639
arxiv created 2005/10/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Increasingly large populations of disk galaxies are now being observed at increasingly high redshifts, providing new constraints on our knowledge of how such galaxies evolve. Are these observations consistent with a cosmology in which structures form hierarchically? To probe this question, we employ SPH/N-body galaxy scale simulations of late-type galaxies. We examine the evolution of these simulated disk galaxies from redshift 1 to 0, looking at the mass-size and luminosity-size relations, and the thickness parameter, defined as the ratio of scale-height to scale-length. The structural parameters of our simulated disks settle down quickly, and after redshift z=1 the galaxies evolve to become only slightly flatter. Our present day simulated galaxies are larger, more massive, less bright, and redder than at z=1. The inside-out nature of the growth of our simulated galaxies reduces, and perhaps eliminates, expectations of evolution in the size-mass relation.