2010/01/04 by Martin Stringer, M. J. Stringer, Alyson Brooks +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Active galactic nucleus #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Classical mechanics #Field (mathematics) #Focus (optics) #Galactic halo #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Halo #Physics #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16944.x
15 pages, 15 figures
arxiv created 2010/01/04 · openalex publication_date 2010/07/15 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Recent focus on the importance of cold, unshocked gas accretion in galaxy formation – not explicitly included in semi-analytic studies – motivates the following detailed comparison between two inherently different modelling techniques: direct hydrodynamical simulation and semi-analytic modelling. By analysing the physical assumptions built into the gasoline simulation, formulae for the emergent behaviour are derived which allow immediate and accurate translation of these assumptions to the galform semi-analytic model. The simulated halo merger history is then extracted and evolved using these equivalent equations, predicting a strikingly similar galactic system. This exercise demonstrates that it is the initial conditions and physical assumptions which are responsible for the predicted evolution, not the choice of modelling technique. On this level playing field, a previously publishedgalform model is applied (including additional physics such as chemical enrichment and feedback from active galactic nuclei) which leads to starkly different predictions.