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Galaxy formation hydrodynamics: From cosmic flows to star-forming clouds

2010/05/01 by F. Bournaud, Frederic Bournaud · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #COSMIC cancer database #Elliptical galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Galaxy merger #Lenticular galaxy #Peculiar galaxy #Physics #Redshift #Star formation #Structure formation #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s174392131100086x

published in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 6(S270), 491-498 (Cambridge University Press) · To appear in the proceedings for IAU Symposium 270: Computational Star Formation (eds. Alves, Elmegreen, Girart, Trimble)

openalex publication_date 2010/05/01 · arxiv created 2010/09/01 · arxiv updated 2015/05/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Abstract Major progress has been made over the last few years in understanding hydrodynamical processes on cosmological scales, in particular how galaxies get their baryons. There is increasing recognition that a large part of the baryons accrete smoothly onto galaxies, and that internal evolution processes play a major role in shaping galaxies – mergers are not necessarily the dominant process. However, predictions from the various assembly mechanisms are still in large disagreement with the observed properties of galaxies in the nearby Universe. Small-scale processes have a major impact on the global evolution of galaxies over a Hubble time and the usual sub-grid models account for them in a far too uncertain way. Understanding when, where and at which rate galaxies formed their stars becomes crucial to understand the formation of galaxy populations. I discuss recent improvements and current limitations in “resolved” modeling of star formation, aiming at explicitly capturing star-forming instabilities, in cosmological and galaxy-sized simulations. Such models need to develop three-dimensional turbulence in the ISM, which requires parsec-scale resolution at redshift zero.

Citations