NIHAO project – I. Reproducing the inefficiency of galaxy formation across cosmic time with a large sample of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations

2015/03/31 by Liang Wang, Aaron A. Dutton, Gregory S. Stinson +6 · 8 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #COSMIC cancer database #Dwarf galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Milky Way #Physics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Smoothed-particle hydrodynamics #Star formation #Stellar mass #Virial theorem #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1937

14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

arxiv created 2015/08/19 · openalex publication_date 2015/09/17 · arxiv updated 2016/11/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We introduce project Nihao (Numerical Investigation of a Hundred Astrophysical Objects), a set of 100 cosmological zoom-in hydrodynamical simulations performed using the gasoline code, with an improved implementation of the SPH algorithm. The haloes in our study range from dwarf (M200 ∼ 5 × 109 M⊙) to Milky Way (M200 ∼ 2 × 1012 M⊙) masses, and represent an unbiased sampling of merger histories, concentrations and spin parameters. The particle masses and force softenings are chosen to resolve the mass profile to below 1 per cent of the virial radius at all masses, ensuring that galaxy half-light radii are well resolved. Using the same treatment of star formation and stellar feedback for every object, the simulated galaxies reproduce the observed inefficiency of galaxy formation across cosmic time as expressed through the stellar mass versus halo mass relation, and the star formation rate versus stellar mass relation. We thus conclude that stellar feedback is the chief piece of physics required to limit the efficiency of star formation in galaxies less massive than the Milky Way.

Citations

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Cited by

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• NIHAO – XI. Formation of ultra-diffuse galaxies by outflows
• The response of dark matter haloes to elliptical galaxy formation: a new test for quenching scenarios
• A dark matter profile to model diverse feedback-induced core sizes of ΛCDM haloes
• NIHAO XXIV: rotation- or pressure-supported systems? Simulated Ultra Diffuse Galaxies show a broad distribution in their stellar kinematics
• GalaxyNet: connecting galaxies and dark matter haloes with deep neural networks and reinforcement learning in large volumes
• Properties of H i discs in the Auriga cosmological simulations
• Connecting and dissecting galaxies’ angular momenta and neutral gas in a hierarchical universe: cue Dark Sage