Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21537603o&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #376.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.584
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Using cosmological hydrodynamic simulations including observationally-constrained prescriptions for galactic outflows, we show that material previously ejected in winds provides the dominant source of gas infall for new star formation over the latter half of cosmic time. This wind recycling accretion, or wind mode, provides a third physically distinct accretion channel in addition to hot mode and cold mode accretion. Owing to the interaction between outflows and gas in and around halos, the recycling timescale of wind material (trec) is shorter in higher-mass systems. We find that such differential recycling centrally governs the shape of the present-day galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF), in the sense that the amount of wind mode at a given halo mass is directly reflected in the galaxy stellar masses formed within that halo. Our favored momentum-conserving wind scalings yield a GSMF that is broadly in agreement with observations, while other models do not. If we explicitly ignore wind mode, all GSMFs have faint-end slopes much steeper than observed, similar to the halo mass function, though different outflow models add unique features to the GSMF. Outflows also add energy to surrounding gas that can curtail accretion, but we show that this is not able to quench star formation in massive systems as observed, so another quenching mechanism such as AGN feedback is likely required. The amount of such quenching feedback remains uncertain owing to numerical difficulties in modeling cold material moving through hot halos, which tend to exaggerate wind recycling in massive galaxies. In short, as has long been anticipated, the form of the GSMF is governed by outflows; the unexpected twist here is that it is not primarily the ejection of material but more importantly how ejected material is re-accreted, i.e. wind mode, that governs the GSMF.
Dav'e Romeel
Keres Dusan
Oppenheimer Benjamin Darwin
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