Star Formation, Supernova Feedback, and the Angular Momentum Problem in Numerical Cold Dark Matter Cosmogony: Halfway There?

We present a smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulation that reproduces a galaxy that is a moderate facsimile of those observed. The primary failing point of previous simulations of disk formation, namely, excessive transport of angular momentum from gas to dark matter, is ameliorated by the inclusion of a supernova feedback algorithm that allows energy to persist in the model interstellar medium for a period corresponding to the lifetime of stellar associations. The inclusion of feedback leads to a disk at a redshift z = 0.52, with a specific angular momentum content within 10% of the value required to fit observations. An exponential fit to the disk baryon surface density gives a scale length within 17% of the theoretical value. Runs without feedback, with or without star formation, exhibit the drastic angular momentum transport observed elsewhere.

[1]  Optical Rotation Curves and Linewidths for Tully-Fisher Applications , 1997, astro-ph/9709201.

[2]  P. Tissera,et al.  Dark Matter Halo Structure in CDM Hydrodynamical Simulations , 1998, astro-ph/9801116.

[3]  P. Tissera,et al.  Disk Formation in Hierarchical Hydrodynamical Simulations:A Way Out of the Angular Momentum Catastrophe , 1998, astro-ph/9809312.

[4]  D. Mathewson,et al.  A southern sky survey of the peculiar velocities of 1355 spiral galaxies , 1992 .

[5]  J. Sommer-Larsen,et al.  Formation of Disk Galaxies: Warm Dark Matter and the Angular Momentum Problem , 1999, astro-ph/9912166.

[6]  A. Evrard,et al.  Two-Fluid Simulations of Galaxy Formation , 1994 .

[7]  J. R. Bond,et al.  Cosmic background radiation anisotropies in universes dominated by nonbaryonic dark matter , 1984 .

[8]  S. White Formation and Evolution of Galaxies , 1996 .

[9]  Shude Mao,et al.  The formation of galactic discs , 1997 .

[10]  Formation and Evolution of Galaxies: Les Houches Lectures , 1994, astro-ph/9410043.

[11]  S. M. Fall Galaxy Formation: Some Comparisons Between Theory and Observation , 1983 .

[12]  J. Navarro,et al.  Dynamics of Cooling Gas in Galactic Dark Halos , 1991 .

[13]  George Lake,et al.  Dark Matter Substructure within Galactic Halos , 1999, astro-ph/9907411.

[14]  Two-body heating in numerical galaxy formation experiments , 1996, astro-ph/9609021.

[15]  S. M. Fall,et al.  Formation and rotation of disc galaxies with haloes , 1980 .

[16]  A. Ferrara,et al.  Starburst-driven Mass Loss from Dwarf Galaxies: Efficiency and Metal Ejection , 1998, astro-ph/9801237.

[17]  N. Gnedin Local Group Dwarf Galaxies and the Star Formation Law at High Redshift , 2000, The Astrophysical journal.

[18]  R. Thacker,et al.  Implementing Feedback in Simulations of Galaxy Formation: A Survey of Methods , 2000, astro-ph/0001276.

[19]  Carlos S. Frenk,et al.  Galaxy formation through hierarchical clustering , 1991 .

[20]  Neal Katz,et al.  Dissipational galaxy formation. II - Effects of star formation , 1992 .

[21]  The dark matter problem in disc galaxies , 2000, astro-ph/0003199.

[22]  E. Athanassoula Internal Kinematics and Dynamics of Galaxies , 1983 .

[23]  M. Steinmetz,et al.  Dark Halo and Disk Galaxy Scaling Laws in Hierarchical Universes , 2000, astro-ph/0001003.

[24]  S. White,et al.  Simulations of dissipative galaxy formation in hierarchically clustering universes – I: Tests of the code , 1993 .

[25]  H. M. P. Couchman,et al.  Simulating the formation of a cluster of galaxies , 1992 .

[26]  S. Gelato,et al.  Formation of Disk Galaxies: Feedback and the Angular Momentum Problem , 1998, astro-ph/9801094.