Cosmological Studies of Galaxy Formation including\\Hydrodynamics

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Session 13 -- Large Scale Structure
Oral presentation, Monday, 10:30-12:00, Zellerbach Playhouse Room

[13.01] Cosmological Studies of Galaxy Formation including\\Hydrodynamics

F J Summers (UC Berkeley)

Numerical simulations of galaxy formation typically have modelled either the isolated collapse of a single galaxy or the large scale evolution of a dark matter fluid. This work bridges these approaches with simulations designed to follow individual galaxy formation within a cosmological scenario. Two particle fluids, dark matter and baryonic, are used in high resolution simulations ($2.6\times10^5$ particles per species) with wide dynamic range (roughly 10 kpc to 10 Mpc). In addition to gravity, gas physics is incorporated via smoothed particle hydrodynamics and includes thermal pressure, shock heating, radiative cooling, and star formation with energy feedback. Major results include: the identification of three distinct phases in the gas medium; detailed merger histories of simulated galaxies, including a resolution to the dark matter ``overmerger'' problem; the first confirmation that galactic disks do result from hierarchical structure formation; discussion of the spatial and kinematic biases of galaxies relative to the dark matter; and an examination of the effects of star formation and feedback on the galaxy formation process.

Monday program listing