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Kinematic Evolution of Simulated Star-Forming GalaxiesRecent observations have shown that star-forming galaxies like our own Milky Way evolve kinematically into ordered thin disks over the last approximately 8 billion years since z = 1.2, undergoing a process of "disk settling." For the first time, we study the kinematic evolution of a suite of four state of the art "zoom in" hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation and evolution in a fully cosmological context and compare with these observations. Until now, robust measurements of the internal kinematics of simulated galaxies were lacking as the simulations suffered from low resolution, overproduction of stars, and overly massive bulges. The current generation of simulations has made great progress in overcoming these difficulties and is ready for a kinematic analysis. We show that simulated galaxies follow the same kinematic trends as real galaxies: they progressively decrease in disordered motions (sigma(sub g)) and increase in ordered rotation (V(sub rot)) with time. The slopes of the relations between both sigma(sub g) and V(sub rot) with redshift are consistent between the simulations and the observations. In addition, the morphologies of the simulated galaxies become less disturbed with time, also consistent with observations. This match between the simulated and observed trends is a significant success for the current generation of simulations, and a first step in determining the physical processes behind disk settling.
Document ID
20140017318
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Kassin, Susan A. (Space Telescope Science Inst. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Brooks, Alyson (Rutgers Univ. Piscataway, NJ, United States)
Governato, Fabio (Washington Univ. Seattle, WA, United States)
Weiner, Benjamin J. (Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Gardner, Jonathan P. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Date Acquired
December 11, 2014
Publication Date
January 16, 2014
Publication Information
Publisher: The Astrophysical Journal
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN13081
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF Grant AST-0607819
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Evolution
Simulated
Kinematic

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