宇宙大尺度结构空洞的演化研究

为了研究空洞的演化以及暗物质空洞和星系空洞的差别,使用一组高精度的N体模拟数据以及基于此给出的半解析模拟星系数据,在红移2.03到红移0之间取了6个红移的数据,并使用VIDE (Void Identification and Examination toolkit)算法来找空洞,对星系空洞和暗物质空洞的统计性质比如丰度、数目、大小、形状、叠加密度轮廓等演化的比较的结果表明,随着红移的减小,空洞的数目逐渐减少、内部密度逐渐变小、体积逐渐增大、空洞的形状越来越扁.暗物质空洞和星系空洞的数目、平均大小、平均椭率的比值与红移呈线性关系.此外,不论是暗物质空洞还是星系空洞,小的空洞密度比在分布上比大空洞的低,更容易贯通并合,演化效应更明显.另外由于星系总是形成于暗物质密度场的高密度区域,使其不容易示踪暗物质空洞的一些薄弱的墙结构,导致星系空洞提前贯通.而对于已经形成的星系空洞而言,即便是其墙上最薄弱的地方也往往堆积着显著的暗物质,使得星系的位置保持稳定,甚至形成新的星系,从而抑制星系空洞的贯通.整体上暗物质空洞的演化要比星系空洞的演化更加明显.     

红移畸变对宇宙学空洞的影响

为探索红移畸变对空洞性质的影响, 利用了一组星系形成半解析模拟星表数据, 采用VIDE (Void Identification and Examination toolkit)算法寻找真实空间和红移空间的宇宙学空洞, 根据空洞外围墙结构处的星系运动速度将空洞分为``塌缩型''和``膨胀型''. 结果表明: ``塌缩型''空洞所占比例会随着空洞的尺度变大而减少, ``膨胀型''空洞则与之相反, 两类空洞的平均有效半径在实空间中相差20%, ``塌缩型''空洞的平均径向密度轮廓显著高于``膨胀型''空洞. 利用成员星系将两种空间中的空洞进行匹配, 通过比较实空间和红移空间中空洞的数目分布, 发现实空间和红移空间中空洞的数目差异与空洞大小有关, 并且红移空间中有一半左右的空洞无法对应到实空间. 对匹配空洞, 红移畸变对``塌缩型''空洞的密度影响更大; 对未匹配空洞, 其密度轮廓与匹配空洞存在明显区别, 并且实空间中未匹配空洞其壳层星系向空洞内部运动的趋势更加明显.     

Where do 'red and dead' early-type void galaxies come from?

Void regions of the Universe offer a special environment for studying cosmology and galaxy formation, which may expose weaknesses in our understanding of these phenomena. Although galaxies in voids are observed to be predominately gas rich, star forming and blue, a subpopulation of bright-red void galaxies can also be found, whose star formation was shutdown long ago. Are the same processes that quench star formation in denser regions of the Universe also at work in voids?
We compare the luminosity function of void galaxies in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, to those from a galaxy formation model built on the Millennium simulation. We show that a global star formation suppression mechanism in the form of low-luminosity 'radio-mode' active galactic nuclei (AGN) heating is sufficient to reproduce the observed population of void early types. Radio-mode heating is environment independent other than its dependence on dark matter halo mass, where, above a critical mass threshold of approximately   M _vir∼ 10^12.5 M_⊙  , gas cooling on to the galaxy is suppressed and star formation subsequently fades. In the Millennium simulation, the void halo mass function is shifted with respect to denser environments, but still maintains a high-mass tail above this critical threshold. In such void haloes, radio-mode heating remains efficient and red galaxies are found; collectively these galaxies match the observed space density without any modification to the model. Consequently, galaxies living in vastly different large-scale environments but hosted by haloes of similar mass are predicted to have similar properties, consistent with observations.     

The Influence of Redshift Space Distortion on the Cosmic Voids

In order to investigate redshift space distortion effect on voids, VIDE (Void Identification and Examination toolkit) algorithm is used to find cosmic voids in real space and redshift space based on a mock galaxy catalog produced by the semi-analytical galaxy formation model. The voids can be divided into “collapsed” type and “expanded” type, according to the galaxy velocity on the void wall. The results show that the fraction of the “collapsed” voids decrease as the voids’ size grows, while “expanded” voids are contrary. The effective radius of two type voids differs by 20% in real space, and the mean radial density profile of “collapsed” voids is significant higher than that of “expanded” voids. Using the member galaxies to match the voids in two spaces, the comparison of the voids’ number distributions of two spaces shows that the difference of voids’ number between them is related to the voids’ size, and half of the voids in redshift space can not matched to the voids in real space. For the matched voids, the redshift space distortion has stronger effect on the density profile of the “collapsed” voids. For the unmatched ones, their density profile is clearly different, and the infall movement of galaxies on their shell is more obvious in real space.     

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: luminosity functions by density environment and galaxy type

We use the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey to measure the dependence of the b _J-band galaxy luminosity function on large-scale environment, defined by density contrast in spheres of radius  8  h ⁻¹ Mpc  , and on spectral type, determined from principal component analysis. We find that the galaxy populations at both extremes of density differ significantly from that at the mean density. The population in voids is dominated by late types and shows, relative to the mean, a deficit of galaxies that becomes increasingly pronounced at magnitudes brighter than   M _{b J}−5log₁₀ h ≲−18.5  . In contrast, cluster regions have a relative excess of very bright early-type galaxies with   M _{b J}−5log₁₀ h ≲−21  . Differences in the mid- to faint-end population between environments are significant: at   M _{b J}−5log₁₀ h =−18  early- and late-type cluster galaxies show comparable abundances, whereas in voids the late types dominate by almost an order of magnitude. We find that the luminosity functions measured in all density environments, from voids to clusters, can be approximated by Schechter functions with parameters that vary smoothly with local density, but in a fashion that differs strikingly for early- and late-type galaxies. These observed variations, combined with our finding that the faint-end slope of the overall luminosity function depends at most weakly on density environment, may prove to be a significant challenge for models of galaxy formation.     

Void statistics and void galaxies in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey

In the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, we study the properties of voids and of fainter galaxies within voids that are defined by brighter galaxies. Our results are compared with simulated galaxy catalogues from the Millennium simulation coupled with a semi-analytical galaxy formation recipe. We derive the void size distribution and discuss its dependence on the faint magnitude limit of the galaxies defining the voids. While voids among faint galaxies are typically smaller than those among bright galaxies, the ratio of the void sizes to the mean galaxy separation reaches larger values. This is well reproduced in the mock galaxy samples studied. We provide analytic fitting functions for the void size distribution. Furthermore, we study the galaxy population inside voids defined by galaxies with   B _J− 5 log  h < −20  and diameter larger than  10  h ⁻¹ Mpc  . We find a clear bimodality of galaxies inside voids and in the average field but with different characteristics. The abundance of blue cloud galaxies inside voids is enhanced. There is an indication of a slight blueshift of the blue cloud. Furthermore, galaxies in void centres have slightly higher specific star formation rates as measured by the η parameter. We determine the radial distribution of the ratio of early- and late-type galaxies through the voids. We find and discuss some differences between observations and the Millennium catalogues.     

The effect of dwarf galaxy disruption in semi-analytic models

We present results for a galaxy formation model that includes a simple treatment for the disruption of dwarf galaxies by gravitational forces and galaxy encounters within galaxy clusters. This is implemented a posteriori in a semi-analytic model by considering the stability of cluster dark matter subhaloes at   z = 0  . We assume that a galaxy whose dark matter substructure has been disrupted will itself disperse, while its stars become part of the population of intracluster stars responsible for the observed intracluster light. Despite the simplicity of this assumption, our results show a substantial improvement over previous models and indicate that the inclusion of galaxy disruption is indeed a necessary ingredient of galaxy formation models. We find that galaxy disruption suppresses the number density of dwarf galaxies by about a factor of 2. This makes the slope of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function shallower, in agreement with observations. In particular, the abundance of faint, red galaxies is strongly suppressed. As a result, the luminosity function of red galaxies and the distinction between the red and the blue galaxy populations in colour–magnitude relationships are correctly predicted. Finally, we estimate a fraction of intracluster light comparable to that found in clusters of galaxies.     

Tracing the nature of dark energy with galaxy distribution

Dynamical dark energy (DE) is a viable alternative to the cosmological constant. Constructing tests to discriminate between Λ and dynamical DE models is difficult, however, because the differences are not large. In this paper we explore tests based on the galaxy mass function, the void probability function (VPF), and the number of galaxy clusters. At high z , the number density of clusters shows large differences between DE models, but geometrical factors reduce the differences substantially. We find that detecting a model dependence in the cluster redshift distribution is a significant challenge. We show that the galaxy redshift distribution is potentially a more sensitive characteristic. We do this by populating dark matter haloes in N -body simulations with galaxies using well-tested halo occupation distributions. We also estimate the VPF and find that samples with the same angular surface density of galaxies, in different models, exhibition almost model-independent VPF which therefore cannot be used as a test for DE. Once again, geometry and cosmic evolution compensate each other. By comparing VPFs for samples with fixed galaxy mass limits, we find measurable differences.     

Clustering of galaxies in a hierarchical universe – III. Mock redshift surveys

This is the third paper in a series which combines N -body simulations and semi-analytic modelling to provide a fully spatially resolved simulation of the galaxy formation and clustering processes. Here we extract mock redshift surveys from our simulations: a cold dark matter model with either Ω₀=1 ( τ CDM) or Ω₀=0.3 and Λ=0.7 (ΛCDM). We compare the mock catalogues with the northern region (CfA2N) of the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Redshift Surveys. We study the properties of galaxy groups and clusters identified using standard observational techniques, and also the relation of these groups to real virialized systems. Most features of CfA2N groups are reproduced quite well by both models with no obvious dependence on Ω₀. Redshift‐space correlations and pairwise velocities are also similar in the two cosmologies. The luminosity functions predicted by our galaxy formation models depend sensitively on the treatment of star formation and feedback. For the particular choices of Paper I they agree poorly with the CfA survey. To isolate the effect of this discrepancy on our mock redshift surveys, we modify galaxy luminosities in our simulations to reproduce the CfA luminosity function exactly. This adjustment improves agreement with the observed abundance of groups, which depends primarily on the galaxy luminosity density, but other statistics, connected more closely with the underlying mass distribution, remain unaffected. Regardless of the luminosity function adopted, modest differences with observation remain. These can be attributed to the presence of the 'Great Wall' in the CfA2N. It is unclear whether the greater coherence of the real structure is a result of cosmic variance, given the relatively small region studied, or reflects a physical deficiency of the models.     

Testing model predictions of the cold dark matter cosmology for the sizes, colours, morphologies and luminosities of galaxies with the SDSS

The huge size and uniformity of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) make possible an exacting test of current models of galaxy formation. We compare the predictions of the galform semi-analytical galaxy formation model for the luminosities, morphologies, colours and scalelengths of local galaxies. galform models the luminosity and size of the disc and bulge components of a galaxy, and so we can compute quantities which can be compared directly with SDSS observations, such as the Petrosian magnitude and the Sérsic index. We test the predictions of two published models set in the cold dark matter cosmology: the Baugh et al. model, which assumes a top-heavy initial mass function (IMF) in starbursts and superwind feedback, and the Bower et al. model, which uses active galactic nucleus feedback and a standard IMF. The Bower et al. model better reproduces the overall shape of the luminosity function, the morphology–luminosity relation and the colour bimodality observed in the SDSS data, but gives a poor match to the size–luminosity relation. The Baugh et al. model successfully predicts the size–luminosity relation for late-type galaxies. Both models fail to reproduce the sizes of bright early-type galaxies. These problems highlight the need to understand better both the role of feedback processes in determining galaxy sizes, in particular the treatment of the angular momentum of gas reheated by supernovae, and the sizes of the stellar spheroids formed by galaxy mergers and disc instabilities.     

Satellite kinematics – II. The halo mass–luminosity relation of central galaxies in SDSS

The kinematics of satellite galaxies reflect the masses of the extended dark matter haloes in which they orbit, and thus shed light on the mass–luminosity relation (MLR) of their corresponding central galaxies. In this paper, we select a large sample of centrals and satellites from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and measure the kinematics (velocity dispersions) of the satellite galaxies as a function of the r -band luminosity of the central galaxies. Using the analytical framework presented in More, van den Bosch & Cacciato, we use these data to infer both the mean and the scatter of the MLR of central galaxies, carefully taking account of selection effects and biases introduced by the stacking procedure. As expected, brighter centrals on average reside in more massive haloes. In addition, we find that the scatter in halo masses for centrals of a given luminosity,  σ_{log  M}   , also increases with increasing luminosity. As we demonstrate, this is consistent with  σ_{log  L}   , which reflects the scatter in the conditional probability function   P ( L _c| M )  , being independent of halo mass. Our analysis of the satellite kinematics yields  σ_{log  L} = 0.16  ±  0.04  , in excellent agreement with constraints from clustering and group catalogues, and with predictions from a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation. We thus conclude that the amount of stochasticity in galaxy formation, which is characterized by  σ_{log  L}   , is well constrained, independent of halo mass and in a good agreement with current models of galaxy formation.     

Voids in a ΛCDM universe

We study the formation and evolution of voids in the dark matter distribution using various simulations of the popular Λ cold dark matter cosmogony. We identify voids by requiring them to be regions of space with a mean overdensity of −0.8 or less – roughly the equivalent of using a spherical overdensity group finder for haloes. Each of the simulations contains thousands of voids. The distribution of void sizes in the different simulations shows good agreement when differences in particle and grid resolution are accounted for. Voids very clearly correspond to minima in the smoothed initial density field. Apart from a very weak dependence on the mass resolution, the rescaled mass profiles of voids in the different simulations agree remarkably well. We find a universal void mass profile of the form  ρ(< r )/ρ( r _eff) ∝ exp[( r / r _eff)^α]  , where r _eff is the effective radius of a void and  α∼ 2  . The mass function of haloes in voids is steeper than that of haloes that populate denser regions. In addition, the abundances of void haloes seem to evolve somewhat more strongly between redshifts ∼1 and 0 than the global abundances of haloes.     

Statistical properties of H II regions in the disc of M100

From a new mosaic image in the Hα line of the complete disc of the spiral galaxy M100, a catalogue is composed listing 1948 individual H II regions. I give details of the data collection and reduction procedure, and of the production of the H II region catalogue. For each H II region, the catalogue gives its position relative to the centre of the galaxy, its deprojected distance to the centre, its radius and its calibrated luminosity. An indication is included as to whether the H II region is located in the arms, between them, or in the circumnuclear star-forming region. I present the results of a statistical study of properties of the H II regions. The luminosity function of the complete ensemble of H II regions shows a characteristic shape well fitted by a power-law slope in the higher luminosity range, and complying with literature values for galaxies like M100. Luminosity function slopes for arm and interarm H II region populations separately are found to be equal within the errors of the fits, indicating that whereas the density wave accumulates material into the arm regions, and may trigger star formation there, it does not in fact change the mass distribution of the star-forming clouds, nor the statistical properties of the H II region population. Diameter distributions and the radial number density distribution are discussed. The latter indicates those areas where most star formation occurs: the circumnuclear region and the spiral arms. The huge number of H II regions allowed the construction of a number of independent luminosity functions at different distances to the nucleus. The slope of the luminosity function shows a marginal decrease with increasing distance from the centre, which could indicate a gradual change towards shallower IMF slopes with increasing galactocentric distance, or an evolutionary effect.     

On the dynamics of the satellite galaxies in NGC 5044

The NGC 5044 galaxy group is dominated by a luminous elliptical galaxy that is surrounded by ∼160 dwarf satellites. The projected number density profile of this dwarf population deviates within ∼1/3 of the virial radius from a projected Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) profile, which is assumed to approximate the underlying total matter distribution. By means of a semi-analytic model, we demonstrate that the interplay between gravitation, dynamical friction and tidal mass loss and destruction can explain the observed number density profile. We use only two parameters in our models: the total to stellar mass fraction of the satellite haloes and the disruption efficiency. The disruption efficiency is expressed by a minimum radius. If the tidal radius of a galaxy (halo) falls below this radius, it is assumed to become unobservable. The preferred parameters are an initial total to stellar mass fraction of ∼20 and a disruption radius of  4 kpc  . In that model, about 20 per cent of all the satellites are totally disrupted on their orbits within the group environment. Dynamical friction is less important in shaping the inner slope of the number density profile because the reduction in mass by tidal forces lowers the impact of the friction term. The main destruction mechanism is tide. In the preferred model, the total B -band luminosity of all disrupted galaxies is about twice the observed luminosity of the central elliptical galaxy, indicating that a significant fraction of stars are scattered into the intragroup medium. Dwarf galaxy satellites closer to the centre of the NGC 5044 group may exhibit optical evidence of partial tidal disruption. If dynamical friction forces the satellite to merge with the central elliptical, the angular momentum of the satellite tends to be removed at the apocentre passage. Afterwards, the satellite drops radially towards the centre.     

Galaxy star formation in different environments

We use a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to study signatures of large-scale modulations in the star formation (SF) activity in galaxies. In order to do this, we carefully define local and global estimators of the density around galaxies. The former are computed using a voronoi tessellation technique and the latter are parametrized by the normalized distance to haloes and voids, in terms of the virial and void radii, respectively. As a function of local density, galaxies show a strong modulation in their SF, a result that is in agreement with those from several authors. When taking subsamples of equal local density at different large-scale environments, we find relevant global effects whereby the fraction of red galaxies diminishes for galaxies in equal local density environments farther away from clusters and closer to voids. In general, the semi-analytic simulation is in good agreement with the available observational results, and offers the possibility to disentangle many of the processes responsible for the variation of galaxy properties with the environment; we find that the changes found in samples of galaxies with equal local environment but different distances to haloes or voids come from the variations in the underlying mass function of dark matter (DM) haloes. There is an additional possible effect coming from the host DM halo ages, indicating that halo assembly also plays a small but significant role (1.14σ) in shaping the properties of galaxies, and in particular, hints at a possible spatial correlation in halo/stellar mass ages. An interesting result comes from the analysis of the coherence of flows in different large-scale environments of fixed local densities; the neighbourhoods of massive haloes are characterized by lower coherences than control samples, except for galaxies in filament-like regions, which show highly coherent motions.     

Voids in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey versus cold dark matter models

We analysed the distribution of void sizes in the two-dimensional slices of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS). Fourteen volume-limited subsamples were extracted from the six slices to cover a large part of the survey and to test the robustness of the results against cosmic variance. Thirteen samples were randomly culled to produce homogeneously selected samples. We then studied the relationship between the cumulative area covered by voids and the void size as a property of the void hierarchy. We found that the distribution of void sizes scaled with the mean galaxy separation, λ . In particular, we found that the size of voids covering half of the area is given by D _med≈ λ +(12±3)  h ⁻¹ Mpc. Next, by employing an environmental density threshold criterion to identify mock galaxies, we were able to extend this analysis to mock samples from dynamical N -body simulations of cold dark matter (CDM) models. To reproduce the observed void statistics, overdensity thresholds of δ _th≈0,…,1 are necessary. We compared standard (SCDM), open (OCDM), vacuum energy dominated (ΛCDM) and broken scale invariant CDM models (BCDM): we found that both the void size distribution and the two-point correlation function provided important and complementary information on the large-scale matter distribution. The dependence of the void statistics on the threshold criterion for the mock galaxy identification showed that the galaxy biasing was more crucial for the void size distribution than were differences between the cosmological models.