Formation of galaxies in the expanding universe

The possibility of the formation of galaxies both during the galactic clustering of small structural units originated earlier and at fragmentation of larger formations is considered. A selfsimilar spectrum of long-wave perturbations is obtained. The results of numerical calculations and conclusions of Press and Schechter's (1974) work are discussed.Translated by Miss Eva Vokálová, Astronomical Institute of Charles University, Prague.     

Rotation curves in neutrino-dominated galaxies

A massive neutrino halo will exert important effects on the motion of the galactic stars inside. In this paper, we give a fully relativistic treatment of the galactic velocity curve in the presence of a massive halo. The results are different from the classical Kepler motion, and provides a possible means of verifying the existence of neutrino halos.     

Gravitational clustering of galaxies in an expanding universe

We inquire the phenomena of clustering of galaxies in an expanding universe from a theoretical point of view on the basis of thermodynamics and correlation functions. The partial differential equation is developed both for the point mass and extended mass structures of a two-point correlation function by using thermodynamic equations in combination with the equation of state taking gravitational interaction between particles into consideration. The unique solution physically satisfies a set of boundary conditions for correlated systems and provides a new insight into the gravitational clustering problem.     

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.     

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.     

Low correlation between redshift and intrinsic brightness for quasars and galaxies in a de sitter universe

Since the discovery of quasars, it has been recognized that these objects must have either an extraordinary intrinsic brightness or a nonlinear redshift. The most widely accepted current belief incorporates a linear (Hubble) redshift- distance relation and time evolution within a Big Bang model. We reconsider the possibility of a nonlinear (de Sitter) redshift-distance relation and find quasar intrinsic brightness to be not at all extraordinary. Given a de Sitter law, intrinsic brightness is found to be independent of redshift over five orders of magnitude.     

Study of galaxies in the Lynx-Cancer void. II. Element abundances

In the framework of study of the evolutionary status of galaxies in the nearby Lynx-Cancer void, we present the results of the SAO RAS 6-m telescope spectroscopy for 20 objects in this region. The principal faint line [Oiii]λ4363 Å, used to determine the electron temperature and oxygen abundance (O/H) by the classicalmethod, is clearly detected in only about 2/3 of the studied objects. For the remaining galaxies this line is either faint or undetected. To obtain the oxygen abundances in these galaxies we as well apply the semi-empirical method by Izotov and Thuan, and/or the empirical methods of Pilyugin et al., which are only employing the intensities of sufficiently strong lines. We also present our O/H measurements for 22 Lynx-Cancer void galaxies, for which the suitable Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectra are available. In total, we present the combined O/H data for 48 Lynx-Cancer void galaxies, including the data adopted from the literature and our own earlier results. We make a comparison of their locations on the (O/H)-M_B diagram with those of the dwarf galaxies of the Local Volume in the regions with denser environment. We infer that the majority of galaxies from this void on the average reveal an about 30% lower metallicity. In addition, a substantial fraction (not less than 10%) of the void dwarf galaxies have a much larger O/H deficiency (up to a factor of 5). Most of them belong to the tiny group of objects with the gas metallicity Z ⊙/20 or 12+log(O/H)?7.35. The surface density of very metal-poor galaxies (Z ⊙/10) in this region of the sky is 2–2.5 times higher than that, derived from the emission-line galaxy samples in the Hamburg-SAO and the SDSS surveys. We discuss possible implications of these results for the galaxy evolution models.     

Formation and evolution of disk galaxies

I review several of the current issues in the theory of disk galaxy formation. There is still much to be done, observationally and theoretically, before we can expect to approach an understanding of disk galaxies that is reliable enough to make robust predictions about the high redshift universe. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Study of galaxies in the Lynx-Cancer void. IV. Photometric properties

We present the results of a photometric study of 85 objects from the updated sample of galaxies residing in the nearby Lynx-Cancer void. We perform our photometry on u, g, r, and i-band images of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We determine model-independent galaxy parameters such as the integrated magnitudes and colors, effective radii and the corresponding surface brightness values, optical radii and Holmberg radii. We analyze the radial surface brightness profiles to determine the central brightness values and scale lengths of the model disks. We analyze the colors of the outer parts of the galaxies and compare them with model evolutionary tracks computed using the PEGASE 2 software package. This allowed us to estimate the time T _SF elapsed since the onset of star formation, which turned out to be on the order of the cosmological time T ₀ for the overwhelming majority of the galaxies studied. However, for 13 galaxies of the sample the time T _SF does not exceed T ₀/2 ～ 7 Gyr, and for 7 of them T _SF ? 3.5 Gyr. The latter are mostly unevolved objects dominated by low-luminosity galaxies with M _B > ?13.2. We use the integrated magnitudes and colors to estimate the stellar masses of the galaxies.We estimate the parameter M(H I)/L _B and the gas mass fractions for void galaxies with known HI-line fluxes. A small subgroup (about 10%) of the gas-richest void galaxies with M(H I)/L _B ? 2.5 has gas mass fractions that reach 94–99%. The outer regions of many of these galaxies show atypically blue colors. To test various statistical differences between void galaxies and galaxies from the samples selected using more general criteria, we compare some of the parameters of void galaxies with similar data for the sample of 195 galaxies from the Equatorial Survey (ES) based on a part of the HIPASS blind HI survey. The compared samples have similar properties in the common luminosity interval ?18.5<M _g < ?13.5. The faintest void galaxies differ appreciably from the ES survey galaxies. However, the ES survey also contains about 7% of the so-called “inchoate” galaxies with highM(H I)/L _B ratios, most of which are located far from massive neighbors and are probably analogs of void galaxies.     

The primeval hadron: Origin of stars,galaxies and astronomical universe

The relationship between mass and angular momentum for the known cosmic objects has been examined, and it is shown that they are described by the generalized Regge-like dependence of the formJ=(m/m _p)^1+1/n wheren=2 for galaxies, their clusters and superclusters, andn=3 for asteroids, planets and stars. It offers the possibility, that Ambartsumian's superdense proto-matter has hadronic nature. This allows us to give a realistic and quantitave explanation with a minimum number of arbitrary assumptions for the origin of cosmic angular momenta, cosmic magnetic fields and offers the framework for other cosmogonic implications. This approach incorporates in a natural way the fundamental quantum-mechanical parameters andm _p, besides the classical parametersG andc, and allows us to derive simple expressions for masses and spins of cosmic objects through fundamental constants, some of which coincide with Eddington-Dirac's Large Number relations.     

Formation of gas discs in merging galaxies

Observations indicate that much of the interstellar gas in merging galaxies may settle into extended gaseous discs. Here, I present simulations of disc formation in mergers of gas-rich galaxies. Up to half of the total gas settles into embedded discs; the most massive instances result from encounters in which both galaxies are inclined to the orbital plane. These discs are often warped, many have rather complex kinematics, and roughly a quarter have counter-rotating or otherwise decoupled central components. Discs typically grow from the inside out; infall from tidal tails may continue disc formation over long periods of time.     

Evolution of the luminosity function and colours of galaxies in a Λ cold dark matter universe

The luminosity function of galaxies is derived from a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a Λ cold dark matter universe with the aid of a stellar population synthesis model. At     , the resulting B -band luminosity function has a flat faint-end slope of     with the characteristic luminosity and the normalization in fair agreement with observations, while the dark matter halo mass function is steep with a slope of     . The colour distribution of galaxies also agrees well with local observations. We also discuss the evolution of the luminosity function, and the colour distribution of galaxies from     to 5. A large evolution of the characteristic mass in the stellar mass function as a result of number evolution is compensated by luminosity evolution; the characteristic luminosity increases only by 0.8 mag from     to 2, and then declines towards higher redshift, while the B -band luminosity density continues to increase from     to 5 (but only slowly at     .