• The contribution of globular clusters to cosmic reionization

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We study the escape fraction of ionizing photons (f_esc) in two cosmological zoom-in simulations of galaxies in the reionization era with halo mass M_halo~10^10 and 10^11 M_sun (stellar mass M*~10^7 and 10^9 M_sun) at z=5 from the Feedback in Realistic Environments project. These simulations explicitly resolve the formation of proto-globular clusters (GCs) self-consistently, where 17-39% of stars form in bound clusters during starbursts. Using post-processing Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations of ionizing radiation, we compute f_esc from cluster stars and non-cluster stars formed during a starburst over ~100 Myr in each galaxy. We find that the averaged f_esc over the lifetime of a star particle follows a similar distribution for cluster stars and non-cluster stars. Clusters tend to have low f_esc in the first few Myrs, presumably because they form preferentially in more extreme environments with high optical depths; the f_esc increases later as feedback starts to disrupt the natal cloud. On the other hand, non-cluster stars formed between cluster complexes or in the compressed shell at the front of a superbubble can also have high f_esc. We find that cluster stars on average have comparable f_esc to non-cluster stars. This result is robust across several star formation models in our simulations. Our results suggest that the fraction of ionizing photons from proto-GCs to cosmic reionization is comparable to the cluster formation efficiency in high-redshift galaxies and hence proto-GCs likely contribute an appreciable fraction of photons but are not the dominant sources for reionization.

  • Self-regulation of black hole accretion via jets in early protogalaxies

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The early growth of black holes (BHs) in high-redshift galaxies is likely regulated by their feedback on the surrounding gas. While radiative feedback has been extensively studied, the role of mechanical feedback has received comparatively less scrutiny to date. Here we use high-resolution parsec-scale hydrodynamical simulations to study jet propagation and its effect on BH accretion onto 100 ${\rm M_\odot}$ BHs in the dense, low-metallicity gas expected in early protogalaxies. As the jet propagates, it shocks the surrounding gas and forms a jet cocoon. The cocoon consists of a rapidly-cooling cold phase at the interface with the background gas and an over-pressured subsonic phase of reverse shock-heated gas filling the cocoon interior. We systematically vary the background gas density and temperature, BH feedback efficiency, and the jet model. We found that the jet cocoon width roughly follows a scaling derived by assuming momentum conservation in the jet propagation direction, and energy conservation in the lateral directions. Depending on the assumed gas and jet properties, the cocoon either stays elongated out to a large radius or isotropizes before reaching the Bondi radius, forming a nearly spherical bubble. Lower jet velocities and higher background gas densities result in self-regulation to higher momentum fluxes and elongated cocoons. In all cases, the outward momentum flux of the cocoon balances the inward momentum flux of the inflowing gas near the Bondi radius, which ultimately regulates BH accretion. The larger the distance the jet cocoon reaches, the longer the variability timescale of the BH accretion rate. Overall, the average accretion rate always remains below the Bondi rate, and exceeds the Eddington rate only if the ambient medium is dense and cold, and/or the jet is weak. We derive the combination of jet and ambient gas parameters yielding super-Eddington growth.

  • Born this way: thin disc, thick disc, and isotropic spheroid formation in FIRE-2 Milky-Way-mass galaxy simulations

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We investigate the formation of Milky-Way-mass galaxies using FIRE-2 LCDM cosmological zoom-in simulations by studying the orbital evolution of stars formed in the main progenitor of the galaxy, from birth to the present day. We classify in situ stars as isotropic spheroid, thick-disc, and thin-disc according to their orbital circularities and show that these components are assembled in a time-ordered sequence from early to late times, respectively. All simulated galaxies experience an early phase of bursty star formation that transitions to a late-time steady phase. This transition coincides with the time that the inner CGM virializes. During the early bursty phase, galaxies have irregular morphologies and new stars are born on radial orbits; these stars evolve into an isotropic spheroidal population today. The bulk of thick-disc stars form at intermediate times, during a clumpy-disc ``spin-up'' phase, slightly later than the peak of spheroid formation. At late times, once the CGM virializes and star formation ``cools down," stars are born on circular orbits within a narrow plane. Those stars mostly inhabit thin discs today. Broadly speaking, stars with disc-like or spheroid-like orbits today were born that way. Mergers onto discs and secular processes do affect kinematics in our simulations, but play only secondary roles in populating thick-disc and in situ spheroid populations at z=0. The age distributions of spheroid, thick disc, and thin disc populations scale self-similarly with the steady-phase transition time, which suggests that morphological age dating can be linked to the CGM virialization time in galaxies.

  • Local positive feedback in the overall negative: the impact of quasar winds on star formation in the FIRE cosmological simulations

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Negative feedback from accreting supermassive black holes is regarded as a key ingredient in suppressing star formation and quenching massive galaxies. However, several models and observations suggest that black hole feedback may have a positive effect, triggering star formation by compressing interstellar medium gas to higher densities. We investigate the dual role of black hole feedback using cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) project, including a novel implementation of hyper-refined accretion-disc winds. Focusing on a massive, star-forming galaxy at $z \sim 2$ ($M_{\rm halo} \sim 10^{12.5} \, {\rm M}_{\odot}$), we show that strong quasar winds with kinetic power $\sim$10$^{46}$ erg/s acting for $>$20$\,$Myr drive the formation of a central gas cavity and can dramatically reduce the star formation rate surface density across the galaxy disc. The suppression of star formation is primarily driven by reducing the amount of gas that can become star-forming, compared to directly evacuating the pre-existing star-forming gas reservoir (preventive feedback dominates over ejective feedback). Despite the global negative impact of quasar winds, we identify several plausible signatures of local positive feedback, including: (1) spatial anti-correlation of wind-dominated regions and star-forming clumps, (2) higher local star formation efficiency in compressed gas near the edge of the cavity, and (3) increased local contribution of outflowing material to star formation. Stars forming under the presence of quasar winds tend to do so at larger radial distances. Our results suggest that positive and negative AGN feedback can coexist in galaxies, but local positive triggering of star formation plays a minor role in global galaxy growth.

  • The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) V: On the Thermodynamic Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium at $z < 1$

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: This paper presents a systematic study of the photoionization and thermodynamic properties of the cool circumgalactic medium (CGM) as traced by rest-frame ultraviolet absorption lines around 26 galaxies at redshift $z\lesssim1$. The study utilizes both high-quality far-ultraviolet and optical spectra of background QSOs and deep galaxy redshift surveys to characterize the gas density, temperature, and pressure of individual absorbing components and to resolve their internal non-thermal motions. The derived gas density spans more than three decades, from $\log (n_{\rm H}/{\rm cm^{-3}}) \approx -4$ to $-1$, while the temperature of the gas is confined in a narrow range of $\log (T/{\rm K})\approx 4.3\pm 0.3$. In addition, a weak anti-correlation between gas density and temperature is observed, consistent with the expectation of the gas being in photoionization equilibrium. Furthermore, decomposing the observed line widths into thermal and non-thermal contributions reveals that more than 30% of the components at $z\lesssim 1$ exhibit line widths driven by non-thermal motions, in comparison to $<20$% found at $z\approx 2$-3. Attributing the observed non-thermal line widths to intra-clump turbulence, we find that massive quenched galaxies on average exhibit higher non-thermal broadening/turbulent energy in their CGM compared to star-forming galaxies at $z\lesssim 1$. Finally, strong absorption features from multiple ions covering a wide range of ionization energy (e.g., from Mg II to O IV) can be present simultaneously in a single absorption system with kinematically aligned component structure, but the inferred pressure in different phases may differ by a factor of $\approx 10$.