On the angular momentum history of galactic discs

Renzini, A.

doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slaa054

Cited by 44 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…We see that the specific angular momentum increased by a factor of ∼9 and the total stellar AM increases after the Grand Twirl at z ∼ 2 by a remarkable factor of ∼24 from 7.9 × 10 11 to 1.9 × 10 13 M ⊙ km s −1 kpc. The growth by such a remarkably large factor is in good agreement with recent studies (Swinbank et al 2017;Marasco et al 2019;Peng & Renzini 2020;Renzini 2020). In contrast, the specific angular momentum of the bulge-dominated galaxy decreases by one order of magnitude and ends up in the observational regime of elliptical galaxies.…”

Section: Stellar Disc Evolutionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Rapid filamentary accretion as the origin of extended thin discs

Kretschmer

Agertz

Teyssier

2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Galactic outflows driven by stellar feedback are crucial for explaining the inefficiency of star formation in galaxies. Although strong feedback can promote the formation of galactic discs by limiting star formation at early times and removing low angular momentum gas, it is not understood how the same feedback can result in diverse objects such as elliptical galaxies or razor thin spiral galaxies. We investigate this problem using cosmological zoom-in simulations of two galaxies forming within 1012 M⊙ halos with almost identical mass accretion histories and halo spin parameters. However, the two resulting galaxies end up with very different bulge-to-disc ratios at z = 0. At z > 1.5, the two galaxies feature a surface density of star formation ΣSFR ≃ 10 M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2, leading to strong outflows. After the last starburst episode, both galaxies feature a dramatic gaseous disc growth from 1 kpc to 5 kpc during 1 Gyr, a decisive event we dub “the Grand Twirl”. After this event, the evolutionary tracks diverge strongly, with one galaxy ending up as a bulge-dominated galaxy, whereas the other ends up as a disc-dominated galaxy. The origins of this dichotomy are the angular momentum of the accreted gas, and whether it adds constructively to the initial disc angular momentum. The build-up of this extended disc leads to a rapid lowering of ΣSFR by over two orders of magnitude with ΣSFR ≲ 0.1 M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2, in remarkable agreement with what is derived from Milky Way stellar populations. As a consequence, supernovae explosions are spread out and cannot launch galactic outflows anymore, allowing for the persistence of a thin, gently star forming, extended disc.

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Section: Stellar Disc Evolutionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Rapid filamentary accretion as the origin of extended thin discs

Kretschmer

Agertz

Teyssier

2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…The lack of environmental dependence in the stellar metallicity difference between star-forming and passive central galaxies indicates, not surprisingly, that the starvation responsible for quenching central galaxies is not driven by environmental phenomena, but primarily by mass-related phenomena such as halo heating by AGN and halo gravitational shock heating, or the recently proposed angular momentum quenching (Peng & Renzini 2020;Renzini 2020), where a galaxy can be deprived of new molecular gas when the inflowing gas accreted from the IGM comes in with excessive angular momentum.…”

Section: Constraints On Environmental Quenchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The weak imprint of environment on the stellar populations of galaxies

Trussler

Maiolino

Maraston

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We investigate the environmental dependence of the stellar populations of galaxies in SDSS DR7. Echoing earlier works, we find that satellites are both more metal-rich (<0.1 dex) and older (<2 Gyr) than centrals of the same stellar mass. However, after separating star-forming, green valley and passive galaxies, we find that the true environmental dependence of both stellar metallicity (<0.03 dex) and age (<0.5 Gyr) is in fact much weaker. We show that the strong environmental effects found when galaxies are not differentiated result from a combination of selection effects brought about by the environmental dependence of the quenched fraction of galaxies, and thus we strongly advocate for the separation of star-forming, green valley and passive galaxies when the environmental dependence of galaxy properties are investigated. We also study further environmental trends separately for both central and satellite galaxies. We find that star-forming galaxies show no environmental effects, neither for centrals nor for satellites. In contrast, the stellar metallicities of passive and green valley satellites increase weakly (<0.05 dex and <0.08 dex, respectively) with increasing halo mass, increasing local overdensity and decreasing projected distance from their central; this effect is interpreted in terms of moderate environmental starvation (‘strangulation’) contributing to the quenching of satellite galaxies. Finally, we find a unique feature in the stellar mass–stellar metallicity relation for passive centrals, where galaxies in more massive haloes have larger stellar mass (∼0.1 dex) at constant stellar metallicity; this effect is interpreted in terms of dry merging of passive central galaxies and/or progenitor bias.

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“…Proposed mechanisms include the long gas cooling times of gas heated by the virial shock as it falls into massive darkmatter halos (e.g., White & Rees 1978;Birnboim et al 2007;Ogle et al 2019, but see also, e.g., Kereš et al 2005), the high angular momentum of gas accreted onto massive rotating galaxies (e.g., Renzini 2020;Peng & Renzini 2020), and the high stellar mass surface densities and spheroidal shape of early-type galaxies and massive bulges (Dekel & Burkert 2014;Tacchella et al 2016;Romeo & Fathi 2016;Martig et al 2009Martig et al , 2013. Low star-formation rates may also be a consequence of strong bars in spiral galaxies (Fraser-McKelvie et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jet-driven AGN feedback on molecular gas and low star-formation efficiency in a massive local spiral galaxy with a bright X-ray halo

Nesvadba

Wagner

Mukherjee

et al. 2021

A&A

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It has long been suspected that powerful radio sources may lower the efficiency with which stars form from the molecular gas in their host galaxy, however so far, alternative mechanisms, in particular related to the stellar mass distribution in the massive bulges of their host galaxies, have not been ruled out. We present new, arcsecond-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) CO(1−0) interferometry, which probes the spatially resolved, cold molecular gas in the nearby (z = 0.08), massive (Mstellar = 4 × 1011 M⊙), isolated, late-type spiral galaxy 2MASSX J23453269−044925, which is outstanding for having two pairs of powerful, giant radio jets, and a bright X-ray halo of hot circumgalactic gas. The molecular gas is in a massive (Mgas = 2.0 × 1010 M⊙), 24 kpc wide, rapidly rotating ring, which is associated with the inner stellar disk. Broad (FWHM = 70−180 km s−1) emission lines with complex profiles associated with the radio source are seen over large regions in the ring, indicating gas velocities that are high enough to keep the otherwise marginally Toomre-stable gas from fragmenting into gravitationally bound, star-forming clouds. About 1−2% of the jet kinetic energy is required to power these motions. Resolved star-formation rate surface densities derived from Galaxy Evolution Explorer and Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer fall by factors of 30−70 short of expectations from the standard Kennicutt–Schmidt law of star-forming galaxies, and near gas-rich early-type galaxies with signatures of star formation that are lowered by jet feedback. We argue that radio Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feedback is the only plausible mechanism to explain the low star-formation rates in this galaxy. Previous authors have already noted that the X-ray halo of J2345−0449 implies a baryon fraction that is close to the cosmic average, which is very high for a galaxy. We contrast this finding with other, equally massive, and equally baryon-rich spiral galaxies without prominent radio sources. Most of the baryons in these galaxies are in stars, not in the halos. We also discuss the implications of our results for our general understanding of AGN feedback in massive galaxies.

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On the angular momentum history of galactic discs

Cited by 44 publications

References 48 publications

Rapid filamentary accretion as the origin of extended thin discs

Rapid filamentary accretion as the origin of extended thin discs

The weak imprint of environment on the stellar populations of galaxies

Jet-driven AGN feedback on molecular gas and low star-formation efficiency in a massive local spiral galaxy with a bright X-ray halo

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