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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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2002

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Galaxies : evolution

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Bar-Driven Dark Halo Evolution: A Resolution Of The Cusp-Core Controversy, Md Weinberg, N Katz Jan 2002

Bar-Driven Dark Halo Evolution: A Resolution Of The Cusp-Core Controversy, Md Weinberg, N Katz

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Simulations predict that the dark matter halos of galaxies should have central cusps, while those inferred from observed galaxies do not have cusps. We demonstrate, using both linear perturbation theory and n-body simulations, that a disk bar, which should be ubiquitous in forming galaxies, can produce cores in cuspy cold dark matter profiles within five bar orbital times. Simulations of forming galaxies suggest that one of Milky Way size could have a 10 kpc primordial bar; this bar will remove the cusp out to ~2.5 kpc in ~1.5 Gyr, while the disk would lose only ~8% of its original angular …


High-Redshift Galaxies In Cold Dark Matter Models, Dh Weinberg, L Hernquist, N Katz Jan 2002

High-Redshift Galaxies In Cold Dark Matter Models, Dh Weinberg, L Hernquist, N Katz

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We use hydrodynamic cosmological simulations to predict the star formation properties of high-redshift galaxies (z = 2-6) in five variants of the inflationary cold dark matter scenario, paying particular attention to z = 3, the redshift of the largest "Lyman break galaxy" (LBG) samples. Because we link the star formation timescale to the local gas density, the rate at which a galaxy forms stars is governed mainly by the rate at which it accretes cooled gas from the surrounding medium. At z = 3, star formation in most of the simulated galaxies is steady on ~200 Myr timescales, and …