Formation of Dwarf Galaxies

矮星系的形成

• 批准号: 0908499
• 负责人: Thomas Quinn
• 金额: $ 37.09万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0908499&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Formation; Dwarf; Galaxies

Dr Quinn and his team will modify their smoothed-particle hydrodynamic code to follow the formation of dwarf galaxies, by improving the resolution and including a treatment of dust and dense gas. The code follows the gravitational collapse of both dark matter and gas, and tracks heating and cooling of the gas to determine when it should form new stars. Improvements will include an approximation to follow the formation and destruction of dust and hydrogen molecules, and thus determine the gas cooling as the gas temperature drops below 10,000 K. This approximation will be tested and adjusted by comparing simulations with isolated Milky-Way-like galaxies and dwarf systems. The code will then be used to examine when star formation is quenched in the lowest-mass dark halos, leaving them without any stars to form a visible galaxy. Galaxies will be placed in their cosmological context by zooming-in on an interesting region of a larger-scale simulation, and following the development of that region at higher resolution. Simulated observations of the models will be generated, for comparison to observed galaxies.A graduate student will be trained by participating in the research. The team will continue its work with undergraduates in the University of Washington's "pre-map" program: this program is managed by science graduate students, and aims to attract under-represented students into science majors.

奎因博士和他的团队将通过提高分辨率以及对尘埃和稠密气体的处理来修改他们的平滑粒子流体动力学代码，以跟踪矮星系的形成。 该代码跟踪暗物质和气体的引力坍缩，并跟踪气体的加热和冷却，以确定其何时形成新恒星。 改进将包括跟踪尘埃和氢分子的形成和破坏的近似值，从而确定气体温度降至 10,000 K 以下时的气体冷却。将通过与孤立的类银河系的模拟进行比较来测试和调整该近似值和矮星系统。 然后，该代码将用于检查恒星形成何时在质量最低的暗晕中熄灭，使它们没有任何恒星形成可见的星系。 通过放大更大规模模拟的有趣区域，并以更高分辨率跟踪该区域的发展，将星系置于其宇宙学背景中。 将生成模型的模拟观测结果，以便与观测到的星系进行比较。研究生将通过参与研究来接受培训。 该团队将继续与华盛顿大学的“pre-map”计划中的本科生合作：该计划由理科研究生管理，旨在吸引代表性不足的学生进入理科专业。