Star Formation in Simulated Galaxies: Understanding the Transition to Quiescence at $3\times 10^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$

Abstract

Star formation in galaxies relies on the availability of cold, dense gas, which, in turn, relies on factors internal and external to the galaxies. In order to provide a simple model for how star formation is regulated by various physical processes in galaxies, we analyse data at redshift $z=0$ from a hydrodynamical cosmological simulation that includes prescriptions for star formation and stellar evolution, active galactic nuclei (AGN), and their associated feedback processes. This model can determine the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of galaxy stellar mass, gas mass, black hole mass, and environment. We find that gas mass is the most important quantity controlling star formation in low-mass galaxies, and star-forming galaxies in dense environments have higher SFR than their counterparts in the field. In high-mass galaxies, we find that black holes more massive than $\sim 10^{7.5}$ M${}_{\odot }$ can be triggered to quench star formation in their host; this mass scale is emergent in our simulations. Furthermore, this black hole mass corresponds to a galaxy bulge mass $\sim 2\times 10^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$, consistent with the mass at which galaxies start to become dominated by early types ($\sim 3\times 10^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$, as previously shown in observations by Kauffmann et al.). Finally, we demonstrate that our model can reproduce well the SFR measured from observations of galaxies in the GAMA and ALFALFA surveys.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 9 pages, 7 figures

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• Oxygen Loss from Simulated Galaxies and the Metal Flow Main Sequence: Predicting the Dependence on Mass and Environment
• The metallicity and elemental abundance maps of kinematically atypical galaxies for constraining minor merger and accretion histories
• Chemical evolution of elliptical galaxies I: supernovae and AGN feedback
• Investigation of Stellar Kinematics and Ionized gas Outflows in Local (U)LIRGs