The evolution of the star formation rate function in the EAGLE simulations: A comparison with UV, IR and H$\alpha$ observations from z ~ 8 to z ~ 0

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of the galaxy Star Formation Rate Function (SFRF) and Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density (CSFRD) of $z\sim 0-8$ galaxies in the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) simulations. In addition, we present a compilation of UV, IR and H$\alpha$ SFRFs and compare these with the predictions from the EAGLE suite of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. We find that the constraints implied by different indicators are inconsistent with each other for the highest star-forming objects at z < 2, a problem that is possibly related to selection biases and the uncertainties of dust attenuation effects. EAGLE's feedback parameters were calibrated to reproduce realistic galaxy sizes and stellar masses at z = 0.1. In this work we test if and why those choices yield realistic Star Formation Rates (SFRs) for $z\sim 0-8$ as well. We demonstrate that SNe feedback plays a major role at setting the abundance of galaxies at all star-forming regimes, especially at high redshifts. On the contrary, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) feedback becomes more prominent at lower redshifts and is a major mechanism that affects only the highest star-forming systems. Furthermore, we find that galaxies with SFR $\sim 1-10{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ dominate the CSFRD at redshifts z < 5, while rare high star-forming galaxies (SFR $\sim 10-100{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$) contribute significantly only briefly around the peak era ($z\sim 2$) and then are quenched by AGN feedback. In the absence of this prescription objects with SFR $\sim 10-100{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ would dominate the CSFRD, while the cosmic budget of star formation would be extremely high. Finally, we demonstrate that the majority of the cosmic star formation occurs in relatively rare high mass halos (${\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{Halo}}\sim 10^{11-13}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) even at the earliest epochs.

21 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (25)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
• The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: calibration of subgrid physics and model variations
• UV Luminosity Functions at redshifts z~4 to z~10: 10000 Galaxies from HST Legacy Fields
• Star Formation and Feedback in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic Simulations--I. Isolated Galaxies
• Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations
• Cosmological Simulations of Intergalactic Medium Enrichment from Galactic Outflows
• UV Luminosity Functions at z~4, 5, and 6 from the HUDF and other Deep HST ACS Fields: Evolution and Star Formation History
• Multi-Wavelength Constraints on the Cosmic Star Formation History from Spectroscopy: the Rest-Frame UV, H-alpha, and Infrared Luminosity Functions at Redshifts 1.9<z<3.4
• Radio sources in the 6dFGS: Local luminosity functions at 1.4 GHz for star-forming galaxies and radio-loud AGN
• The mass evolution of the first galaxies: stellar mass functions and star formation rates at $4<z<7$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• Stellar Masses and SFRs for 1M Galaxies from SDSS and WISE
• The Nearly Universal Merger Rate of Dark Matter Haloes in Lambda-CDM Cosmology
• The MORGANA model for the rise of galaxies and active nuclei
• Feedback and metal enrichment in cosmological SPH simulations - II. A multiphase model with supernova energy feedback
• The Halo Mass Function: High-Redshift Evolution and Universality
• Star Formation and the Growth of Stellar Mass
• A chronicle of galaxy mass assembly in the EAGLE simulation
• Angular momentum evolution of galaxies in EAGLE
• Evolution of the Luminosity Function, Star Formation Rate, Morphology and Size of Star-forming Galaxies Selected at Rest-frame 1500A and 2800A
• The H-alpha Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate Volume Density at z=0.8 from the NEWFIRM H-alpha Survey
• Full SED fitting with the KOSMA-τ PDR code - I. Dust modelling
• The evolution of the star formation rate function and cosmic star formation rate density of galaxies at $z\sim 1-4$
• The Properties of Hα Emission-Line Galaxies at z = 2.24

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Linking gas and galaxies at high redshift: MUSE surveys the environments of six damped Lyman alpha galaxies at z~3
• The high redshift SFR-M* relation is sensitive to the employed star formation rate and stellar mass indicators: Towards addressing the tension between observations and simulations
• An evolving and mass dependent ${\sigma }_{\text{sSFR}}$-${\mathrm{M}}_{\star }$ relation for galaxies
• The cosmic spectral energy distribution in the EAGLE simulation
• Testing Galaxy Formation Simulations with Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Abundance and Metallicity Evolution