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Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model

Lee, Jaehyun; Yi, Sukyoung K.; Elahi, Pascal J.; Thomas, Peter A.; Pearce, Frazer R.; Behroozi, Peter; Han, Jiaxin; Helly, John; Jung, Intae; Knebe, Alexander; Mao, Yao-Yuan; Onions, Julian; Rodriguez-Gomez, Vincente; Schneider, Aurel; Srisawat, Chaichalit; Tweed, Dylan

Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model Thumbnail


Authors

Jaehyun Lee

Sukyoung K. Yi

Pascal J. Elahi

Peter A. Thomas

Frazer R. Pearce

Peter Behroozi

Jiaxin Han

John Helly

Intae Jung

Alexander Knebe

Yao-Yuan Mao

Julian Onions

Vincente Rodriguez-Gomez

Aurel Schneider

Chaichalit Srisawat

Dylan Tweed



Abstract

A halo merger tree forms the essential backbone of a semi-analytic model for galaxy formation and evolution. Recent studies have pointed out that extracting merger trees from numerical simulations of structure formation is non-trivial; different tree building algorithms can give differing merger histories. These differences should be carefully understood before merger trees are used as input for models of galaxy formation. We investigate the impact of different halo merger trees on a semi-analytic model. We find that the z = 0 galaxy properties in our model show differences between trees when using a common parameter set. The star formation history of the universe and the properties of satellite galaxies can show marked differences between trees with different construction methods. Independently calibrating the semi-analytic model for each tree can reduce the discrepancies between the z = 0 global galaxy properties, at the cost of increasing the differences in the evolutionary histories of galaxies. Furthermore, the underlying physics implied can vary, resulting in key quantities such as the supernova feedback efficiency differing by factors of 2. Such a change alters the regimes where star formation is primarily suppressed by supernovae. Therefore, halo merger trees extracted from a common halo catalogue using different, but reliable, algorithms can result in a difference in the semi-analytic model. Given the uncertainties in galaxy formation physics, however, these differences may not necessarily be viewed as significant.

Citation

Lee, J., Yi, S. K., Elahi, P. J., Thomas, P. A., Pearce, F. R., Behroozi, P., Han, J., Helly, J., Jung, I., Knebe, A., Mao, Y.-Y., Onions, J., Rodriguez-Gomez, V., Schneider, A., Srisawat, C., & Tweed, D. (2014). Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445(4), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2039

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 29, 2014
Publication Date Nov 3, 2014
Deposit Date May 8, 2017
Publicly Available Date May 8, 2017
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 445
Issue 4
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2039
Keywords methods: numerical, galaxies: evolution, galaxies: formation, galaxies: haloes
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/740039
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2039
Contract Date May 8, 2017

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