TY - JOUR
T1 - The evolution of the star formation rate function in the EAGLE simulations
T2 - A comparison with UV, IR and Hα observations from z ~ 8 to z ~ 0
AU - Katsianis, A.
AU - Blanc, G.
AU - Lagos, C. P.
AU - Tejos, N.
AU - Bower, R. G.
AU - Alavi, A.
AU - Gonzalez, V.
AU - Theuns, T.
AU - Schaller, M.
AU - Lopez, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
on the subject. We would also like to thank Carlotta Gruppi-oni, Kenneth Duncan, Naveen Reddy, Richard Bouwens, Renske Smit, David Sobral, Shaghayegh Parsa, Chun Ly, Harsit Patel, Aaron Robotham, Lucia Marchetti and Tom Mauch for making their results publicly available. This work used the DiRAC Data Centric system at Durham University, operated by the Institute for Computational Cosmology on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). AK is supported by the CONICYT/FONDECYT fellowship, project number: 3160049. GB is supported by CONICYT/FONDECYT, Programa de Inicia-cion, Folio 11150220. NT acknowledges support from CONICYT PAI/82140055. SL has been supported by CONICYT/FONDECYT, grant number 1140838.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2017/11/21
Y1 - 2017/11/21
N2 - We investigate the evolution of the galaxy star formation rate function (SFRF) and cosmic star formation rate density (CSFRD) of z ~ 0-8 galaxies in the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) simulations. In addition, we present a compilation of ultraviolet, infrared and Hα 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 ~ 0-8 as well. We demonstrate that supernovae 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 ~1-10M⊙ yr-1 dominate the CSFRD at redshifts z ≤ 5, while rare high star-forming galaxies (SFR ~10-100M⊙ yr-1) contribute significantly only briefly around the peak era (z ~ 2) and then are quenched by AGN feedback. In the absence of this prescription objects with SFR ~10-100M⊙ yr-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 haloes (MHalo ~ 1011-13M⊙) even at the earliest epochs.
AB - We investigate the evolution of the galaxy star formation rate function (SFRF) and cosmic star formation rate density (CSFRD) of z ~ 0-8 galaxies in the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) simulations. In addition, we present a compilation of ultraviolet, infrared and Hα 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 ~ 0-8 as well. We demonstrate that supernovae 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 ~1-10M⊙ yr-1 dominate the CSFRD at redshifts z ≤ 5, while rare high star-forming galaxies (SFR ~10-100M⊙ yr-1) contribute significantly only briefly around the peak era (z ~ 2) and then are quenched by AGN feedback. In the absence of this prescription objects with SFR ~10-100M⊙ yr-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 haloes (MHalo ~ 1011-13M⊙) even at the earliest epochs.
KW - Cosmology: theory
KW - Galaxies: evolution
KW - Galaxies: formation
KW - Galaxies: luminosity function
KW - Galaxies: star formation
KW - Mass function
KW - Methods: numerical
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042523886&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stx2020
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stx2020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85042523886
VL - 472
SP - 919
EP - 939
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
SN - 0035-8711
IS - 1
ER -