Galaxy Gradients Across Simulations
Abstract
We are examining and comparing the age and metallicity gradients of galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamical zoom simulations across different codes. Usually, when we attempt to simulate galaxies in order to understand these gradients and on a larger scale, galaxy formation theory, the focus tends to be on galaxies of similar mass and size to the Milky Way, within a single code and simulation. What is not well explored is how age and metallicity gradients of galaxies vary over different simulations and codes. We examined several galaxies both qualitatively and quantitatively between codes and across redshifts and we see that the age and metallicity gradients each follow similar qualitative trends. We observe that age gradients seem to show that the age of the stellar population decreases with radius within the disk and increases with radius as the population becomes halo dominant. Additionally, the metallicity fraction decreases with radius consistently, and over time, the overall metallicity fraction at each radius also generally decreases. However, while the qualitative trends remain the same, there are numerous quantitative variations in the gradients between codes at the same redshift and within a single code at different redshifts including in the positions and ages of the youngest stars and the metallicities observed at each radius. Studying these differences across simulations and codes, and comparing these to observations, is a powerful way for us to better constrain galaxy formation models.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23314505M