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The origin of the galaxy color bimodality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2016

M. A. Aragón-Calvo ,
Mark C. Neyrinck  and
Joseph Silk
M. A. Aragón-Calvo
Affiliation:
Dept. Physics and Astronomy, Univ. California, Riverside, CA, USA. email: maragon@ucr.edu Dept. Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Mark C. Neyrinck
Affiliation:
Dept. Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Joseph Silk
Affiliation:
Dept. Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Institut d Astrophysique de Paris, Univ. Paris VI, 98 bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
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Abstract

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The star formation history of galaxies is a complex process usually considered to be stochastic in nature, for which we can only give average descriptions such as the color-density relation. In this work we follow star-forming gas particles in a hydrodynamical N-body simulation back in time in order to study their initial spatial configuration. By keeping record of the time when a gas particle started forming stars we can produce Lagrangian gas-star isochrone surfaces delineating the surfaces of accreting gas that begin producing stars at different times. These surfaces form a complex a network of filaments in Eulerian space from which galaxies accrete cold gas. Lagrangian accretion surfaces are closely packed inside dense regions, intersecting each other, and as a result galaxies inside proto-clusters stop accreting gas early, naturally explaining the color dependence on density. The process described here has a purely gravitational / geometrical origin, arguably operating at a more fundamental level than complex processes such as AGN and supernovae, and providing a conceptual origin for the color-density relation.

Keywords

Large-scale structure of Universe; Galaxy formationN-body simulations
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 11 , Symposium S308: The Zeldovich Universe: Genesis and Growth of the Cosmic Web , June 2014 , pp. 383 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

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