Le 1 mars 2013
À 10h30
Salle de Cours – Grande Coupole
Benjamin MOSTER
MPIA Garching
Ab initio galaxy formation models such as hydrodynamic simulations and semi-analytic models assume a physically motivated model and try to predict statistical properties, e.g. the stellar mass function. However, despite substantial progress, simplified and uncertain recipes must still be employed to model the formation of stars and black holes and the associated feedback processes. An alternative approach is to link galaxies and haloes statistically using the ‘subhalo abundance matching’ method. To this end we employ a redshift dependent parameterization of the stellar-to-halo mass relation, populate haloes and subhaloes in the Millennium simulations with galaxies and require that the observed stellar mass functions at different redshifts be reproduced simultaneously. The resulting relation is used in combination with merger trees extracted from the simulations in order to predict the mean assembly histories of the stellar mass components. I will discuss how this method can constrain the physical processes of galaxy formation, and present predictions of galaxy properties at high redshift.