Massive quiescent galaxies at z > 3 in the Millennium simulation populated by a semi-analytic galaxy formation model

Rong, Yu; Jing, Yingjie; Gao, Liang; Guo, Qi; Wang, Jie; Sun, Shuangpeng; Wang, Lin; Pan, Jun

Abstract

We take advantage of the statistical power of the large-volume dark-matter-only Millennium simulation (MS), combined with a sophisticated semi-analytic galaxy formation model, to explore whether the recently reported z = 3.7 quiescent galaxy ZF-COSMOS-20115 (ZF) can be accommodated in current galaxy formation models. In our model, a population of quiescent galaxies with stellar masses and star formation rates comparable to those of ZF naturally emerges at redshifts z < 4. There are two and five ZF analogues at the redshifts 3.86 and 3.58, respectively, in the MS volume. We demonstrate that, while the z > 3.5 massive QGs are rare (about 2 per cent of the galaxies with the similar stellar masses), the existing AGN feedback model implemented in the semi-analytic galaxy formation model can successfully explain the formation of the high-redshift QGs as it does on their lower redshift counterparts.

Citation

Rong, Y., Jing, Y., Gao, L., Guo, Q., Wang, J., Sun, S., …Pan, J. (2017). Massive quiescent galaxies at z > 3 in the Millennium simulation populated by a semi-analytic galaxy formation model. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 471(1), L36-L40. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slx099

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 14, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 16, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 11, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 12, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 12, 2017
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-3933
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 471
• Issue: 1
• Pages: L36-L40
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slx099
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1342874