Achieving convergence in galaxy formation models by augmenting N-body merger trees

Benson, A.J.; Cannella, C.; Cole, S.

Abstract

Accurate modeling of galaxy formation in a hierarchical, cold dark matter universe requires the use of sufficiently high-resolution merger trees to obtain convergence in the predicted properties of galaxies. When semi-analytic galaxy formation models are applied to cosmological N-body simulation merger trees, it is often the case that those trees have insufficient resolution to give converged galaxy properties. We demonstrate a method to augment the resolution of N-body merger trees by grafting in branches of Monte Carlo merger trees with higher resolution, but which are consistent with the pre-existing branches in the N-body tree. We show that this approach leads to converged galaxy properties.

Citation

Benson, A., Cannella, C., & Cole, S. (2016). Achieving convergence in galaxy formation models by augmenting N-body merger trees. Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology, 3, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40668-016-0016-3

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 17, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Aug 22, 2016
• Publication Date: Aug 22, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 28, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 6, 2016
• Journal: Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology
• Electronic ISSN: 2197-7909
• Publisher: SpringerOpen
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3
• Article Number: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40668-016-0016-3
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1373942