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arXiv 1008.4252astro-ph.CO
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局域宇宙的恒星相密度及其对星系演化的意义

The Stellar Phase Density of the Local Universe and its Implications for Galaxy Evolution

Michael R. Merrifield

摘要:

本文介绍了这样一种思想,即演化的恒星相密度所服从的一般混合不等式可能对整个星系人口的可能历史产生有用的约束。我们构建简单的模型,星系的磁盘和球状组件的完整的恒星相空间分布,并重现众所周知的结果,椭圆星系的最大相位密度太高,产生无碰撞的磁盘系统,虽然我们也表明,包括在磁盘中的凸起组件消除了这种进化的障碍。为了得出更普遍的结论,星系人口的演变,我们使用千年星系目录构建一个模型的整个相位密度分布的恒星在一个有代表性的样本的本地宇宙。在这样一个复合人口,我们表明,混合不等式排除了一些进化路径,不禁止单独考虑的最大相密度,从而表明,在这个人口中的大规模椭圆形不可能形成纯粹的碰撞合并的低质量星系人口一样,在本地宇宙中发现。虽然在这种情况下,对混合不等式的破坏是相当小的,因此在合并过程中可以避免少量的非碰撞恒星形成,但它确实证实了这种方法的潜力。未来在更高的红移下测量恒星相密度将使这种潜力得到充分利用,提供一种新的方式来看待星系演化的可能途径,并通过这种相空间随着时间的推移变得充满的方式来了解恒星形成的环境。

英文摘要:

This paper introduces the idea that the general mixing inequality obeyed by evolving stellar phase densities may place useful constraints on the possible history of the over-all galaxy population. We construct simple models for the full stellar phase space distributions of galaxies' disk and spheroidal components, and reproduce the well-known result that the maximum phase density of an elliptical galaxy is too high to be produced collisionlessly from a disk system, although we also show that the inclusion of a bulge component in the disk removes this evolutionary impediment. In order to draw more general conclusions about the evolution of the galaxy population, we use the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue to construct a model of the entire phase density distribution of stars in a representative sample of the local Universe. In such a composite population, we show that the mixing inequality rules out some evolutionary paths that are not prohibited by consideration of the maximum phase density alone, and thus show that the massive ellipticals in this population could not have formed purely from collisionless mergers of a low mass galaxy population like that found in the local Universe. Although the violation of the mixing inequality is in this case quite minor, and hence avoidable with a modest amount of non-collisionless star formation in the merger process, it does confirm the potential of this approach. The future measurement of stellar phase densities at higher redshift will allow this potential to be fully exploited, offering a new way to look at the possible pathways for galaxy evolution, and to learn about the environment of star formation through the way that this phase space becomes populated over time.

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