The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos

The stellar halos of galaxies encode their accretion histories. In particular, the median metallicity of a halo is determined primarily by the mass of the most massive accreted object. We use hydrodynamical cosmological simulations from the apostle project to study the connection between the stellar...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Kyle A. Oman, Else Starkenburg, Julio F. Navarro
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	MDPI AG 2017-08-01
Series:	Galaxies
Subjects:	galaxy formation and evolution stellar halo numerical simulations
Online Access:	https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/5/3/33

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spelling	doaj-8ad1ca342f6848d7a7b2d25432923f5a2020-11-24T21:54:10ZengMDPI AGGalaxies2075-44342017-08-01533310.3390/galaxies5030033galaxies5030033The “Building Blocks” of Stellar HalosKyle A. Oman0Else Starkenburg1Julio F. Navarro2Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaLeibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, GermanyDepartment of Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaThe stellar halos of galaxies encode their accretion histories. In particular, the median metallicity of a halo is determined primarily by the mass of the most massive accreted object. We use hydrodynamical cosmological simulations from the apostle project to study the connection between the stellar mass, the metallicity distribution, and the stellar age distribution of a halo and the identity of its most massive progenitor. We find that the stellar populations in an accreted halo typically resemble the old stellar populations in a present-day dwarf galaxy with a stellar mass ∼0.2–0.5 dex greater than that of the stellar halo. This suggests that had they not been accreted, the primary progenitors of stellar halos would have evolved to resemble typical nearby dwarf irregulars.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/5/3/33galaxy formation and evolutionstellar halonumerical simulations
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Kyle A. Oman Else Starkenburg Julio F. Navarro
spellingShingle	Kyle A. Oman Else Starkenburg Julio F. Navarro The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos Galaxies galaxy formation and evolution stellar halo numerical simulations
author_facet	Kyle A. Oman Else Starkenburg Julio F. Navarro
author_sort	Kyle A. Oman
title	The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos
title_short	The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos
title_full	The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos
title_fullStr	The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos
title_full_unstemmed	The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos
title_sort	“building blocks” of stellar halos
publisher	MDPI AG
series	Galaxies
issn	2075-4434
publishDate	2017-08-01
description	The stellar halos of galaxies encode their accretion histories. In particular, the median metallicity of a halo is determined primarily by the mass of the most massive accreted object. We use hydrodynamical cosmological simulations from the apostle project to study the connection between the stellar mass, the metallicity distribution, and the stellar age distribution of a halo and the identity of its most massive progenitor. We find that the stellar populations in an accreted halo typically resemble the old stellar populations in a present-day dwarf galaxy with a stellar mass ∼0.2–0.5 dex greater than that of the stellar halo. This suggests that had they not been accreted, the primary progenitors of stellar halos would have evolved to resemble typical nearby dwarf irregulars.
topic	galaxy formation and evolution stellar halo numerical simulations
url	https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/5/3/33
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The “Building Blocks” of Stellar Halos

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