The impact of baryon physics on the structure of high-redshift galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses advanced cosmological simulations to analyze how baryon physics influences the structure and evolution of high-redshift galaxies, revealing detailed insights into their stellar, gas, and dark matter components.

Contribution

It introduces improved modeling of molecular hydrogen formation and star formation in simulations, providing new understanding of galaxy and dark matter halo structures at high redshift.

Findings

Molecular gas is more concentrated than atomic gas, leading to compact stellar distributions.

Dark matter halos contract and become more oblate in response to baryon dissipation.

Inner dark matter angular momentum is conserved, supporting halo contraction models.

Abstract

We study the detailed structure of galaxies at redshifts z > 2 using cosmological simulations with improved modeling of the interstellar medium and star formation. The simulations follow the formation and dissociation of molecular hydrogen, and include star formation only in cold molecular gas. The molecular gas is more concentrated towards the center of galaxies than the atomic gas, and as a consequence, the resulting stellar distribution is very compact. For halos with total mass above 10^{11} Mo, the median half-mass radius of the stellar disks is 0.8 kpc at z = 3. The vertical structure of the molecular disk is much thinner than that of the atomic neutral gas. Relative to the non-radiative run, the inner regions of the dark matter halo change shape from prolate to mildly oblate and align with the stellar disk. However, we do not find evidence for a significant dark disk of dark matter around the stellar disk. The outer halo regions retain the orientation acquired during accretion and mergers, and are significantly misaligned with the inner regions. The radial profile of the dark matter halo contracts in response to baryon dissipation, establishing an approximately isothermal profile throughout most of the halo. This effect can be accurately described by a modified model of halo contraction. The angular momentum of a fixed amount of inner dark matter is approximately conserved over time, while in the dissipationless case most of it is transferred outward during mergers. The conservation of the dark matter angular momentum provides supporting evidence for the validity of the halo contraction model in a hierarchical galaxy formation process.