Cosmic Star Formation: a simple model of the SFRD(z)

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple, effective model for the evolution of cosmic star formation rate density that aligns well with observations and allows testing of various galaxy formation assumptions.

Contribution

It introduces a straightforward model combining galaxy star formation histories and hierarchical structure growth to reproduce observed SFRD(z).

Findings

Model successfully mimics complex N-body simulation results.

Time-delayed star formation with feedback reproduces observed SFRD(z).

Model tests different assumptions on feedback and winds.

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD) from redshift z=20 to z=0 and compare it with the observational one by Madau and Dickinson derived from recent compilations of UV and IR data. The theoretical SFRD(z) and its evolution are obtained using a simple model which folds together the star formation histories of prototype galaxies designed to represent real objects of different morphological type along the Hubble sequence and the hierarchical growing of structures under the action of gravity from small perturbations to large scale objects in \Lambda-CDM cosmogony, i.e. the number density of dark matter halos N(M,z). Although the overall model is very simple and easy to set up, it provides results that well mimic those obtained from large scale N-body simulations of great complexity. The simplicity of our approach allows us to test different assumptions for the star formation law in galaxies, the effects of energy feedback from stars to interstellar gas and the efficiency of galactic winds, and also the effect of N(M,z). The result of our analysis is that in the framework of the hierarchical assembly of galaxies the so-called time-delayed star formation under plain assumptions mainly for the energy feedback and galactic winds can reproduce the observational SFRD(z).