Towards a Predictive Theory of Galaxy Formation: Cosmological Gas Accretion and Galactic Outflows

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Cosmological simulations of galaxy formation provide the most complete approach for understanding the evolution of structure in the universe. The ultimate goal of such simulations is to trace the formation of galaxies from first principles; but the enormous dynamic range, and the many poorly understood physical effects involving baryonic matter in galaxies, make this an extremely difficult computational challenge. In this project, a model for the visible universe will be constructed using state-of-the-art cosmological simulations. The simulations will include both dark matter and baryons, and will employ a novel moving mesh technique implemented in the new code AREPO. Using convergence tests, it will be possible to determine which results are robust to variations in the treatment of star formation, black hole growth, and feedback, which will be handled in ways that are more physically motivated than in earlier studies. The scientific effort will focus on understanding: 1) the formation of galactic disks in a cosmological context and the impact of feedback on galaxy morphology and kinematics; 2) the nature of gas inflows into galaxy halos and the accretion of gas by disks; 3) the interaction between accreted gas and galactic outflows of chemically enriched material and consequences for the circumgalactic medium; and 4) the co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes. The simulation results, including snapshots of the full simulations, galaxy catalogs, images, and videos, will be made available to the research community through a web-based interface. The project will support the work of a postdoctoral scholar and a graduate student; in addition, a series of lectures will be developed to be given to high school students in Cambridge, MA on topics covering the evolution of the Universe and its constituents.