title: The quenching of star formation in galaxies
creator: Gutcke, Thales Nion Ada
subject: 000
subject: 000 Generalities, Science
subject: 520
subject: 520 Astronomy and allied sciences
subject: 530
subject: 530 Physics
description: This thesis is concerned with investigating what makes star formation inefficient in galaxies. Cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation show that the energy produced in stars, supernova explosions and active galactic nuclei must couple back into a galaxy’s interstellar medium to prevent excess star formation. However, the physical processes at work in this feedback loop are not well understood. This thesis unravels the details of the baryon cycle to constrain the strength  of feedback. The first part explores a phenomenological model of star formation quenching in massive galaxies, showing that gas starvation is a viable pathway to realistic elliptical galaxies. In the second part, a state-of-the-art implementation of stellar feedback is put to the test by comparing the chemical composition of the circum-galactic medium with the latest observations. The simulations exhibit a deficiency in highly ionized oxygen, indicating that models of thermally coupled feedback may be insufficient. The last part delves into the star formation prescription itself, since this directly affects the resulting stellar feedback cycle. An empirical model of a metallicity-dependent stellar initial mass function reveals the significant uncertainty resulting from the common assumption  of its universality. Thus, this analysis links star formation processes with stellar feedback and shows how they affect the baryon cycle of entire galaxy ecosystems.
date: 2018
type: Dissertation
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/24468/1/PhD.pdf
identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00024468
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-244685
identifier:   Gutcke, Thales Nion Ada  (2018) The quenching of star formation in galaxies.  [Dissertation]     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/24468/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/help/license_urhg.html
language: eng