Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model
A halo merger tree forms the essential backbone of a semi-analytic model for galaxy formation and evolution. Recent studies have pointed out that extracting merger trees from numerical simulations of structure formation is non-trivial; different tree building algorithms can give differing merger his...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42580/ |
| _version_ | 1848796518378635264 |
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| author | Lee, Jaehyun Yi, Sukyoung K. Elahi, Pascal J. Thomas, Peter A. Pearce, Frazer R. Behroozi, Peter Han, Jiaxin Helly, John Jung, Intae Knebe, Alexander Mao, Yao-Yuan Onions, Julian Rodriguez-Gomez, Vincente Schneider, Aurel Srisawat, Chaichalit Tweed, Dylan |
| author_facet | Lee, Jaehyun Yi, Sukyoung K. Elahi, Pascal J. Thomas, Peter A. Pearce, Frazer R. Behroozi, Peter Han, Jiaxin Helly, John Jung, Intae Knebe, Alexander Mao, Yao-Yuan Onions, Julian Rodriguez-Gomez, Vincente Schneider, Aurel Srisawat, Chaichalit Tweed, Dylan |
| author_sort | Lee, Jaehyun |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | A halo merger tree forms the essential backbone of a semi-analytic model for galaxy formation and evolution. Recent studies have pointed out that extracting merger trees from numerical simulations of structure formation is non-trivial; different tree building algorithms can give differing merger histories. These differences should be carefully understood before merger trees are used as input for models of galaxy formation. We investigate the impact of different halo merger trees on a semi-analytic model. We find that the z = 0 galaxy properties in our model show differences between trees when using a common parameter set. The star formation history of the universe and the properties of satellite galaxies can show marked differences between trees with different construction methods. Independently calibrating the semi-analytic model for each tree can reduce the discrepancies between the z = 0 global galaxy properties, at the cost of increasing the differences in the evolutionary histories of galaxies. Furthermore, the underlying physics implied can vary, resulting in key quantities such as the supernova feedback efficiency differing by factors of 2. Such a change alters the regimes where star formation is primarily suppressed by supernovae. Therefore, halo merger trees extracted from a common halo catalogue using different, but reliable, algorithms can result in a difference in the semi-analytic model. Given the uncertainties in galaxy formation physics, however, these differences may not necessarily be viewed as significant. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:49:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-42580 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:49:15Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-425802020-05-04T16:57:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42580/ Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model Lee, Jaehyun Yi, Sukyoung K. Elahi, Pascal J. Thomas, Peter A. Pearce, Frazer R. Behroozi, Peter Han, Jiaxin Helly, John Jung, Intae Knebe, Alexander Mao, Yao-Yuan Onions, Julian Rodriguez-Gomez, Vincente Schneider, Aurel Srisawat, Chaichalit Tweed, Dylan A halo merger tree forms the essential backbone of a semi-analytic model for galaxy formation and evolution. Recent studies have pointed out that extracting merger trees from numerical simulations of structure formation is non-trivial; different tree building algorithms can give differing merger histories. These differences should be carefully understood before merger trees are used as input for models of galaxy formation. We investigate the impact of different halo merger trees on a semi-analytic model. We find that the z = 0 galaxy properties in our model show differences between trees when using a common parameter set. The star formation history of the universe and the properties of satellite galaxies can show marked differences between trees with different construction methods. Independently calibrating the semi-analytic model for each tree can reduce the discrepancies between the z = 0 global galaxy properties, at the cost of increasing the differences in the evolutionary histories of galaxies. Furthermore, the underlying physics implied can vary, resulting in key quantities such as the supernova feedback efficiency differing by factors of 2. Such a change alters the regimes where star formation is primarily suppressed by supernovae. Therefore, halo merger trees extracted from a common halo catalogue using different, but reliable, algorithms can result in a difference in the semi-analytic model. Given the uncertainties in galaxy formation physics, however, these differences may not necessarily be viewed as significant. Oxford University Press 2014-11-03 Article PeerReviewed Lee, Jaehyun, Yi, Sukyoung K., Elahi, Pascal J., Thomas, Peter A., Pearce, Frazer R., Behroozi, Peter, Han, Jiaxin, Helly, John, Jung, Intae, Knebe, Alexander, Mao, Yao-Yuan, Onions, Julian, Rodriguez-Gomez, Vincente, Schneider, Aurel, Srisawat, Chaichalit and Tweed, Dylan (2014) Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445 (4). pp. 4197-4210. ISSN 1365-2966 methods: numerical galaxies: evolution galaxies: formation galaxies: haloes https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2039 doi:10.1093/mnras/stu2039 doi:10.1093/mnras/stu2039 |
| spellingShingle | methods: numerical galaxies: evolution galaxies: formation galaxies: haloes Lee, Jaehyun Yi, Sukyoung K. Elahi, Pascal J. Thomas, Peter A. Pearce, Frazer R. Behroozi, Peter Han, Jiaxin Helly, John Jung, Intae Knebe, Alexander Mao, Yao-Yuan Onions, Julian Rodriguez-Gomez, Vincente Schneider, Aurel Srisawat, Chaichalit Tweed, Dylan Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| title | Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| title_full | Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| title_fullStr | Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| title_short | Sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| title_sort | sussing merger trees: the impact of halo merger trees on galaxy properties in a semi-analytic model |
| topic | methods: numerical galaxies: evolution galaxies: formation galaxies: haloes |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42580/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42580/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42580/ |