The alignment of satellite galaxies in gasdynamic simulations

• Applicant: Dr. Noam Isaac Libeskind
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2010 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 174302666

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

The project sought to understand how usual or unusual the satellites of the Milky Way are, by examining their spatial orientation. The observed spatial orientation of these galaxies appears naively at odds with what the theory of galaxy and structure formation would predict. Therefore we sought out to quantify how often, if at all, such set ups were seen in simulations that employ dark matter, gas dynamics and star formation. My research cemented my role as an expert in the field of small scale structure within the main cosmological model. I developed techniques to quantify larger scales as well, from a theoretical standpoint and made contributions to our understanding of the local velocity field. Surprisingly the most important discovery we made is how the Milky Ways satellite system is related to the larger scales. It is this binding between the small and large scales that appears to be the most important aspect of the problem of the Milky Ways satellites. A popular science article was authored in Scientific American on this subject: Dwarf Galaxies and the Cosmic Web, 2014 Scientific American, 310, 46-51 (by N I Libeskind).

Publications

• Mismatch and Misalignment: Dark Haloes and Satellites of Disc Galaxies. 2011, MNRAS 415, 2607
  A J Deason, I G McCarthy, A Font, N. W. Evans, C. S. Frenk, V Belokurov, N I Libeskind, R A Crain & T Theuns
  
• The Preferred Direction of Infalling Satellite Galaxies in the Local Group. 2011 MNRAS 411, 1525
  N I Libeskind, A Knebe, Y Hoffman, S Gottlober, G Yepes, & M Steinmetz
  
• A kinematical classification of the Cosmic Web, 2012 MNRAS 425, 2049
  Y Hoffman, O Metuki, G. Yepes S, Gottlober, J Forero-Romero, N I Libeskind & A Knebe
  
• The cosmic web and the orientation of angular momenta, 2012 MNRAS Letters 421, 137
  N I Libeskind, Y Hoffman, A Knebe, M Steinmetz, S Gottlober, O Metuki & G. Yepes
  
• Cosmic vorticity and the origin halo spins 2013 ApJ Letters, 766, L15
  N I Libeskind, Y Hoffman, M Steinmetz, S Gottlober, A Knebe & S Hess
  
• The velocity shear tensor: tracer of halo alignment, 2013 MNRAS, 428, 2489
  N I Libeskind, Y Hoffman, J Forero-Romero, S Gottlober, A Knebe, M Steinmetz, & A Klypin