Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The evolution of Lyman-break galaxies in the cold dark matter model

Lacey, C.G.; Baugh, C.M.; Frenk, C.S.; Benson, A.J.

The evolution of Lyman-break galaxies in the cold dark matter model Thumbnail


Authors

A.J. Benson



Abstract

We make a detailed investigation of the properties of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) in the ΛCDM model. We present predictions for two published variants of the GALFORM semi-analytical model: the Baugh et al. model, which has star formation at high redshifts dominated by merger-driven starbursts with a top-heavy initial mass function (IMF), and the Bower et al. (2006) model, which has active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback and a standard solar neighbourhood IMF throughout. We show predictions for the evolution of the rest-frame far-UV luminosity function in the redshift range z= 3–20, and compare with the observed luminosity functions of LBGs at z= 3–10. We find that the Baugh et al. model is in excellent agreement with these observations, while the Bower et al. model predicts too many high-luminosity LBGs. Dust extinction, which is predicted self-consistently based on galaxy gas contents, metallicities and sizes, is found to have a large effect on LBG luminosities. We compare predictions for the size evolution of LBGs at different luminosities with observational data for 2 ≲z≲ 7, and find the Baugh et al. model to be in good agreement. We present predictions for stellar, halo and gas masses, star formation rates, circular velocities, bulge-to-disc ratios, gas and stellar metallicities and clustering bias, as functions of far-UV luminosity and redshift. We find a broad consistency with current observational constraints. We then present predictions for the abundance and angular sizes of LBGs out to very high redshift (z≤ 20), finding that planned deep surveys with JWST should detect objects out to z≲ 15. We predict that the effects of dust extinction on the far-UV luminosity density should be large (∼2 mag), even out to high redshifts. The typical UV luminosities of galaxies are predicted to be very low at high redshifts, which has implications for detecting the galaxies responsible for reionizing the intergalactic medium; for example, at z= 10, 50 per cent of the ionizing photons are expected to be produced by galaxies fainter than MAB(1500 Å) − 5 log h∼−15.

Citation

Lacey, C., Baugh, C., Frenk, C., & Benson, A. (2011). The evolution of Lyman-break galaxies in the cold dark matter model. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 412(3), 1828-1852. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.18021.x

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Apr 11, 2011
Deposit Date Jan 27, 2012
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 412
Issue 3
Pages 1828-1852
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.18021.x
Keywords Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: formation, Galaxies: high-redshift.
Related Public URLs http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011MNRAS.412.1828L

Files

Published Journal Article (1.2 Mb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2011 RAS. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations