Coupling semi-analytic models and N-body simulations: a new way of making galaxies and stellar halos
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Stellar halos give insight into the initial conditions that existed when a host galaxy first formed and provide details on disrupted satellites via their different stellar populations. An algorithm that is computationally inexpensive compared to hydrodynamic simulations is necessary in order to theoretically study the structure and formation of galactic stellar halos in sufficient detail to probe substructure. CoSANG (Coupling Semi-Analytic/N-body Galaxies) is a new computational method that we are developing which couples pure dark matter N-body simulations with a semi-analytic galaxy formation model. At each timestep, results from the N-body simulation feed into the semi-analytic code, whose results feed back into the N-body code making the evolution of the dark matter and baryonic matter dependent on one another. CoSANG will enable a variety of galaxy formation science, including analysis of stellar populations, halo merging, satellite accretion, supermassive black holes, and indirect and direct dark matter detection. In this dissertation, I will describe the new simulation code CoSANG. The results from the extensive testing phase on CoSANG will be presented which indicate CoSANG is properly simulating feedback from galaxies within a dark matter halo. I used this validated code to analyze a CoSANG zoom simulation of a