Soft X-rays from disk galaxy halos, Ly-alpha emission from forming galaxies, and the z~1 Tu.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 5 1 2 4 8 5 v 1 1 9 D e c 2 0 0 5 X-RAYS FROM DISK GALAXY HALOS, LYα FROM FORMING GALAXIES, AND THE Z ～ 1 TF RELATION Jesper Sommer-Larsen Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark jslarsen@tac.dk Abstract Extended, soft X-ray emission from the halo of a very large disk galaxy has been detected. The luminosity and surface brightness distribution is in excellent agreement with predictions by recent, cosmological galaxy formation models. Predicted Lyα emission, associated with “cold” accretion of filamentary gas onto galaxies, is discussed in relation to Lyα “blobs”. Finally, the predicted evolution of the Tully-Fisher relation, going from z=0 to 1, is discussed in relation to recent observations. Keywords: Cosmology – Galaxies – Numerical Simulations 1. X-ray emission from disk galaxy haloes Disk galaxies continue forming to the present day, as evidenced by, e.g., infall of high-velocity clouds and satellite galaxies. Self-consistent models of disk galaxy formation predict that, at present, part of the inflowing gas orig- inates as hot and dilute, low-metallicity halo gas, slowly cooling out and ac- creting onto the disk (e.g., Abadi et al. 2003, Sommer-Larsen et al. 2003, Governato et al. 2004, Robertson et al. 2004). The X-ray luminosity of the hot halo is predicted to increase strongly with galaxy mass, and the haloes of the most massive galaxies should be detectable (Toft et al. 2002, Rasmussen et al. 2004). Searches for this hot halo gas have so far failed to detect such soft X-rays, challenging galaxy formation theory. Moreover, it has been suggested that for galaxies of total mass less than a few times 10 11M⊙, most gas stays cold during the accretion onto the galaxy (apart from a very transient radiative shock phase, e.g., Birnboim Dekel 2003; Dekel Birnboim 2005; next sec- tion). This may result in reduced halo X-ray emission. On the other h