Modelling of resolved scaling relations in simulated galaxies
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2023
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Abstract
We developed a new numerical tool, called SpecGSG (i.e. Spectra Generator of Simulated Galaxies), which aims to generate synthetic spectra of simulated galaxies in order to improve comparisons between simulations and observations. Through this code we can obtain spatially resolved spectral information that considers the contribution of stellar populations and the nebular emission produced by gas close to young stellar populations. A fundamental aspect of this tool, and what differentiates it from other previous works (e.g., Nanni et al. 2022), is that the nebular emission is calculated based on the properties of the gas surrounding recently born stellar populations. This code allowed us to study both the intrinsic properties of the simulations and the properties we derived from their synthetic spectra. From the intrinsic properties of the simulations we found an anti-correlation between the ionization parameter and gas metallicity. Additionally, we used SpecGSG to recover spatially resolved scaling relations using the synthetic spectra generated from the simulated galaxies in local regions. In particular, we focused on two scaling relations: (1) the spatially resolved star-forming main sequence (rSFMS), i.e. the relationship between the Star Formation Rate surface density (ΣSFR) and the stellar mass surface density (Σ∗), and (2) the spatially resolved mass-metallicity relation (rMZR), i.e. the relationship between the gas-phase metallicity and Σ∗. From these synthetic spectra, we found that the metallicity has a first dependence on Σ∗ and a second dependence on ΣSFR. This agrees with results obtained in observations of galaxies. Therefore, SpecGSG allows us to calculate the properties of the simulations from a more observational way, improving comparisons between observational and simulation data. At the moment, SpecGSG only implements a simple model of dust that downgrades the spectra due to its presence in the star-forming regions. The treatment of dust attenuation and re-emission along the line of sight between each emitting source and the observer, will be implemented in a future work.
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Tesis (Master in Astrophysics)--Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2023