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We introduce new high-resolution galaxy simulations accelerated by a surrogate model that reduces the computation cost by approximately 75 percent. Massive stars with a Zero Age Main Sequence mass of about 8 solar masses and above explode as core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), which play a critical role in galaxy formation. The energy released by CCSNe is essential for regulating star formation and driving feedback processes in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, the short integration timesteps required for SNe feedback present significant bottlenecks in star-by-star galaxy simulations that aim to capture individual stellar dynamics and the inhomogeneous shell expansion of SNe within the turbulent ISM. Our new framework combines direct numerical simulations and surrogate modeling, including machine learning and Gibbs sampling. The star formation history and the time evolution of outflow rates in the galaxy match those obtained from resolved direct numerical simulations. Our new approach achieves high-resolution fidelity while reducing computational costs, effectively bridging the physical scale gap and enabling multi-scale simulations., Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, submitted to ApJ

There are some traces of the existence of internal ocean in some icy moons, such as the vapor plumes of Europa and Enceladus. This implies a region of liquid water beneath the surface ice shell. Since liquid water would be essential for the origin of life, it is important to understand the development of these internal oceans, particularly their temperature distribution and evolution. The balance between tidal heating and radiative cooling is believed to sustain liquid water beneath an icy moon's surface. We aim to simulate the tidal heating of an internal ocean in an icy moon using 3-dimensional numerical fluid calculations with the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. We incorporated viscosity and thermal conduction terms into the governing equations of SPH. However, we encountered two issues while calculating rigid body rotation using SPH with a viscous term: (1) conventional viscosity formulations generated unphysical forces that hindered rotation, and (2) there was artificial internal energy partitioning within the layered structure, which was due to the standard SPH formulations. To address the first issue, we modified the viscosity formulation.For the second, we adopted Density Independent SPH (DISPH) developed in previous studies to improve behavior at discontinuous surfaces. Additionally, we implemented radiative cooling using an algorithm to define fluid surfaces via the particle method. We also introduced an equation of state accounting for phase transitions. With these modifications, we have refined the SPH method to encompass all necessary physical processes for simulating the evolution of icy moons with internal oceans., Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in New Astronomy

We study the formation of stars with varying amounts of heavy elements synthesized by the rapid neutron-capture process ($r$-process) based on our detailed cosmological zoom-in simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy with an $N$-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics code, ASURA. Most stars with no overabundance in $r$-process elements, as well as the strongly $r$-process enhanced $r$-II stars ([Eu/Fe] $>+0.7$), are formed in dwarf galaxies accreted by the Milky Way within the 6 Gyr after the Big Bang. In contrast, over half of the moderately enhanced $r$-I stars ($+0.3 <$ [Eu/Fe] $\leq +0.7$) are formed in the main in-situ disk after 6 Gyr. Our results suggest that the fraction of $r$-I and $r$-II stars formed in disrupted dwarf galaxies is larger the higher their [Eu/Fe] is. Accordingly, the most strongly enhanced $r$-III stars ([Eu/Fe] $> +2.0$) are formed in accreted components. These results suggest that non-$r$-process-enhanced stars and $r$-II stars are mainly formed in low-mass dwarf galaxies that hosted either none or a single neutron star merger, while the $r$-I stars tend to form in the well-mixed in-situ disk. We compare our findings with high-resolution spectroscopic observations of $r$-process-enhanced metal-poor stars in the halo and dwarf galaxies, including those collected by the R-Process Alliance. We conclude that observed [Eu/Fe] and [Eu/Mg] ratios can be employed in chemical tagging of the Milky Way's accretion history., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are those between 100 and 10$^5$ solar masses ($M_{\odot}$); their formation process is debated. One possible origin is the growth of less massive black holes (BHs) via mergers with stars and compact objects within globular clusters (GCs). However, previous simulations have indicated that this process only produces IMBHs $<500 M_{\odot}$ because the gravitational wave recoil ejects them when they merge with other BHs. We perform star-by-star simulations of GC formation, finding that high-density star formation in a GC's parent giant molecular cloud can produce sufficient mergers of massive stars to overcome that mass threshold. We conclude that GCs can form with IMBHs $\gtrsim 10^3 M_{\odot}$, which is sufficiently massive to be retained within the GC even with the expected gravitational wave recoil., Comment: Published online on 30 May 2024 in Science. Main (15 pages, 4 figures) and Supplementary materials (19 pages, 10 figures and 4 tables). The accepted version

Recent exoplanet observations have revealed a diversity of exoplanetary systems, which suggests the ubiquity of radial planetary migration. One powerful known mechanism of planetary migration is planetesimal-driven migration (PDM), which can let planets undergo significant migration through gravitational scattering with planetesimals. In this series of papers, we present the results of our high-resolution self-consistent $N$-body simulations of PDM, in which gravitational interactions among planetesimals, the gas drag, and Type-I migration are all taken into account. In this first paper (Paper I), we investigate the migration of a single planet through PDM within the framework of the classical standard disk model (the Minimum-Mass Solar Nebula model). Paper I aims to improve our understanding of planetary migration through PDM, addressing previously unexplored aspects of both the gravitational interactions among planetesimals and the interactions with disk gas. Our results show that even small protoplanets can actively migrate through PDM. Such active migration can act as a rapid radial diffusion mechanism for protoplanets and significantly influence the early stages of planetary formation (i.e., during the runaway growth phase). Moreover, a fair fraction of planets migrate outward. This outward migration may offer a potential solution for the ``planet migration problem" caused by Type-I migration and gives a natural mechanism for outward migration assumed in many recent scenarios for the formation of outer planets., Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan)

The chemical abundances of Milky Way's satellites reflect their star formation histories (SFHs), yet, due to the difficulty of determining the ages of old stars, the SFHs of most satellites are poorly measured. Ongoing and upcoming surveys will obtain around ten times more medium-resolution spectra for stars in satellites than are currently available. To correctly extract SFHs from large samples of chemical abundances, the relationship between chemical abundances and SFHs needs to be clarified. Here, we perform a high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy with detailed models of star formation, supernova feedback, and metal diffusion. We quantify SFHs, metallicity distribution functions, and the $\alpha$-element (Mg, Ca, and Si) abundances in satellites of the host galaxy. We find that star formation in most simulated satellites is quenched before infalling to their host. Star formation episodes in simulated satellites are separated by a few hundred Myr owing to supernova feedback; each star formation event produces groups of stars with similar [$\alpha$/Fe] and [Fe/H]. We then perform a mock observation of the upcoming Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) observations. We find that Subaru PFS will be able to detect distinct groups of stars in [$\alpha$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] space, produced by episodic star formation. This result means that episodic SFHs can be estimated from the chemical abundances of $\gtrsim$ 1,000 stars determined with medium-resolution spectroscopy., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We have studied the evolution of the central hundred pc region of barred galaxies by performing numerical simulations realizing multi-phase nature of gas. Our simulations have shown that a stellar bar produces an oval gas ring namely the $x$-2 ring within $1~{\rm kpc}$ as the bar grows. The ring is self-gravitationally unstable enough to trigger formations of gas clouds. Although the gas clouds initially rotate in the $x$-2 ring, cloud-cloud collisions and/or energy injections into the gas ring by Type II supernovae deviate some of the clouds from the ring orbit. After the deviation, the deviated clouds repeat collisions with the other clouds, which rotate in the $x$-2 ring, during several rotations. These processes effectively reduce the angular momentum of the deviated gas cloud. As a result, the gas cloud finally falls into the galactic center, and episodic gas supply to the galactic center takes place., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

The chemical composition of galaxies offers vital insights into their formation and evolution. A key aspect of this study is the correlation between helium abundance (He/H) and metallicity, which is instrumental in estimating the primordial helium generated by Big Bang nucleosynthesis. We study the chemical enrichment history of low-metallicity galaxies, specifically focusing on extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) and the first galaxies, using the one-zone model and cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. Our one-zone model, using the Limongi & Chieffi (2018) yield, aligns well with observed high He/H ratios at low metallicities and reproduces Fe/O ratios akin to EMPGs. Conversely, the Nomoto et al. (2013) yield does not fully match the high Fe/O ratios seen in EMPGs. Our cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of the first galaxy successfully replicate the stellar mass and star formation rate of galaxies like GN-z11 but fail to produce metallicity and high He/H at low O/H. This is consistent with the results of the one-zone model, which shows that the slope of the He/H-O/H relation is moderate in young, actively star-forming galaxies, suggesting the importance of using galaxies with similar star formation histories for the fit. These results highlight the need for high-resolution simulations and expanded observational datasets to refine our understanding of early galactic chemical evolution., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJ

Some stars are known to explode at the end of their lives, called supernovae (SNe). The substantial amount of matter and energy that SNe release provides significant feedback to star formation and gas dynamics in a galaxy. SNe release a substantial amount of matter and energy to the interstellar medium, resulting in significant feedback to star formation and gas dynamics in a galaxy. While such feedback has a crucial role in galaxy formation and evolution, in simulations of galaxy formation, it has only been implemented using simple {\it sub-grid models} instead of numerically solving the evolution of gas elements around SNe in detail due to a lack of resolution. We develop a method combining machine learning and Gibbs sampling to predict how a supernova (SN) affects the surrounding gas. The fidelity of our model in the thermal energy and momentum distribution outperforms the low-resolution SN simulations. Our method can replace the SN sub-grid models and help properly simulate un-resolved SN feedback in galaxy formation simulations. We find that employing our new approach reduces the necessary computational cost to $\sim$ 1 percent compared to directly resolving SN feedback., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for the NeurIPS 2023 AI4Science Workshop

We explore the influence of the Milky Way galaxy's chemical evolution on the formation, structure, and habitability of the Solar system. Using a multi-zone Galactic Chemical Evolution (GCE) model, we successfully reproduce key observational constraints, including the age-metallicity ([Fe/H]) relation, metallicity distribution functions, abundance gradients, and [X/Fe] ratio trends for critical elements involved in planetary mineralogy, including C, O, Mg, and Si. Our GCE model suggests that the Sun formed in the inner Galactic disc, $R_{\rm birth,\odot}\approx 5$ kpc. We also combined a stoichiometric model with the GCE model to examine the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of planet building blocks (PBBs) within the Milky Way galaxy, revealing trends in the condensed mass fraction ($f_{\rm cond}$), iron-to-silicon mass fraction ($f_{\rm iron}$), and water mass fraction ($f_{\rm water}$) over time and towards the inner Galactic disc regions. Specifically, our model predicts a higher $f_{\rm cond}$ in the protoplanetary disc within the inner regions of the Milky Way galaxy, as well as an increased $f_{\rm iron}$ and a decreased $f_{\rm water}$ in the inner regions. Based on these findings, we discuss the potential impact of the Sun's birth location on the overall structure and habitability of the Solar System., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

In the conventional theory of planet formation, it is assumed that protoplanetary disks are axisymmetric and have a smooth radial profile. However, recent radio observations of protoplanetary disks have revealed that many of them have complex radial structures. In this study, we perform a series of $N$-body simulations to investigate how planets are formed in protoplanetary disks with radial structures. For this purpose, we consider the effect of continuous pebble accretion onto the discontinuity boundary within the terrestrial planet-forming region ($\sim0.6$ AU). We found that protoplanets grow efficiently at the discontinuity boundary, reaching the Earth mass within $\sim10^4$ years. We confirmed that giant collisions of protoplanets occur universally in our model. Moreover, we found that multiple planet-sized bodies form at regular intervals in the vicinity of the discontinuity boundary. These results indicate the possibility of the formation of solar system-like planetary systems in radially structured protoplanetary disks., Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan). The paper is the same as v1, but comments on the paper status added

Supernova (SN) plays an important role in galaxy formation and evolution. In high-resolution galaxy simulations using massively parallel computing, short integration timesteps for SNe are serious bottlenecks. This is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved for future higher-resolution galaxy simulations. One possible solution would be to use the Hamiltonian splitting method, in which regions requiring short timesteps are integrated separately from the entire system. To apply this method to the particles affected by SNe in a smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulation, we need to detect the shape of the shell on and within which such SN-affected particles reside during the subsequent global step in advance. In this paper, we develop a deep learning model, 3D-MIM, to predict a shell expansion after a SN explosion. Trained on turbulent cloud simulations with particle mass $m_{\rm gas}=1$M$_\odot$, the model accurately reproduces the anisotropic shell shape, where densities decrease by over 10 per cent by the explosion. We also demonstrate that the model properly predicts the shell radius in the uniform medium beyond the training dataset of inhomogeneous turbulent clouds. We conclude that our model enables the forecast of the shell and its interior where SN-affected particles will be present., Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, accepted for MNRAS

Massive stars born in star clusters terminate star cluster formation by ionizing the surrounding gas. This process is considered to be prevalent in young star clusters containing massive stars. The Orion Nebula is an excellent example associated with a forming star cluster including several massive stars (the Orion Nebula Cluster; ONC) and a 2-pc size H{\sc ii} region (ionized bubble) opening toward the observer; however, the other side is still covered with dense molecular gas. Recent astrometric data acquired by the Gaia satellite revealed the stellar kinematics in this region. By comparing this data with star cluster formation simulation results, we demonstrate that massive stars born in the ONC center were ejected via three-body encounters. Further, orbit analysis indicates that $\theta^2$ Ori A, the second massive star in this region, was ejected from the ONC center toward the observer and is now returning to the cluster center. Such ejected massive stars can form a hole in the dense molecular cloud and contribute to the formation of the 2-pc bubble. Our results demonstrate that the dynamics of massive stars are essential for the formation of star clusters and H{\sc ii} regions that are not always centered by massive stars., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for MNRAS

The $r$-process-enhanced (RPE) stars provide fossil records of the assembly history of the Milky Way and the nucleosynthesis of the heaviest elements. Observations by the $R$-Process Alliance (RPA) and others have confirmed that many RPE stars are associated with chemo-dynamically tagged groups, which likely came from accreted dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way (MW). However, we do not know how RPE stars are formed. Here, we present the result of a cosmological zoom-in simulation of an MW-like galaxy with $r$-process enrichment, performed with the highest resolution in both time and mass. Thanks to this advancement, unlike previous simulations, we find that most highly RPE ($r$-II; [Eu/Fe] $> +0.7$) stars are formed in low-mass dwarf galaxies that have been enriched in $r$-process elements for [Fe/H] $\,<-2.5$, while those with higher metallicity are formed in situ, in locally enhanced gas clumps that were not necessarily members of dwarf galaxies. This result suggests that low-mass accreted dwarf galaxies are the main formation site of $r$-II stars with [Fe/H] $\,<-2.5$. We also find that most low-metallicity $r$-II stars exhibit halo-like kinematics. Some $r$-II stars formed in the same halo show low dispersions in [Fe/H] and somewhat larger dispersions of [Eu/Fe], similar to the observations. The fraction of simulated $r$-II stars is commensurate with observations from the RPA, and the distribution of the predicted [Eu/Fe] for halo $r$-II stars matches that observed. These results demonstrate that RPE stars can be valuable probes of the accretion of dwarf galaxies in the early stages of their formation., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, published in MNRAS

The Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) is an excellent example for understanding the formation of star clusters. Recent studies have shown that ONC has three distinct age populations and anisotropy in velocity dispersions, which are key characteristics for understanding the formation history of the ONC. In this study, we perform a smoothed-particle hydrodynamics/$N$-body simulation of star cluster formation from a turbulent molecular cloud. In this simulation, stellar orbits are integrated using a high-order integrator without gravitational softening; therefore, we can follow the collisional evolution of star clusters. We find that hierarchical formation causes episodic star formation that is observed in the ONC. In our simulation, star clusters evolve due to mergers of subclumps. The mergers bring cold gas with the clumps into the forming cluster. This enhances the star formation in the cluster centre. The dense cold gas in the cluster centre continues to form stars until the latest time. This explains the compact distribution of the youngest stars observed in the ONC. Subclump mergers also contribute to the anisotropy in the velocity dispersions and the formation of runaway stars. However, the anisotropy disappears within 0.5 Myr. The virial ratio of the cluster also increases after a merger due to the runaways. These results suggest that the ONC recently experienced a clump merger. We predict that most runaways originated from the ONC have already been found, but walkaways have not., Comment: 15 pages, 21 figures, and 3 tables, accepted for MNRAS

To study the resolution required for simulating gravitational fragmentation with newly developed Lagrangian hydrodynamic schemes, Meshless Finite Volume method (MFV) and Meshless Finite Mass method (MFM), we have performed a number of simulations of the Jeans test and compared the results with both the expected analytic solution and results from the more standard Lagrangian approach: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). We find that the different schemes converge to the analytic solution when the diameter of a fluid element is smaller than a quarter of the Jeans wavelength, $\lambda_\mathrm{J}$. Among the three schemes, SPH/MFV shows the fastest/slowest convergence to the analytic solution. Unlike the well-known behaviour of Eulerian schemes, none of the Lagrangian schemes investigated displays artificial fragmentation when the perturbation wavelength, $\lambda$, is shorter than $\lambda_\mathrm{J}$, even at low numerical resolution. For larger wavelengths ($\lambda > \lambda_\mathrm{J}$) the growth of the perturbation is delayed when it is not well resolved. Furthermore, with poor resolution, the fragmentation seen with the MFV scheme proceeds very differently compared to the converged solution. All these results suggest that, when unresolved, the ratio of the magnitude of hydrodynamic force to that of self-gravity at the sub-resolution scale is the largest/smallest in MFV/SPH, the reasons for which we discussed in detail. These tests are repeated to investigate the effect of kernels of higher-order than the fiducial cubic spline. Our results indicate that the standard deviation of the kernel is a more appropriate definition of the size of a fluid element than its compact support radius., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. The typos in the authors' names have been corrected

The search for the first stars formed from metal-free gas in the universe is one of the key issues in astronomy because it relates to many fields, such as the formation of stars and galaxies, the evolution of the universe, and the origin of elements. It is not still clear if metal-free first stars can be found in the present universe. These first stars are thought to exist among extremely metal-poor stars in the halo of our Galaxy. Here we propose a new scenario for the formation of low-mass first stars that have survived until today and observational counterparts in our Galaxy. The first stars in binary systems, consisting of massive- and low-mass stars, are examined using stellar evolution models, simulations of supernova ejecta colliding with low-mass companions, and comparisons with observed data. These first star survivors will be observed as metal-rich halo stars in our Galaxy. We may have identified a candidate star in the observational database where elemental abundances and kinematic data are available. Our models also account for the existence of several solar-metallicity stars in the literature having space velocities equivalent to the halo population. The proposed scenario demands a new channel of star formation in the early universe and is a supplementary scenario for the origin of the known metal-poor stars., Comment: 41 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (to be published in open access)

One of the computational challenges of cluster formation simulations is resolving individual stars and simulating massive clusters with masses of more than $10^4 M_{\odot}$ without gravitational softening. Combining direct $N$-body code with smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code, we have developed a new code, \textsc{ASURA+BRIDGE}, in which we can integrate stellar particles without softening. We add a feedback model for \HII regions into this code, in which thermal and momentum feedback is given within the Str{\"o}mgren radius. We perform $N$-body/SPH simulations of star cluster formation. Without softening, a portion of massive stars are ejected from the forming clusters. As a result, the stellar feedback works outside the clusters. This enhances/suppresses the star formation in initially sub-virial/super-virial clouds. We find that the formed star clusters are denser than currently observed open clusters, but the mass--density relation is consistent with or even higher than that is estimated as an initial cluster density. We also find that some clusters have multiple peaks in their stellar age distribution as a consequence of their hierarchical formation., Comment: 25 pages, 29 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

Most stars are formed as star clusters in galaxies, which then disperse into galactic disks. Upcoming exascale supercomputational facilities will enable performing simulations of galaxies and their formation by resolving individual stars (star-by-star simulations). This will substantially advance our understanding of star formation in galaxies, star cluster formation, and assembly histories of galaxies. In previous galaxy simulations, a simple stellar population approximation was used. It is, however, difficult to improve the mass resolution with this approximation. Therefore, a model for forming individual stars that can be used in simulations of galaxies must be established. In this first paper of a series of the SIRIUS (SImulations Resolving IndividUal Stars) project, we demonstrate a stochastic star formation model for star-by-star simulations. An assumed stellar initial mass function (IMF) is randomly assigned to newly formed stars. We introduce a maximum search radius to assemble the mass from surrounding gas particles to form star particles. In this study, we perform a series of N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of star cluster formations from turbulent molecular clouds and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies as test cases. The IMF can be correctly sampled if a maximum search radius that is larger than the value estimated from the threshold density for star formation is adopted. In small clouds, the formation of massive stars is highly stochastic because of the small number of stars. We confirm that the star formation efficiency and threshold density do not strongly affect the results. We find that our model can naturally reproduce the relationship between the most massive stars and the total stellar mass of star clusters. Herein, we demonstrate that our models can be applied to simulations varying from star clusters to galaxies for a wide range of resolutions., Comment: 23 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

Light trans-iron elements such as Sr serve as the key to understanding the astrophysical sites of heavy elements. Spectroscopic studies of metal-poor stars have revealed large star-to-star scatters in the ratios of [Sr/Ba], which indicates that there are multiple sites for the production of Sr. Here we present the enrichment history of Sr by a series of the $N$-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of a dwarf galaxy with a stellar mass of 3 $\times$ 10$^{6}$ $M_{\odot}$. We show that binary neutron star mergers (NSMs) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars contribute to the enrichment of Sr in the metallicity ranges [Fe/H] $\gtrsim$ $-$3 and [Fe/H] $\gtrsim$ $-$1, respectively. It appears insufficient, however, to explain the overall observational trends of Sr by considering only these sites. We find that the models including electron-capture supernovae (ECSNe) and rotating massive stars (RMSs), in addition to NSMs and AGBs, reasonably reproduce the enrichment histories of Sr in dwarf galaxies. The contributions of both ECSNe and NSMs make scatters of $\approx$ 0.2 dex in [Sr/Fe], [Sr/Ba], and [Sr/Zn] as can be seen for observed stars in the metallicity range [Fe/H] $<$ $-2$. We also find that the mass range of ECSN progenitors should be substantially smaller than $1\, M_\odot$ (e.g., 0.1-$0.2\, M_\odot$) to avoid over-prediction of [Sr/Ba] and [Sr/Zn] ratios. Our results demonstrate that NSMs, AGBs, ECSNe, and RMSs all play roles in the enrichment histories of Local Group dwarf galaxies, although more observational data are required to disentangle the relative contributions of these sources., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We report on the current status of the radial velocity monitoring of nearby OB stars to look for binaries with small mass ratios. The combined data of radial velocities using the domestic 1-2 m-class telescopes seems to confirm the variations of radial velocities in a few weeks for four out of ten target single-lined spectroscopic binaries. More data are needed to estimate the exact periods and mass distributions., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Stars and Galaxies

We investigate the properties of young massive clusters (YMCs) in a galaxy-galaxy merger remnant by analyzing the data obtained by a gas rich major merger simulations in Matsui et al. 2012. We found that the YMCs are distributed at a few $\rm kpc$ and at $\sim 10~{\rm kpc}$ from the galactic center, in other words, there are two components of their distribution. The former are formed in filamentary and turbulent gas generated at a few $\rm kpc$ from the center because of galaxy encounters, and the latter are formed in tidal tails which are far from the center. The YMCs are much less concentrated than galaxy stars. The mass function of the YMCs is $dN/dM \propto M^{-2}$. Most of YMCs are formed from the second encounter to the final coalescence phase of the galactic cores, and their formation rate is especially high at final coalescence phase. Most of them consists of single stellar population in age, but YMCs with multi stellar populations in age are also formed. The multiple populations are produced by the following process: a YMC captures dense gas, and another generation stars form within the cluster. There are several YMCs formed in an isolated disk before the encounter of galaxies. These candidates contain stars with various age by capturing dense gas and forming stars. YMCs in a merger remnant, have various orbits, but large fraction of candidates have circular orbits., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

We present results of $^{12}$CO(J = 1-0) imaging observations of NGC 4567/4568, a galaxy pair in a close encounter, with Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array. For the first time, we find clear evidence of a molecular collision front whose velocity dispersion is 16.8$\pm$1.4 km s$^{-1}$ at the overlapping region owing to high spatial and velocity resolution. By integrating over the velocity width that corresponds to the molecular collision front, we find a long filamentary structure with a size of 1800 pc $\times$ 350 pc at the collision front. This filamentary molecular structure spatially coincides with a dark-lane seen in R-band image. We find four molecular clouds in the filament, each with a radius of 30 pc and mass of 10$^{6} M_{\odot}$; the radii matching a typical value for giant molecular clouds and the masses corresponding to those between giant molecular clouds and giant molecular associations. All four clouds are gravitationally bound. The molecular filamentary structure and its physical conditions are similar to the structure expected via numerical simulation. The filament could be a progenitor of super star clusters., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in ApJL

Recently several gravitational wave detections have shown evidence for compact object mergers. However, the astrophysical origin of merging binaries is not well understood. Stellar binaries are typically at much larger separations than what is needed for the binaries to merge due to gravitational wave emission, which leads to the so-called final AU problem. In this letter we propose a new channel for mergers of compact object binaries which solves the final AU problem. We examine the binary evolution following gas expansion due to a weak failed supernova explosion, neutrino mass loss, core disturbance, or envelope instability. In such situations the binary is possibly hardened by ambient gas. We investigate the evolution of the binary system after a shock has propagated by performing smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. We find that significant binary hardening occurs when the gas mass bound to the binary exceeds that of the compact objects. This mechanism represents a new possibility for the pathway to mergers for gravitational wave events., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, version published in Physical Review Letters

The heaviest iron-peak element, Zn has been used as an important tracer of cosmic chemical evolution. Spectroscopic observations of the metal-poor stars in Local Group galaxies show that an increasing trend of [Zn/Fe] ratios toward lower metallicity. However, enrichment of Zn in galaxies is not well understood due to the poor knowledge of astrophysical sites of Zn as well as metal mixing in galaxies. Here we show possible explanations for the observed trend by taking into account electron-capture supernovae (ECSNe) as one of the sources of Zn in our chemodynamical simulations of dwarf galaxies. We find that the ejecta from ECSNe contribute to stars with [Zn/Fe] $\gtrsim$ 0.5. We also find that scatters of [Zn/Fe] in higher metallicity originate from the ejecta of type Ia supernovae. On the other hand, it appears difficult to explain the observed trends if we do not consider ECSNe as a source of Zn. These results come from inhomogeneous spatial metallicity distribution due to the inefficiency of metal mixing. We find that the optimal value of scaling factor for metal diffusion coefficient is $\sim$ 0.01 in the shear-based metal mixing model in smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. These results suggest that ECSNe can be one of the contributors to the enrichment of Zn in galaxies., Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We present hydrodynamic simulations of gas clouds inflowing from the disk to a few hundred parsec region of the Milky Way. A gravitational potential is generated to include realistic Galactic structures by using thousands of multipole expansions that describe 6.4 million stellar particles of a self-consistent Galaxy simulation. We find that a hybrid multipole expansion model, with two different basis sets and a thick disk correction, accurately reproduces the overall structures of the Milky Way. Through non-axisymmetric Galactic structures of an elongated bar and spiral arms, gas clouds in the disk inflow to the nuclear region and form a central molecular zone (CMZ)-like nuclear ring. We find that the size of the nuclear ring evolves into ~240 pc at T~1500 Myr, regardless of the initial size. For most simulation runs, the rate of gas inflow to the nuclear region is equilibrated to ~0.02 M_sun/yr. The nuclear ring is off-centered, relative to the Galactic center, by the lopsided central mass distribution of the Galaxy model, and thus an asymmetric mass distribution of the nuclear ring arises accordingly. The vertical asymmetry of the the Galaxy model also causes the nuclear ring to be tilted along the Galactic plane. During the first ~100 Myr, the vertical frequency of the gas motion is twice that of the orbital frequency, thus the projected nuclear ring shows a twisted, infinity-like shape., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

Metal mixing plays critical roles in the enrichment of metals in galaxies. The abundance of elements such as Mg, Fe, and Ba in metal-poor stars help us understand the metal mixing in galaxies. However, the efficiency of metal mixing in galaxies is not yet understood. Here we report a series of $N$-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of dwarf galaxies with different efficiencies of metal mixing using turbulence-induced mixing model. We show that metal mixing apparently occurs in dwarf galaxies from Mg and Ba abundance. We find that the scaling factor for metal diffusion larger than 0.01 is necessary to reproduce the observation of Ba abundance in dwarf galaxies. This value is consistent with the value expected from turbulence theory and experiment. We also find that timescale of metal mixing is less than 40 Myr. This timescale is shorter than that of typical dynamical times of dwarf galaxies. We demonstrate that the determination of a degree of scatters of Ba abundance by the observation will help us to constrain the efficiency of metal mixing more precisely., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

Observations of stars in the the solar vicinity show a clear tendency for old stars to have larger velocity dispersions. This relation is called the age-velocity dispersion relation (AVR) and it is believed to provide insight into the heating history of the Milky Way galaxy. Here, in order to investigate the origin of the AVR, we performed smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations of the self-gravitating multiphase gas disks in the static disk-halo potentials. Star formation from cold and dense gas is taken into account, and we analyze the evolution of these star particles. We find that exponents of simulated AVR and the ratio of the radial to vertical velocity dispersion are close to the observed values. We also find that the simulated AVR is not a simple consequence of dynamical heating. The evolution tracks of stars with different epochs evolve gradually in the age-velocity dispersion plane as a result of: (1) the decrease in velocity dispersion in star forming regions, and (2) the decrease in the number of cold/dense/gas as scattering sources. These results suggest that the AVR involves not only the heating history of a stellar disk, but also the historical evolution of the ISM in a galaxy., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

The abundance of elements synthesized by the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process elements) of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Local Group galaxies gives us clues to clarify the early evolutionary history of the Milky Way halo. The Local Group dwarf galaxies would have similarly evolved with building blocks of the Milky Way halo. However, how the chemo-dynamical evolution of the building blocks affects the abundance of r-process elements is not yet clear. In this paper, we perform a series of simulations using dwarf galaxy models with various dynamical times and total mass, which determine star-formation histories. We find that galaxies with dynamical times longer than 100 Myr have star formation rates less than $10^{-3} M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ and slowly enrich metals in their early phase. These galaxies can explain the observed large scatters of r-process abundance in EMP stars in the Milky Way halo regardless of their total mass. On the other hand, the first neutron star merger appears at a higher metallicity in galaxies with a dynamical time shorter than typical neutron star merger times. The scatters of r-process elements mainly come from inhomogeneity of the metals in the interstellar medium whereas the scatters of $\alpha$-elements are mostly due to the difference in the yield of each supernova. Our results demonstrate that the future observations of r-process elements in EMP stars will be able to constrain the early chemo-dynamical evolution of the Local Group galaxies., Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We have developed a software library for chemical evolution simulations of galaxy formation under the simple stellar population (SSP) approximation. In this library, all of the necessary components concerning chemical evolution, such as initial mass functions, stellar lifetimes, yields from type II and Ia supernovae, asymptotic giant branch stars, and neutron star mergers, are compiled from the literature. Various models are pre-implemented in this library so that users can choose their favorite combination of models. Subroutines of this library return released energy and masses of individual elements depending on a given event type. Since the redistribution manner of these quantities depends on the implementation of users' simulation codes, this library leaves it up to the simulation code. As demonstrations, we carry out both one-zone, closed box simulations and three-dimensional simulations of a collapsing gas and dark matter system using this library. In these simulations, we can easily compare the impact of individual models on the chemical evolution of galaxies, just by changing the control flags and parameters of the library. Since this library only deals with the part of chemical evolution under the SSP approximation, any simulation codes that use the SSP approximation -- namely particle-base and mesh codes, as well as semi-analytical models -- can use it. This library is named "CELib" after the term "Chemical Evolution Library" and is made available to the community., Comment: 36 pages, 41 figrues. Accepted for publication in AJ. The distribution site of CELib is https://bitbucket.org/tsaitoh/celib

The formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in spiral galaxies have been investigated in the traditional framework of the combined quasi-stationary density wave and galactic shock model. However, our understanding of the dynamics of spiral arms is changing from the traditional spiral model to a dynamically evolving spiral model. In this study, we investigate the structure and evolution of GMCs in a dynamically evolving spiral arm using a three-dimensional N-body/hydrodynamic simulation of a barred spiral galaxy at parsec-scale resolution. This simulation incorporated self-gravity, molecular hydrogen formation, radiative cooling, heating due to interstellar far-ultraviolet radiation, and stellar feedback by both HII regions and Type-II supernovae. In contrast to a simple expectation based on the traditional spiral model, the GMCs exhibited no systematic evolutionary sequence across the spiral arm. Our simulation showed that the GMCs behaved as highly dynamic objects with eventful lives involving collisional build-up, collision-induced star formation, and destruction via stellar feedback. The GMC lifetimes were predicted to be short, only a few tens of millions years. We also found that, at least at the resolutions and with the feedback models used in this study, most of the GMCs without HII regions were collapsing, but half of the GMCs with HII regions were expanding owing to the HII-region feedback from stars within them. Our results support the dynamic and feedback-regulated GMC evolution scenario. Although the simulated GMCs were converging rather than virial equilibrium, they followed the observed scaling relationship well. We also analysed the effects of galactic tides and external pressure on GMC evolution and suggested that GMCs cannot be regarded as isolated systems since their evolution in disc galaxies is complicated because of these environmental effects., Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Santa Barbara cluster comparison project (Frenk et al. Frenk+1999) revealed that there is a systematic difference between entropy profiles of clusters of galaxies obtained by Eulerian mesh and Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) codes: Mesh codes gave a core with a constant entropy whereas SPH codes did not. One possible reason for this difference is that mesh codes are not Galilean invariant. Another possible reason is the problem of the SPH method, which might give too much "protection" to cold clumps because of the unphysical surface tension induced at contact discontinuities. In this paper, we apply the density independent formulation of SPH (DISPH), which can handle contact discontinuities accurately, to simulations of a cluster of galaxies, and compare the results with those with the standard SPH. We obtained the entropy core when we adopt DISPH. The size of the core is, however, significantly smaller than those obtained with mesh simulations, and is comparable to those obtained with quasi-Lagrangian schemes such as "moving mesh" and "mesh free" schemes. We conclude that both the standard SPH without artificial conductivity and Eulerian mesh codes have serious problems even such an idealized simulation, while DISPH, SPH with artificial conductivity, and quasi-Lagrangian schemes have sufficient capability to deal with it., Comment: 21 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

At present, the giant impact (GI) is the most widely accepted model for the origin of the Moon. Most of the numerical simulations of GI have been carried out with the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. Recently, however, it has been pointed out that standard formulation of SPH (SSPH) has difficulties in the treatment of a contact discontinuity such as a core-mantle boundary and a free surface such as a planetary surface. This difficulty comes from the assumption of differentiability of density in SSPH. We have developed an alternative formulation of SPH, density independent SPH (DISPH), which is based on differentiability of pressure instead of density to solve the problem of a contact discontinuity. In this paper, we report the results of the GI simulations with DISPH and compare them with those obtained with SSPH. We found that the disk properties, such as mass and angular momentum produced by DISPH is different from that of SSPH. In general, the disks formed by DISPH are more compact: while formation of a smaller mass moon for low-oblique impacts is expected with DISPH, inhibition of ejection would promote formation of a larger mass moon for high-oblique impacts. Since only the improvement of core-mantle boundary significantly affects the properties of circumplanetary disks generated by GI and DISPH has not been significantly improved from SSPH for a free surface, we should be very careful when some conclusions are drawn from the numerical simulations for GI. And it is necessary to develop the numerical hydrodynamical scheme for GI that can properly treat the free surface as well as the contact discontinuity., Comment: Accepted for publication in Icarus

Hydrodynamical simulations of rotating disk play important roles in the field of astrophysical and planetary science. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) has been widely used for such simulations. It, however, has been known that with SPH, a cold and thin Kepler disk breaks up due to the unwanted angular momentum transfer. Two possible reasons have been suggested for this breaking up of the disk; the artificial viscosity (AV) and the numerical error in the evaluation of pressure gradient in SPH. Which one is dominant has been still unclear. In this paper, we investigate the reason for this rapid breaking up of the disk. We implemented most of popular formulations of AV and switches and measured the angular momentum transfer due to both AV and the error of SPH estimate of pressure gradient. We found that the angular momentum transfer due to AV at the inner edge triggers the breaking up of the disk. We also found that the classical von-Neumann-Richtmyer-Landshoff type AV with a high order estimate for $\nabla \cdot \vec{v}$ can maintain the disk for $\sim 100$ orbits even when used with the standard formulation of SPH., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Animations are available at http://v1.jmlab.jp/~hosono/1601.05903/

The rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) is a major process to synthesize elements heavier than iron, but the astrophysical site(s) of r-process is not identified yet. Neutron star mergers (NSMs) are suggested to be a major r-process site from nucleosynthesis studies. Previous chemical evolution studies however require unlikely short merger time of NSMs to reproduce the observed large star-to-star scatters in the abundance ratios of r-process elements relative to iron, [Eu/Fe], of extremely metal-poor stars in the Milky Way (MW) halo. This problem can be solved by considering chemical evolution in dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) which would be building blocks of the MW and have lower star formation efficiencies than the MW halo. We demonstrate that enrichment of r-process elements in dSphs by NSMs using an N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics code. Our high-resolution model reproduces the observed [Eu/Fe] by NSMs with a merger time of 100 Myr when the effect of metal mixing is taken into account. This is because metallicity is not correlated with time up to ~ 300 Myr from the start of the simulation due to low star formation efficiency in dSphs. We also confirm that this model is consistent with observed properties of dSphs such as radial profiles and metallicity distribution. The merger time and the Galactic rate of NSMs are suggested to be <~ 300 Myr and ~ $10^{-4}$ yr$^{-1}$, which are consistent with the values suggested by population synthesis and nucleosynthesis studies. This study supports that NSMs are the major astrophysical site of r-process., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

In this paper, we present a new formulation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), which, unlike the standard SPH (SSPH), is well-behaved at the contact discontinuity. The SSPH scheme cannot handle discontinuities in density (e.g. the contact discontinuity and the free surface), because it requires that the density of fluid is positive and continuous everywhere. Thus there is inconsistency in the formulation of the SSPH scheme at discontinuities of the fluid density. To solve this problem, we introduce a new quantity associated with particles and "density" of that quantity. This "density" evolves through the usual continuity equation with an additional artificial diffusion term, in order to guarantee the continuity of "density". We use this "density" or pseudo density, instead of the mass density, to formulate our SPH scheme. We call our new method as SPH with smoothed pseudo-density (SPSPH). We show that our new scheme is physically consistent and can handle discontinuities quite well., Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures

We examine a possible formation scenario of galactic thick discs with numerical simulations. Thick discs have previously been argued to form in clumpy disc phase in the high-redshift Universe, which host giant clumps of <10^9 M_sun in their highly gas-rich discs. We performed SPH simulations using isolated galaxy models for the purpose of verifying whether dynamical and chemical properties of the thick discs formed in such clumpy galaxies are compatible with observations. The results of our simulations seem nearly consistent with observations in dynamical properties such as radial and vertical density profiles, significant rotation velocity lag with height and distributions of orbital eccentricities. In addition, the thick discs in our simulations indicate nearly exponential dependence of azimuthal and vertical velocity dispersions with radius, nearly isothermal kinematics in vertical direction and negligible metallicity gradients in radial and vertical directions. However, our simulations cannot reproduce altitudinal dependence of eccentricities, metallicity relations with eccentricities or rotation velocities, which shows striking discrepancy from recent observations of the Galactic thick disc. From this result, we infer that the clumpy disc scenario for thick-disc formation would not be suitable at least for the Milky Way. Our study, however, cannot reject this scenario for external galaxies if not all galaxies form their thick discs by the same process. In addition, we found that a large fraction of thick-disc stars forms in giant clumps., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is a useful numerical tool for the study of a variety of astrophysical and planetlogical problems. However, it turned out that the standard SPH algorithm has problems in dealing with hydrodynamical instabilities. This problem is due to the assumption that the local density distribution is differentiable. In order to solve this problem, a new SPH formulation, which does not require the differentiability of the density, have been proposed. This new SPH method improved the treatment of hydrodynamical instabilities. This method, however, is applicable only to the equation of state (EOS) of the ideal gas. In this paper, we describe how to extend the new SPH method to non-ideal EOS. We present the results of various standard numerical tests for non-ideal EOS. Our new method works well for non-ideal EOS. We conclude that our new SPH can handle hydrodynamical instabilities for an arbitrary EOS and that it is an attractive alternative to the standard SPH., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures

A compact gas cloud G2 is predicted to reach the pericenter of its orbit around the super massive black hole (SMBH) of our galaxy, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). This event will give us a rare opportunity to observe the interaction between SMBH and gas around it. We report the result of the fully three-dimensional simulation of the evolution of G2 during the first pericenter passage. The strong tidal force by the SMBH stretches the cloud along its orbit, and compresses it strongly in the vertical direction, resulting in the heating up and flaring up of the cloud. The bolometric luminosity will reach the maximum of $\sim100 L_{\odot}$. This flare should be easily observed in the near infrared., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ. Animation movie and stereograms are available at http://v1.jmlab.jp/~saitoh/G2/

In order to understand the physical mechanisms underlying non-steady stellar spiral arms in disk galaxies, we analyzed the growing and damping phases of their spiral arms using three-dimensional $N$-body simulations. We confirmed that the spiral arms are formed due to a swing amplification mechanism that reinforces density enhancement as a seeded wake. In the damping phase, the Coriolis force exerted on a portion of the arm surpasses the gravitational force that acts to shrink the portion. Consequently, the stars in the portion escape from the arm, and subsequently they form a new arm at a different location. The time-dependent nature of the spiral arms are originated in the continual repetition of this non-linear phenomenon. Since a spiral arm does not rigidly rotate, but follows the galactic differential rotation, the stars in the arm rotate at almost the same rate as the arm. In other words, every single position in the arm can be regarded as the co-rotation point. Due to interaction with their host arms, the energy and angular momentum of the stars change, thereby causing the radial migration of the stars. During this process, the kinetic energy of random motion (random energy) of the stars does not significantly increase, and the disk remains dynamically cold. Owing to this low degree of disk heating, the short-lived spiral arms can recurrently develop over many rotational periods. The resultant structure of the spiral arms in the $N$-body simulations is consistent with some observational nature of spiral galaxies. We conclude that the formation and structure of spiral arms in isolated disk galaxies can be reasonably understood by non-linear interactions between a spiral arm and its constituent stars., Comment: 16 pages (in emulateapj format), incl. 13 figures and 1 table; Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal