Angular Momentum Of Galaxies Research Articles

Using the Simba cosmological simulations to measure the planar relation between stellar specific angular momentum, mass and effective surface brightness

Abstract Stellar mass and specific angular momentum are two properties of a galaxy that are directly related to its formation history, and hence morphology. In this work, the tight planar relationship between stellar specific angular momentum (j*), mass (M*) and mean effective surface brightness (<μeff >) that was recently constrained using ALFALFA galaxies is measured more accurately using galaxies from the Simba cosmological simulation. The distribution of 179 Simba galaxies in log10j* − log10M* - <μeff > space is shown to be very tightly planar with $j_*\propto M_*^{0.694}$ and the distribution of perpendicular distances between the galaxies and the plane being approximately Gaussian with rms = 0.057 dex. The parameterised distribution is used with existing j* and <μeff > measurements of 3 607 ALFALFA galaxies and 84 SPARC galaxies to reliably predict their published stellar masses to within ∼0.1 to 0.2 dex over several decades of stellar mass. Thus, this work presents a new method of easily generating accurate galaxy stellar mass estimates for late-type galaxies and provides a new measurement of the fundamental link between galaxy morphology, mass and angular momentum.

The physical origin of the mass–size relation and its scatter for disk galaxies

Aims. In this study, we investigated the intricate interplay between internal (natural) and external (nurture) processes in shaping the scaling relationships between specific angular momentum (j⋆), stellar mass (M⋆), and the size of disk galaxies within the IllustrisTNG simulation. Methods. Using a kinematic decomposition of simulated galaxies, we focus on galaxies with tiny kinematically inferred stellar halos indicative of weak external influences. We examined the correlation between the mass, size, and angular momentum of galaxies by comparing simulations with observations and the theoretical predictions of the exponential hypothesis. Results. Galaxies with tiny stellar halos exhibit a large scatter in the j⋆ − M⋆ relation, which suggests that this scatter is inherently present in their initial conditions. Our analysis reveals that the disks of these galaxies adhere to the exponential hypothesis, resulting in a tight fiducial j⋆ − M⋆-scale length (size) relation that is qualitatively consistent with observations. The inherent scatter in j⋆ provides a robust explanation for the mass–size relation and its substantial variability. Notably, galaxies that are moderately influenced by external processes closely adhere to a scaling relation akin to that of galaxies with tiny stellar halos. This result underscores the dominant role of internal processes in shaping the overall j⋆ − M⋆ and mass–size relations, with external effects playing a relatively minor role in disk galaxies. Furthermore, the correlation between galaxy size and the virial radius of the dark matter halo exists but fails to provide strong evidence for a connection between galaxies and their parent dark matter halos.

Cosmic evolution of black hole spin and galaxy orientations: Clues from the NewHorizon and Galactica simulations

Black holes (BHs) are ubiquitous components of the center of most galaxies. In addition to their mass, the BH spin, through its amplitude and orientation, is a key factor in the galaxy formation process, as it controls the radiative efficiency of the accretion disk and relativistic jets. Using the recent cosmological high-resolution zoom-in simulations and in which the evolution of the BH spin is followed on the fly, we have tracked the cosmic history of a hundred BHs with a mass greater than $2 For each of them, we have studied the variations of the three-dimensional angle (Psi ) subtended between the BH spins and the angular momentum vectors of their host galaxies (estimated from the stellar component). The analysis of the individual evolution of the most massive BHs suggests that they are generally passing by three different regimes. First, for a short period after their birth, low-mass BHs BH <$3times 10$^4$M$_ are rapidly spun up by gas accretion and their spin tends to be aligned with their host galaxy spin. Then follows a second phase in which the accretion of gas onto low-mass BHs BH is quite chaotic and inefficient, reflecting the complex and disturbed morphologies of forming proto-galaxies at high redshifts. The variations of Psi are rather erratic during this phase and are mainly driven by the rapid changes of the direction of the galaxy angular momentum. Then in a third and long phase, BHs are generally well settled in the center of galaxies around which the gas accretion becomes much more coherent BH >$10$^5$ M$_ In this case, the BH spins tend to be well aligned with the angular momentum of their host galaxy and this configuration is generally stable even though BH merger episodes can temporally induce misalignment. We even find a few cases of BH-galaxy spin anti-alignment that lasts for a long time in which the gas component is counter-rotating with respect to the stellar component. We have also derived the distributions of cos(Psi ) at different redshifts and found that BHs and galaxy spins are generally aligned. Our analysis suggests that the fraction of BH-galaxy pairs with low Psi values reaches maximum at zsim 4-3 and then decreases until zsim 1.5 due to the high BH-merger rate. Afterward, it remains almost constant probably due to the fact that BH mergers becomes rare, except for a slight increase at late times. Finally, based on a Monte Carlo method, we also predict statistics for the 2-d projected spin-orbit angles lambda . In particular, the distribution of lambda traces the alignment tendency well in the three-dimensional analysis. Such predictions provide an interesting background for future observational analyses.

Galaxy Spin Classification. I. Z-wise versus S-wise Spirals with the Chirality Equivariant Residual Network

The angular momentum of galaxies (galaxy spin) contains rich information about the initial condition of the universe, yet it is challenging to efficiently measure the spin direction for the tremendous amount of galaxies that are being mapped by ongoing and forthcoming cosmological surveys. We present a machine-learning-based classifier for the Z-wise versus S-wise spirals, which can help to break the degeneracy in the galaxy spin direction measurement. The proposed chirality equivariant residual network (CE-ResNet) is manifestly equivariant under a reflection of the input image, which guarantees that there is no inherent asymmetry between the Z-wise and S-wise probability estimators. We train the model with Sloan Digital Sky Survey images, with the training labels given by the Galaxy Zoo 1 project. A combination of data augmentation techniques is used during the training, making the model more robust to be applied to other surveys. We find an ∼30% increase in both types of spirals when Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) images are used for classification, due to the better imaging quality of DESI. We verify that the ∼7σ difference between the numbers of Z-wise and S-wise spirals is due to human bias, since the discrepancy drops to <1.8σ with our CE-ResNet classification results. We discuss the potential systematics relevant to future cosmological applications.

The unusual Milky Way-local sheet system: implications for spin strength and alignment

ABSTRACT The Milky Way and the Local Sheet form a peculiar galaxy system in terms of the unusually low velocity dispersion in our neighbourhood and the seemingly high mass of the Milky Way for such an environment. Using the TNG300 simulation, we searched for Milky Way analogues (MWA) located in the cosmological walls with velocity dispersion in their local Hubble flow similar to the one observed around our galaxy. We find that MWAs in Local-Sheet analogues are rare, with one per (160–200 Mpc)3 volume. We find that a Sheet-like cold environment preserves, amplifies, or simplifies environmental effects on the angular momentum of galaxies. In such sheets, there are particularly strong alignments between the sheet and galaxy spins; also, these galaxies have low spin parameters. These both may relate to a lack of mergers since wall formation. We hope our results will bring awareness of the atypical nature of the Milky Way-Local Sheet system. Wrongly extrapolating local observations without a full consideration of the effect of our cosmic environment can lead to a Copernican bias in understanding the formation and evolution of the Milky Way and the nearby Universe.

Analysis of spin directions of galaxies in the DESI Legacy Survey

ABSTRACT The DESI Legacy Survey is a digital sky survey with a large footprint compared to other Earth-based surveys, covering both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. This paper shows the distribution of the spin directions of spiral galaxies imaged by DESI Legacy Survey. A simple analysis of dividing nearly 1.3 × 106 spiral galaxies into two hemispheres shows a higher number of galaxies spinning counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere, and a higher number of galaxies spinning clockwise in the Southern hemisphere. That distribution is consistent with previous observations, but uses a far larger number of galaxies and a larger footprint. The larger footprint allows a comprehensive analysis without the need to fit the distribution into an a priori model, making this study different from all previous analyses of this kind. Fitting the spin directions of the galaxies to cosine dependence shows a dipole axis alignment with probability of P &amp;lt; 10−5. The analysis is done with a trivial selection of the galaxies, as well as simple explainable annotation algorithm that does not make use of any form of machine learning, deep learning, or pattern recognition. While further work will be required, these results are aligned with previous studies suggesting the possibility of a large-scale alignment of galaxy angular momentum.

Implications of the correlation between bulge-to-total baryonic mass ratio and the number of satellites for SAGA galaxies

Context. We searched for correlations between the number of satellites and fundamental galactic properties for the Milky Way-like host galaxies in order to better understand their diverse satellite populations. We specifically aim to understand why galaxies that are very similar in stellar mass content, star formation rate, and local environment have very different numbers of satellites. Aims. Deep and extensive spectroscopic observations are needed to characterize the complete satellite luminosity function beyond the Local Group. One such endeavor is an ongoing Satellites of Galactic Analogs (SAGA) spectroscopic survey that has completed spectroscopic observations of 36 Milky Way-like galaxies within their virial radii down to the luminosity of Leo I dwarf galaxy. We correlated the number of satellites of SAGA galaxies with several fundamental properties of their hosts – including total specific angular momentum, which is considered to be well preserved throughout galaxy lifetime – in an attempt to identify the main driver of their diverse satellite populations. We aim to reveal some intrinsic galactic property decisive in making more or less satellites irrespective of baryonic mass or the environment in which galaxies reside. Methods. We modeled Spitzer Heritage Archive images of SAGA host galaxies at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with GALFIT code to obtain their stellar masses. We also searched the Extragalactic Database for information on their gas content and rotation velocities. Empirical correlations, like the baryonic Tully–Fisher relation and the stellar mass–size relation were used to exclude outliers. Results. All the available galactic properties from the literature along with measured stellar masses were correlated with the number of satellites and no significant correlation was found. However, when we considered the “expected” number of satellites based on the correlation between the baryonic bulge-to-total ratio and the number of satellites confirmed for several nearby galaxies then strong correlations emerge between this number and (1) the mass of the bulge, and (2) the total specific angular momentum. The first correlation is positive, implying that galaxies with more massive bulges have more satellites, as already confirmed. The second correlation with the angular momentum is negative, meaning that, the smaller the angular momentum, the greater the number of expected satellites. This would imply that either satellites cannot form if galaxy angular momentum is too high, or that satellites form inside-out, so that angular momentum is being transferred to the outer parts of the galaxies. However, deeper spectroscopic observations are needed to confirm these findings, because they rely on the expected rather than detected number of satellites. There was a luminosity limit to the SAGA survey equivalent to the luminosity of Leo I dwarf satellite of the Milky Way galaxy (the SAGA limit). In particular, correlations found in this work are very susceptible to the total number of satellites of the NGC 4158 galaxy. This galaxy is predicted to have many more satellites than detected up to the SAGA limit.

Angular Momentum and Morphological Sequence of Massive Galaxies through Dark Sage

Abstract We study the present-day connection between galaxy morphology and angular momentum using the Dark Sage semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. For a given stellar mass in the range 1010–1012 M ⊙, the model predicts that galaxies with more prominent disks exhibit higher stellar disk specific angular momentum (j stellar,disk). However, when we include the gas in the disk, bulge-dominated galaxies have the highest total disk specific angular momentum (j total,disk). We attribute this to a large contribution from an extended disk of cold gas in typical bulge-dominated galaxies. Note that while the specific angular momenta (j = J/M) of these disks are large, their masses (M) are negligible. Thus, the contribution of these disks to the total angular momentum of the galaxy is small. We also find the relationship between the specific angular momentum of the dark matter (j dark matter) and morphology to be counterintuitive. Surprisingly, in this stellar mass range, not only do bulge-dominated galaxies tend to live in halos with higher j dark matter than disk-dominated galaxies, but intermediate galaxies (those with roughly equal fractions of bulge and disk mass) have the lowest j dark matter of all. Yet, when controlling for halo mass, rather than stellar mass, the relationship between j dark matter and morphology vanishes. Based on these results, we find that halo mass—rather than angular momentum—is the main driver of the predicted morphology sequence in this high mass range. In fact, in our stellar mass range, disk-dominated galaxies live in dark matter halos that are roughly one-fifth the mass of their bulge-dominated counterparts.

The KMOS galaxy evolution survey (KGES): the angular momentum of star-forming galaxies over the last ≈10 Gyr

ABSTRACT We present the KMOS Galaxy Evolution Survey (KGES), a K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) study of the H α and [N ii] emission from 288 K-band-selected galaxies at 1.2 ≲ z ≲ 1.8, with stellar masses in the range $\log _{10}(M_{*}/\rm {M}_{\odot })\approx 9$ – 11.5. In this paper, we describe the survey design, present the sample, and discuss the key properties of the KGES galaxies. We combine KGES with appropriately matched samples at lower redshifts from the KMOS Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS) and the SAMI Galaxy Survey. Accounting for the effects of sample selection, data quality, and analysis techniques between surveys, we examine the kinematic characteristics and angular momentum content of star-forming galaxies at z ≈ 1.5, ≈1, and ≈0. We find that stellar mass, rather than redshift, most strongly correlates with the disc fraction amongst star-forming galaxies at z ≲ 1.5, observing only a modest increase in the prevalence of discs between z ≈ 1.5 and z ≈ 0.04 at fixed stellar mass. Furthermore, typical star-forming galaxies follow the same median relation between specific angular momentum and stellar mass, regardless of their redshift, with the normalization of the relation depending more strongly on how disc-like a galaxy’s kinematics are. This suggests that massive star-forming discs form in a very similar manner across the ≈10 Gyr encompassed by our study and that the inferred link between the angular momentum of galaxies and their haloes does not change significantly across the stellar mass and redshift ranges probed in this work.

Spin mode reconstruction in Lagrangian space

Galaxy angular momentum directions (spins) are observable, well described by the Lagrangian tidal torque theory, and proposed to probe the primordial universe. They trace the spins of dark matter halos, and are indicators of protohalos properties in Lagrangian space. We define a Lagrangian spin parameter and tidal twist parameters and quantify their influence on the spin conservation and predictability in the spin mode reconstruction in $N$-body simulations. We conclude that protohalos in a more tidal twisting environments are preferentially more rotation-supported, and more likely to conserve their spin direction through the cosmic evolution. These tidal environments and spin magnitudes are predictable by a density reconstruction in Lagrangian space, and such predictions can improve the correlation between galaxy spins and the initial conditions in the study of constraining the primordial universe by spin mode reconstruction.

Massive low-surface-brightness galaxies in the eagle simulation

ABSTRACT We investigate the formation and properties of low surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs) with M* &amp;gt; 109.5 M⊙ in the eagle hydrodynamical cosmological simulation. Galaxy surface brightness depends on a combination of stellar mass surface density and mass-to-light ratio (M/L), such that low surface brightness is strongly correlated with both galaxy angular momentum (low surface density) and low specific star formation rate (high M/L). This drives most of the other observed correlations between surface brightness and galaxy properties, such as the fact that most LSBGs have low metallicity. We find that LSBGs are more isolated than high-surface-brightness galaxies (HSBGs), in agreement with observations, but that this trend is driven entirely by the fact that LSBGs are unlikely to be close-in satellites. The majority of LSBGs are consistent with a formation scenario in which the galaxies with the highest angular momentum are those that formed most of their stars recently from a gas reservoir co-rotating with a high-spin dark matter halo. However, the most extended LSBG discs in EAGLE, which are comparable in size to observed giant LSBGs, are built up via mergers. These galaxies are found to inhabit dark matter haloes with a higher spin in their inner regions (&amp;lt;0.1r200c), even when excluding the effects of baryonic physics by considering matching haloes from a dark-matter-only simulation with identical initial conditions.

AGN fueling and feedback

AbstractDynamical mechanisms are essential to exchange angular momentum in galaxies, drive the gas to the center, and fuel the central super-massive black holes. While at 100pc scale, the gas is sometimes stalled in nuclear rings, recent observations reaching ∼10pc scale have revealed, within the sphere of influence of the black hole, smoking gun evidence of fueling. Observations of AGN feedback are described, together with the suspected responsible mechanisms. Molecular outflows are frequently detected in active galaxies with ALMA and NOEMA, with loading factors between 1 and 5. When driven by AGN with escape velocity, these outflows are therefore a clear way to moderate or suppress star formation. Molecular disks, or tori, are detected at 10pc-scale, kinematically decoupled from their host disk, with random orientation. They can be used to measure the black hole mass.

Multi-filament gas inflows fuelling young star-forming galaxies

Theory suggests that there are two primary modes of accretion through which dark-matter halos acquire the gas to form and fuel galaxies: hot- and cold-flow accretion. In cold-flow accretion, gas streams along cosmic web filaments to the centre of the halo, allowing for the efficient delivery of star-forming fuel. Recently, two quasar-illuminated H I Lyman ɑ (Lyα)-emitting objects were reported to have properties of cold, rotating structures. However, the spatial and spectral resolution available was insufficient to constrain the radial flows associated with connecting filaments. With the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI)3, we now have eight times the spatial resolution, permitting the detection of these inspiralling flows. To detect these inflows, we introduce a suite of models that incorporate zonal radial flows, demonstrate their performance on a numerical simulation that exhibits cold-flow accretion, and show that they are an excellent match to KCWI velocity maps of two Lyα emitters observed around high-redshift quasars. These multi-filament inflow models kinematically isolate zones of radial inflow that correspond to extended filamentary emission. The derived gas flux and inflow path is sufficient to fuel the inferred central galaxy star-formation rate and angular momentum. Thus, our kinematic emission maps provide strong evidence that the inflow of gas from the cosmic web is building galaxies at the peak of star formation.

Key dynamical results from the SAMI Galaxy Survey

AbstractWe present an overview of recent key results from the SAMI Galaxy Survey on the build-up of mass and angular momentum in galaxies across morphology and environment. The SAMI Galaxy survey is a multi-object integral field spectroscopic survey and provides a wealth of spatially-resolved, two-dimensional stellar and gas measurements for galaxies of all morphological types, with high-precision due the stable spectral resolution of the AAOmega spectrograph. The sample size of ~3000 galaxies allows for dividing the sample in bins of stellar mass, environment, and star-formation or morphology, whilst maintaining a statistical significant number of galaxies in each bin. By combining imaging, spatially resolved dynamics, and stellar population measurements, our result demonstrate the power of utilising integral field spectroscopy on a large sample of galaxies to further our understanding of physical processes involved in the build-up of stellar mass and angular momentum in galaxies.

The baryonic Tully–Fisher relation for different velocity definitions and implications for galaxy angular momentum

We study the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR) at z=0 using 153 galaxies from the SPARC sample. We consider different definitions of the characteristic velocity from HI and H-alpha rotation curves, as well as HI line-widths from single-dish observations. We reach the following results: (1) The tightest BTFR is given by the mean velocity along the flat part of the rotation curve. The orthogonal intrinsic scatter is extremely small (6%) and the best-fit slope is 3.85+/-0.09, but systematic uncertainties may drive the slope from 3.5 to 4.0. Other velocity definitions lead to BTFRs with systematically higher scatters and shallower slopes. (2) We provide statistical relations to infer the flat rotation velocity from HI line-widths or less extended rotation curves (like H-alpha and CO data). These can be useful to study the BTFR from large HI surveys or the BTFR at high redshifts. (3) The BTFR is more fundamental than the relation between angular momentum and galaxy mass (the Fall relation). The Fall relation has about 7 times more scatter than the BTFR, which is merely driven by the scatter in the mass-size relation of galaxies. The BTFR is already the "fundamental plane" of galaxy discs: no value is added with a radial variable as a third parameter.

Uncorrelated velocity and size residuals across galaxy rotation curves

The mass--velocity--size relation of late-type galaxies decouples into independent correlations between mass and velocity (the Tully-Fisher relation), and between mass and size. This behaviour is different to early-type galaxies which lie on a Fundamental Plane. We study the coupling of the Tully-Fisher and mass-size relations in observations (the SPARC sample) and in empirical galaxy formation models based on halo abundance matching, and rotation curve fits with a hydrodynamically motivated halo profile. We systematically investigate the correlation coefficient between the Tully-Fisher residuals $\Delta V_r$ and mass-size residuals $\Delta R$ as a function of the radius $r$ at which the velocity is measured, and thus present the $\Delta V_r-\Delta R$ relation across rotation curves. We find no significant correlation in either the data or models for any $r$, aside from $r \ll R_\text{eff}$ where baryonic mass dominates. We show that this implies an anticorrelation between galaxy size and halo concentration (or halo mass) at fixed baryonic mass, and provides evidence against the hypothesis that galaxy and halo specific angular momentum are proportional. Finally, we study the $\Delta V_r-\Delta R$ relations produced by the baryons and dark matter separately by fitting halo profiles to the rotation curves. The balance between these components illustrates the "disk-halo conspiracy" required for no overall correlation.

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: comparing 3D spectroscopic observations with galaxies from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations

Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations are rich tools to understand the build-up of stellar mass and angular momentum in galaxies, but require some level of calibration to observations. We compare predictions at $z\sim0$ from the Eagle, Hydrangea, Horizon-AGN, and Magneticum simulations with integral field spectroscopic (IFS) data from the SAMI Galaxy Survey, ATLAS3D, CALIFA and MASSIVE surveys. The main goal of this work is to simultaneously compare structural, dynamical, and stellar population measurements in order to identify key areas of success and tension. We have taken great care to ensure that our simulated measurement methods match the observational methods as closely as possible. We find that the Eagle and Hydrangea simulations reproduce many galaxy relations but with some offsets at high stellar masses. There are moderate mismatches in $R_e$ (+), $\epsilon$ (-), $\sigma_e$ (-), and mean stellar age (+), where a plus sign indicates that quantities are too high on average, and minus sign too low. The Horizon-AGN simulations qualitatively reproduce several galaxy relations, but there are a number of properties where we find a quantitative offset to observations. Massive galaxies are better matched to observations than galaxies at low and intermediate masses. Overall, we find mismatches in $R_e$ (+), $\epsilon$ (-), $\sigma_e$ (-) and $(V/\sigma)_e$ (-). Magneticum matches observations well: this is the only simulation where we find ellipticities typical for disk galaxies, but there are moderate differences in $\sigma_e$ (-), $(V/\sigma)_e$ (-) and mean stellar age (+). Our comparison between simulations and observational data has highlighted several areas for improvement, such as the need for improved modelling resulting in a better vertical disk structure, yet our results demonstrate the vast improvement of cosmological simulations in recent years.

The Spin Alignment of Galaxies with the Large-scale Tidal Field in Hydrodynamic Simulations

Abstract The correlation between the spins of dark matter halos and the large-scale structure (LSS) has been studied in great detail over a large redshift range, while investigations of galaxies are still incomplete. Motivated by this point, we use the state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulation, Illustris-1, to investigate mainly the spin–LSS correlation of galaxies at a redshift of z = 0. We mainly find that the spins of low-mass, blue, oblate galaxies are preferentially aligned with the slowest collapsing direction ( ) of the large-scale tidal field, while massive, red, prolate galaxy spins tend to be perpendicular to . The transition from a parallel to a perpendicular trend occurs at ∼109.4 h −1 M ⊙ in the stellar mass, ∼0.62 in the g–r color, and ∼0.4 in triaxiality. The transition stellar mass decreases with increasing redshifts. The alignment was found to be primarily correlated with the galaxy stellar mass. Our results are consistent with previous studies both in N-body simulations and observations. Our study also fills the vacancy in the study of the galaxy spin–LSS correlation at z = 0 using hydrodynamical simulations and also provides important insight to understand the formation and evolution of galaxy angular momentum.

In Search of Cool Flow Accretion onto Galaxies: Where Does the Disk Gas End?

Abstract The processes taking place in the outermost reaches of spiral disks (the “protodisk”) are intimately connected to the build-up of mass and angular momentum in galaxies. The thinness of spiral disks suggests that the activity is mostly quiescent, and presumably this region is fed by cool flows coming into the halo from the intergalactic medium. While there is abundant evidence for the presence of a circumgalactic medium around disk galaxies as traced by quasar absorption lines, it has been very difficult to connect this material to the outer gas disk. This has been a very difficult transition region to explore because baryon tracers are hard to observe. In particular, H i disks have been argued to truncate at a critical column density ( N H ≳ 10 19.5 cm−2 at 30 kpc for an L ⋆ galaxy) where the gas is vulnerable to the external ionizing background. But new, deep observations of nearby L ⋆ spirals (e.g., Milky Way, NGC 2997) suggest that H i disks may extend much farther than recognized to date, up to 60 kpc at N H ≈ 10 18 cm−2. Motivated by these observations, here we show that a clumpy outer disk of dense clouds or cloudlets is potentially detectable to much larger radii and lower H i column densities than previously discussed. This extended protodisk component is likely to explain some of the Mg ii forest seen in quasar spectra as judged from absorption-line column densities and kinematics. We fully anticipate that the armada of new radio facilities and planned H i surveys coming on line will detect this extreme outer disk (scree) material. We also propose a variant on the successful “Dragonfly” technique to go after the very weak Hα signals expected in the protodisk region.

The angular momentum of cosmological coronae and the inside-out growth of spiral galaxies

Massive and diffuse haloes of hot gas (coronae) are important intermediaries between cosmology and galaxy evolution, storing mass and angular momentum acquired from the cosmic web until eventual accretion on to star-forming discs. We introduce a method to reconstruct the rotation of a galactic corona, based on its angular momentum distribution (AMD). This allows us to investigate in what conditions the angular momentum acquired from tidal torques can be transferred to star forming discs and explain observed galaxy-scale processes, such as inside-out growth and the build-up of abundance gradients. We find that a simple model of an isothermal corona with a temperature slightly smaller than virial and a cosmologically motivated AMD is in good agreement with galaxy evolution requirements, supporting hot-mode accretion as a viable driver for the evolution of spiral galaxies in a cosmological context. We predict moderately sub-centrifugal rotation close to the disc and slow rotation close to the virial radius. Motivated by the observation that the Milky Way has a relatively hot corona (T ~ 2 x 10^6 K), we also explore models with a temperature larger than virial. To be able to drive inside-out growth, these models must be significantly affected by feedback, either mechanical (ejection of low angular momentum material) or thermal (heating of the central regions). However, the agreement with galaxy evolution constraints becomes, in these cases, only marginal, suggesting that our first and simpler model may apply to a larger fraction of galaxy evolution history.