GAEA

the GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly model

The GAEA (GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly) semi-analytic model is a state-of-the-art theoretical tool that simulates galaxy formation and evolution in cosmological volumes. At this webpage, you can find model information about ongoing projects, news, and basic model results published in our papers. Results from the model published in Hirschmann et al. 2016 are fully available here. If you have specific questions/requests, do not hesitate to contact us (gaea.model at gmail.com)! 

Below you can find some recent news from work based on/including GAEA (all news can be found here)

The first quenched galaxies, when and how? 

In Xie et al. 2024 we present predictions from the latest version of our model for the quenched fractions up to z~7, and study the physical mechanism responsible for quenching the first galaxies. We find that, independently of galaxy stellar mass, the dominant quenching mechanism at high redshift is feedback from central massive black holes in the form of quasar winds. This is triggered by mergers in more massive galaxies, and by disk instabilities in low-mass galaxies. Environmental quenching becomes (increasingly) important at lower redshift. 

Tracing the quenching journey across cosmic time

In De Lucia et al. 2024 we present the latest version of our GAEA model, now merging our updated treatment of AGN feedback, including an explicit treatment of quasar winds, with our improved treatment of satellite evolution and explicit treatment of the partition of cold gas in its molecular and atomic components. This latest version of our model predicts specific star formation rat distributions that are in remarkable agreement with data in the local Universe, and quenched fractions that are in very nice agreement with data up to z~3-4.  Our new model predicts number densities of massive quiescent galaxies at z>3 that are the largest among recently published models, albeit still on the low side when compared with lates measurements based on JWST data. We shown that the expected cosmic variance is large, and that it can easily accomodate some of these recent measurements. 

Globular clusters in a hierarchical Universe

In De Lucia et al. 2023 we present an end-to-end description of the formation process of globular clusters (GCs) which includes a treatment for their formation and dynamical evolution with our GAEA model. Our reference model reproduces well the observed correlation between the total mass in GCs and the parent halo mass. A deviation from linearity is predicted at low halo masses, which is driven by a strong dependence on morphological type. An environmental dependence of GC radii is required to reproduce the observed mass distribution of GCs in our Galaxy at the low-mass end. The metallicity distribution measured for Galactic GCs is well reproduced by our model, even though it predicts systematically younger GCs than observed. We argue that this adds further evidence for an anomalously early formation of the stars in our Galaxy.

Filaments and tracers

In Zakharova et al. 2023 we apply DisPerSE to predictions from GAEA to investigate the correspondence between filaments extracted using the distribution of dark matter particles and galaxies, within the same cosmological volume. We focus in particular on filaments around massive clusters (Virgo and Coma-like). We find that filaments extracted using different tracers are broadly consistent but never coincide perfectly.   

 

Questions?

Contact gaea.model at gmail.com

 

Background image credit: Webb’s First Deep Field