2025-05-29 –, Main Conference Room
I will present a new suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations of galaxy formation and evolution containing a novel set of subgrid models for stellar feedback and star cluster formation and evolution. These EMP simulations (for “Empirically Motivated Physics”) provide a solution to the stellar feedback "recipe" problem by adopting a model that uses feedback momentum input rates directly obtained from the observed molecular cloud lifecycle. Instead of attempting to solve the immensely complex nature of multi-mechanism, multi-scale stellar feedback from the bottom up, it applies the emergent, macroscopic "right answer" as observed in the real Universe. This new feedback model is combined with a model for the multi-phase interstellar medium, abundance tracking of 36 chemical elements and their isotopes, and a state-of-the-art model for the formation and evolution of the entire star cluster population (an evolution of the E-MOSAICS star cluster model). I will show how the physics contained in the EMP simulations change the baryon cycle in simulated galaxies relative to older feedback models. These simulations provide an important step forward by allowing us to obtain a detailed understanding of the star formation-feedback cycle on molecular cloud scales, from nearby galaxies out to the extreme formation environments of globular clusters at high redshift.
