Ben Keller - February 23, 2018

Regulating galaxy formation and churning the circumgalactic medium with
superbubble-driven outflows

Galaxies like our own, with halo masses ~10^12 Msun, live in an interesting part
of parameter space. Not only are they the "turnover" in the
galaxy mass Schecter function, they also have the highest stellar mass 
(and baryon) fraction, very low bulge-to-disk ratios, and
dominate the star formation of the epoch they live in. In this talk 
I will present the results of a sample of 18 cosmological M*
galaxies, simulated using the state-of-the-art superbubble method for 
handling feedback from Type II Supernovae. I will show that
the key to obtaining a realistic stellar mass to halo mass relation 
(SMHMR) is preventing the runaway growth of a massive bulge
by driving outflows with large mass-loadings. When, SN feedback alone can 
no longer effectively drive outflows from the
galaxy, and star formation becomes unregulated.  In addition, I will show 
how the outflowing material from feedback-regulated galaxies
circulates through the CGM, and conclude with new results that raise 
interesting questions about the uncertainty inherent in simulations of 
galaxy formation.