# On the origin of the Tully-Fisher relation

## 1. INTRODUCTION

The Tully-Fisher relation (hereafter TF: Tully & Fisher 1977) is one of the most basic relations in spiral galaxies, and would be a clue to understand the origin of disk galaxies. The TF relation has been roughly considered as a product of the virial theorem and a nearly constant mass-to-light ratio since its discovery. Recently, the origin of the TF relation is discussed by, e.g., Silk (1997) and Mo, Mao & White (1998).

In their semi-analytical approach, Mo, Mao & White (1998) succeeded in reproducing the TF relation, assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio and empirical profiles of disks and haloes. Heavens & Jimenez (1999) took the same approach but including an empirical star formation model, and reproduced the TF relation in four passbands simultaneously. In these semi-analytical approaches, however, observed features of galaxies, such as the exponential profile and flat rotation curve, were not constructed as the results of simulations, but assumed a priori. Steinmetz & Navarro (1999) performed direct simulations of galaxy formation within the cosmological context, and also succeeded in getting the slope and scatter of the TF relation. They treated the volume much larger than the scale of galaxies, and considered environmental effects (e.g., tidal field and infall/outflow of mass). However, due to the complicated behaviors of these effects, it still remains unknown what physics produces the TF relation.

Based on these arguments, we simulate formation and evolution of galaxies with the $`N`$-body/SPH method including cooling, star formation and their feedback of energy, mass and metals to the ISM. Using the similar method, Katz (1992) and Steinmetz & Müller (1994, 1995) succeeded in constructing internal structures as observed in spiral galaxies, e.g., the exponential density profile, flat rotation curve, and distributions of stellar age and metallicity in the bulge, disk and halo. In contrast to their simulations of single galaxy formation, we consider formation of many galaxies with different masses and spin parameters. In order to investigate what physics produces the TF relation, we concentrate on formation of isolated galaxies with different initial conditions. We note that as well as the TF relation, observed features of spiral galaxies, such as the exponential light-profiles and flat rotation curve, are reproduced in our simulations, which were assumed a priori in past semi-analytical approaches.

## 2. METHODS

### 2.1. Numerical Methods

We use a GRAPE-SPH code, a hybrid scheme of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and the $`N`$-body integration hardware GRAPE-3 (Sugimoto et al. 1990), the code which was firstly discussed by Steinmetz (1996) and developed further by us (Koda, Wada & Sofue 1999). The code is implemented to treat three-component systems: the gas, stars and dark mater, and calculate gravitational and hydrodynamical forces, which are symmetrized to satisfy the Newton’s third law. We consider the radiative and inverse Compton cooling of the gas which is optically thin and in collisional ionization equilibrium of H and He ($`X_H=0.76`$, $`X_{He}=0.24`$; see Katz et al. 1996). We also take phenomenological models of star formation and their feedback to mimic real galaxy formation.

The star formation model adopted is basically the same as those discussed in Katz (1992), Navarro & White (1993) and Steinmetz & Müller (1994, 1995). Stars are formed in regions which are locally contracting and Jeans-unstable at a rate given by $`\dot{\rho _{}}=c_{}\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}/\mathrm{max}(\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}},\tau _{\mathrm{cool}})`$. Here, $`\rho _{}`$, $`\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}`$, $`\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ and $`\tau _{\mathrm{cool}}`$ are the densities of stars and the gas, local dynamical and cooling timescales, respectively. In most cases, $`\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ is larger than $`\tau _{\mathrm{cool}}`$, and the star formation timescale is typically $`20\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ under the adopted parameter $`c_{}=0.05`$. When one third of the mass in a gas particle is transformed into stars, we create a new collisionless star particle, which inherits the position and velocity of its parent gas particle.

We take a simple model of feedback. Massive stars with $`8M_{}`$ are assumed to release energy, mass and metals into the surrounding gas at a constant rate through stellar wind (SW) and type II supernovae (SNII). All of the massive stars then become white dwarfs, and $`15\%`$ of them results in type Ia supernovae (SNIa, Tsujimoto et al. 1995). In Table 1, we list total released energy, mass and metal per star, and the periods of feedback (see Nomoto et al. 1997a & 1997b; Yoshii et al. 1996). We can estimate the number of stars with $`8M_{}`$, in a star particle, with the initial mass function (IMF) of Salpeter (1955). Released energy is provided into the surrounding gas as thermal energy. Since stars are formed and release energy at dense gas regions, where feedback energy is soon radiated away, feedback does not so much affect the simulations in our model.

### 2.2. Initial Conditions

We simulate formation and evolution of galaxies from $`z=25`$ to $`0`$ in the CDM cosmology ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$, $`h=0.5`$). Our initial conditions are similar to those of Katz (1992) and Steinmetz & Müller (1994, 1995), but we consider 14 isolated spheres, on which small scale CDM fluctuations are superimposed with the Zel’dovich approximation (Zel’dovich 1970). The densities of the spheres are enhanced above the background field by $`\delta \rho /\rho =0.25`$. We normalize the CDM spectrum so that the rms fluctuation in a sphere of radius $`8h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ becomes equal to $`\sigma _8=0.63`$ at $`z=0`$. The spheres are rigidly rotating, and following the reduced Hubble expansion (see Steinmetz & Müller 1995). Two free parameters, mass and spin parameter, are listed in Table 2.

The gas and dark matter are represented by the same number of particles, and their mass ratio is set to $`1/9`$. The initial temperature of the gas is set to 70 K of the cosmic microwave background at $`z=25`$. The mass of a gas particle varies between $`2.4\times 10^6`$ and $`1.9\times 10^7M_{}`$ according to the system mass considered (Table 2). The mass of a dark matter particle varies between $`2.1\times 10^7`$ and $`1.7\times 10^8M_{}`$. Low resolution may cause an artificial heating due to two-body relaxation between the SPH and dark matter particles, however this range of particle mass is small enough to exclude the artificial heating effect (Steinmetz & White 1997). The gravitational softenings are taken to be $`1.5\mathrm{kpc}`$ for gas and star particles, and $`3\mathrm{kpc}`$ for dark matter. The total number of particles typically becomes $`4\times 10^4`$ at the end of the simulations ($`z=0`$).

### 2.3. Data Reduction

In order to compare the properties of observed and simulated galaxies, we compute the observables such as luminosity and the line-width for each “spiral galaxies” at $`z=0`$. Stellar luminosity is computed with the simple stellar population (SSP) synthesis models of Kodama & Arimoto (1997). The models provide integrated spectra along stellar isochrones corresponding to appropriate age and metallicity. We take the Salpeter’s IMF. Total magnitude $`M_I`$ of simulated galaxies is computed to sum up star particles using appropriate SSP tables, which are selected in accordance with age and metallicity of the star particles. The line-width $`W_{20}`$ is derived similarly to the observable as constructing a line-profile of gas weighted by mass, and measuring the width at $`20\%`$ level of a peak flux. The catalog of all the simulated galaxies is presented in Table 2.

## 3. RESULTS

### 3.1. Evolution and Structures of Individual Galaxies

Figure 1 shows snapshots of star particles at four redshifts for the case of $`M=4\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ and $`\lambda =0.06`$. These view angles provide a face-on projection at $`z=0`$. Two clumps at $`z=4`$ are merging and form a bulge-like system between $`z=4`$ and $`3`$. After the bulge formation, the surrounding gas gradually cools and falls to form a gaseous disk, and then a stellar disk is gradually formed. The panel at $`z=2`$ shows that a disk-like structure surrounds the central bulge. Since the gas density of the inner disk is higher than that of the outer part, the star formation timescale is shorter in the inner part than in the outer part. The stellar disk is gradually formed from the inside to outside in the gas disk. The panel at $`z=1`$ shows a larger disk than that of $`z=2`$.

In Figure 2 we plot the total star formation rate, total magnitude and color in a rest frame against the look-back time (and also the redshift). The star formation rate peaks at $`z3`$ at a rate of $`29M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, and then declines and reaches an almost constant value of $`1M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at $`z1`$, when the stellar mass has already been about $`80\%`$ of the total disk mass. At $`z=0`$, about $`10\%`$ of the total baryonic mass remains in the gas and the rest is already in stars, which is consistent with the observations of spiral galaxies. Total magnitude also peaks near the time of the maximum star formation. Then the magnitudes in all passbands are monotonically declining until $`z=0`$ because the mean age of the stellar component becomes older and massive stars gradually die. The amount of the decline between $`z=3`$ to the present is $`1.6\mathrm{mag}`$ in $`I`$-band.

We show the final snapshots of star particles in Figure 4. The $`I`$-band luminosity profile and rotation-velocity profile of the final galaxy are shown in Figure 3. Observed internal structures, such as the exponential light-profile and flat rotation curve, are well reproduced as the results of the simulation. We confirm that all the 14 simulated “spiral galaxies” attain such properties.

About $`30\%`$ of total gas angular momentum transfers to that of dark matter in the period $`z=52`$, when condensed gas core with dark halos merge into a larger object (Katz & Gunn 1991; Navarro, Frenk & White 1995). After the period, the baryon disk scarcely looses the angular momentum, because of no infall of lumpy clumps in our simulations. The specific angular momenta of the baryon disks lie in the range of those in observed spiral galaxies at $`z=0`$ (Fall 1983; Contardo et al 1998). In the following discussion, we investigate a statistical property of 14 simulated galaxies, all of which have internal structures similar to observed spiral galaxies as discussed above.

### 3.2. The Tully-Fisher Relation

In Figure 4, we compare the observed (open squares) and simulated (closed circles) TF plot in $`I`$-band. We use the observed data presented by Han (1992) and translate them to absolute values with distances assuming $`h=0.5`$. The slopes of the solid and dashed lines are derived by fitting to observed data (Giovanelli et al. 1997a), and the zero points are fitted by eye. In Figure 4, we notice that the simulated TF relation shows the following three points: (i) The slope of TF is well reproduced. (ii) The scatter of TF is also similar to the observations. (iii) The zero point is systematically fainter. These points are consistent with the previous results which included environmental effects, e.g., tidal field and infall/outflow of mass (Steinmetz & Navarro 1999). Here, we artificially control initial conditions of isolated spheres, and examine how final structures of “spiral” galaxies depend on the initial conditions. Based on these simulations, we discuss the TF relation in detail on three points: the zero point, slope and scatter.

The zero point: Our simulated galaxies are $`1.5\mathrm{mag}`$ fainter than observed ones. We could find a possible solution of this discrepancy by changing the adopted cosmological model: Changing $`h`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$) would cause a vertical (horizontal) shift of the plotted points in Figure 4. If larger $`h`$ ($`>0.5`$) is taken, distance estimations for the observed galaxies become smaller, and open squares (observed galaxies) vertically shift downward in Figure 4. Larger $`h`$ also provides younger age, and therefore, brighter luminosity for galaxies, because galaxies loose luminosity with their age. It results in an upward shift of the simulated galaxies. If smaller $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ ($`<1`$) is taken, the baryon fraction $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{b}/\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ becomes larger because $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{b}`$ should be fixed by the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Since $`I`$-band luminosity is almost determined by the total baryonic mass, it results in a smaller mass-to-light ratio $`M/L`$, which shifts the filled circles (simulated galaxies) leftward in Figure 4. If we take a cosmological model with larger $`h>0.5`$ and/or smaller $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0<1`$, which is suggested by recent observations (Giovanelli et al. 1997b, Perlmutter et al. 1998), the simulated TF relation would become consistent of the observed one. Note that the zero point also depends on the redshift when the whole mass is merging into a galaxy in hierarchical cosmology (Mo, Mao & White 1998). The $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0<1`$ universe will shift the zero point brighter (upward), and also alleviate the discrepancy.

The slope: As seen in Figure 4, our simulations well reproduce the slope and scatter of the TF relation. The shifted zero point may not affect the mutual comparison among the simulated galaxies. In the left panel of Figure 5, the simulated galaxies with different masses are represented by different symbols on the TF plot. The slope of the solid line is derived from observed data (Giovanelli et al. 1997a). Figure 5 clearly shows that larger total mass of galaxies result in brighter luminosity and larger line-width. The resultant slope of model galaxies on the TF plot is quite similar to the observations. The TF correlation originates in the differences of total masses of galaxies.

The scatter: Figure 5 (left panel) shows that $`I`$-band luminosity are different among the galaxies with the same mass. The reason of the non-constant $`M/L`$ is found in the right panel of Figure 5. The right panel is the same plot as the left panel, but different symbols are used for different initial spin parameters $`\lambda `$. It shows that galaxies with different $`\lambda `$ distribute nearly perpendicular to the TF correlation, resulting in the scatter of the TF relation. The amplitude of the scatter depends on the range of $`\lambda `$. We took $`\lambda =0.040.10`$, which is a range if angular momenta are caused by the cosmological tidal field (Barnes & Efstathiou 1987). The role of spin parameters on the scatter can be explained in two ways: (i) Low (high) $`\lambda `$ leads to a centrifugally concentrated disk, which provides large (small) line-width $`W_{20}`$. (ii) Low (high) $`\lambda `$ results in smaller (larger) disk, and high (low) surface density of the gas disk, which controls the time-scale of star formation $`\tau _{}`$. For low $`\lambda `$, $`\tau _{}`$ is relatively short due to the high surface density, and most of stars are formed at the earlier phase of galaxy formation. Therefore, the mean age of the stellar component in low $`\lambda `$ galaxies is older than that in high $`\lambda `$ galaxies at $`z=0`$. Low $`\lambda `$ makes fainter galaxies than high $`\lambda `$ through the age of their stellar component. This effect also makes the scatter of the TF relation.

## 4. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

We have investigated the origin of the TF relation by simulating formation of 14 galaxies with the $`N`$-body/SPH direct calculations, which includes the cooling, star formation and stellar feedback. Internal structures of spiral galaxies, such as the exponential disk profile and flat rotation, are well reproduced as the results of the simulations, while these properties were assumed a priori in past semi-analytic approaches (Mo, Mao & White 1998; Heavens & Jimenez 1999). We observed the total magnitude and gas line-widths of the simulated ”spiral galaxies”, and found that they also reproduce the slope and scatter of the TF relation, except for the zero-point. We have simulated galaxy formation from many different initial conditions, and found that the slope of the TF relation is produced by the difference of total galactic masses, and the scatter is produced by the difference of initial spin parameters.

We should comment upon our model of star formation and feedback. The following issues about star formation and feedback remain for future investigations with higher resolution simulations. Luminosity in red passbands is determined firstly by the stellar amount, and secondly by their age. Simulated galaxies have the stellar amount similar to the observations, typically $`8090\%`$ of the total baryonic mass at $`z=0`$. Their luminosity hence depends on stellar age distribution, i.e., star formation history. Our star formation model is based on the Schmidt’s law ($`\dot{\rho _{}}\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}^{1.5}`$), which is an optimal but robust model if the mean rate of star formation can be determined by a mean local density of the gas. This averaging treatment of star formation would be most suitable for the current resolution $`1\mathrm{kpc}`$. In the Milky Way Galaxy, star formation is observed at molecular clouds, and further discussion about different kinds of star formation model would requires to resolve at least the scale of molecular clouds $`100\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}`$, 10 times smaller than our spatial resolution. In our simulations, the star formation timescale is mostly set to $`20\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}}`$. Since the local dynamical timescale $`\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ is much shorter than galaxy age, the gas is transformed to stars efficiently in high redshift. Taking the model which gives longer timescales of star formation would provide brighter galaxies because galaxies which consist of younger stars are brighter.

Stellar feedback would control the self-regulation mechanisms in spiral galaxies as discussed by Silk (1997). Our adopted model behaved like a minimal feedback, because feedback energy released as thermal energy which could be radiated away in a short timescale. If the energy is released as kinetic form as discussed in Navarro & White (1993), the feedback would become more efficient and could change the history of star formation. It however is not clear that feedback through kinetic energy can be occurred in the scale of $`1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}`$, i.e., our spatial resolution. Since supernovae remnants expand to about $`10100\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}`$ in the inter stellar medium, $`10100`$ times higher spatial resolution than the present one should be required for the detailed modeling of the local stellar feedback. These issues remain for future investigations.

As discussed in Section 3.2, the discrepancy of the $`1.5\mathrm{mag}`$ fainter zero point in $`I`$-band would be alleviated in the cosmological model of $`h>0.5`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0<1`$. We should note, however, that this discrepancy cannot be solved in the $`h=0.5`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$ cosmology with different models of star formation and feedback. The $`I`$-band luminosity declines by only $`1.6\mathrm{mag}`$ from $`z=3`$, the time of the peak luminosity, to the present. In order to shift the zero point $`1.5\mathrm{mag}`$ brighter by changing the star formation history, almost all the stars must be formed at very low redshift $`z<0.1`$ (recent 2 Gyr) in all the spiral galaxies in the local universe.

Our initial conditions consider collapse of isolated spheres. Under these idealized initial conditions, the infall of sub-galactic clumps at $`z2`$, which is expected in the $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ CDM universe, cannot occur, though a continuous gas supply would enhance the star formation rate at a low redshift. If we consider later gas infalls, the resultant galaxies would have brighter luminosity. Note however that as discussed in Section 3.2, our derived TF relation was consistent with the previous simulations (Steinmetz & Navarro 1999), which included the environmental effects, e.g., tidal field and infall/outflow of mass. In our isolated conditions, the simulations do not suffer from an extreme transfer of angular momentum from baryon to dark matter (Navarro, Frenk & White 1995; Navarro & Steinmetz 1997) because no merging occurs at a low redshift,

Numerical computations were carried out on the GRAPE-3 system at the Astronomical Data Analysis Center of the National Astronomical Observatory, Japan. J.K. thank the Hayakawa Fund for the financial support to participate the 15th IAP meeting. We would like to thank Dr. N. Arimoto for providing us with their tables of the stellar population synthesis. We thank M. Honma for reading the manuscript and giving helpful comments.