Models of galaxy formation and evolution

CORA S. A

La Plata

Congreso; LVIII Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2015

Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata

Our undertanding of galaxy formation and evolution in a cosmological context is one of the most challenging topics in astrophysics and cosmology. From the theoretical point of view, during the last decades we have been witnesses of big steps considering two dierent numerical techniques to model the physics that aects the baryonic components (gas, stars): numerical simulations that involve gffravity and hydrodynamics, and semianalytic models of galaxy formation and evolution; the latter combines statistical estimates of the distribution of dark matter halos and their merger trees, provided by cosmological simulations, with simple but physically motivated prescriptions that allow to estimate the distribution of galaxy properties. Many of the physical processes that are not directly resolved in cosmological simulations are modelled in a similar way to that implemented in semi-analytic models. In this paper, we present the results that arise from the application of both techniques,highlighting their achievements and failures, and emphasizing the unanswered questions related to the physical processes involved in the determination of galaxy properties.