Smoothed particle hydrodynamics for galaxy-formation simulations: improved treatments of multiphase gas, of star formation and of supernovae feedback

We investigate a new implementation of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics technique designed to improve the realism with which galaxy formation can be simulated. In situations where cooling leads to the coexistence of phases of very different density and temperature, our method substantially reduces artificial overcooling near phase boundaries, prevents the exclusion of hot gas from the vicinity of cold 'clouds' and allows relative motion of the two phases at each point. We demonstrate the numerical stability of our scheme in the presence of extremely steep density and temperature gradients, as well as in strong accretion shocks and cooling flows. In addition, we present new implementations of star formation and feedback which simulate the effect of energy injection into multiphase gas more successfully than previous schemes. Our feedback recipes deposit thermal energy separately in cold dense gas and hot diffuse gas, and can explicitly re-inject cold gas into the hot phase. They make it possible to dampen star formation effectively, to reheat cold gas, and to drive outflows into the galaxy halo and beyond. We show feedback effects to be strongest in small-mass objects where much of the gas can be expelled. After idealized tests, we carry out a first low-resolution study of galaxy formation in a Lambda-cold dark matter universe. Feedback results in substantial and mass-dependent reductions in the total baryonic mass gathered on to the final object as well as in significant modulation of the star formation history.