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# FLRW UNIVERSES FROM “WAVE-LIKE” COSMOLOGIES IN 5𝐷

## 1 Introduction

The possibility that our universe is embedded in a higher dimensional space has generated a great deal of active interest. In Brane-World and Space-Time-Matter (STM) theories the usual constraint on Kaluza-Klein models, namely the cylinder condition, is relaxed so the extra dimensions are not restricted to be “small”. Although these theories have different physical motivations for the introduction of a large extra dimension, they share the same working scenario, lead to the same dynamics in $`4D`$, and face the same challenges . Among them, to predict observationally testable effects of the extra dimension.

The nontrivial dependence of the spacetime metric on the extra coordinate, allowed in both brane-world and STM, endows solutions of the five-dimensional equations with new intriguing properties. The first important question concerning solutions in $`5D`$ is to check whether they give back standard four-dimensional results. Next, comes the study of the new physics and predictions coming from the extra non-compact dimension.

A number of solutions are already known. However, of particular interest are those obtained on simple assumptions that allow a complete and systematic integration of the five-dimensional Einstein’s equations. As an illustration, we mention the following three classes of cosmological solutions.

(i) Solutions where the metric coefficients admit separation of variables . These have been applied to the discussion of a wide variety of cosmological problems that range from singularities to geodesic motion -.

(ii) Solutions where $`g_{44}`$ is static . These have been discussed in the context of brane models where our universe is a domain wall in a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime -, and in STM for vanishing cosmological constant .

(iii) Solutions where $`g_{00}`$ is independent of the extra coordinate. These have been used to study the possibility of variable physical “constants” in the context of brane-world models  and, a subclass of them, in the analysis of singularities in STM .

However, there is another simple class of models that allow straightforward integration of the field equations. We refer here to the case where the metric functions have a simple functional dependence of time and the extra coordinate similar to that in traveling waves or pulses propagating in the fifth dimension. These “wave-like” cosmological models were originally investigated by Liu and Wesson  and more recently by Wesson, Liu and Seahra  in the context of STM. They considered the special class of solutions resulting from the following two conditions.

1. The effective matter quantities satisfy the isothermal equation of state $`p=\gamma \rho `$.
2. The time metric coefficient $`g_{00}`$ and the expansion factor of the space-sections are related by a power law.

Under these conditions, they showed that for both the matter-dominated $`(\gamma =0)`$ and radiation-dominated $`(\gamma =1/3)`$ eras of the universe, the $`4D`$ spacetime defined by hypersurfaces of the $`5D`$ metric are just the same as those of the standard Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models of general relativity.

This paper is motivated by the works of Liu and Wesson  and Wesson, Liu and Seahra . We believe that wave-like cosmologies represent an elegant class of solutions. But, unfortunately, they have not been investigated enough in the literature. Our aim in this paper is to remedy in part this situation.

Firstly, we show that wave-like cosmologies can be fully integrated in $`5D`$ without introducing additional assumptions, except for an equation of state. In particular the second condition mentioned above is not needed. Besides, for future applications in brane theory, we include a non-vanishing five-dimensional cosmological constant in the discussion.

Secondly, we show that on the four-dimensional hypersurfaces orthogonal to the extra dimension, we recover the familiar FLRW universes, for an arbitrary value of $`\gamma `$ (not only for $`\gamma =0`$ or $`\gamma =1/3`$), regardless of the specific choice of parameters in the solution in $`5D`$.

We also obtain some “new” physics regarding the extra dimension. Namely, we find that the “size” of the extra dimension (the metric coefficient of the extra dimension) is related to the expansion factor of the space-sections through the Hubble parameter. An interesting prediction of the model is that, although the extra dimension is small today, it is growing in size if the universe is speeding up its expansion. The opposite also holds, the size of the extra dimension is decreasing if the universe is speeding down its expansion. Another significant feature is that the relative “speed” of change of the extra dimension is determined by the Hubble and deceleration parameters. This last feature has important observational implications for theories in more than four dimensions that predict the time-variation of some quantities usually considered as constants, among them the gravitational “constant” $`G`$ as well as the rest mass and charge of particles.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we present the “cosmological” equations in $`5D`$. In Section 3 we obtain the equation that provides the cosmological evolution of the wave-like model. In Section 4 we introduce the effective matter. This is a little more involved here than in STM, due to the non-vanishing energy-momentum tensor in $`5D`$. In Sections 5 and 6 we discuss the solution in the $`5D`$-bulk and the $`4D`$-spacetime, respectively. Finally, in Section 7 we present a summary and conclusions.

## 2 Field equations

In cosmological applications the metric is commonly taken in the form

$$d𝒮^2=n^2(t,y)dt^2a^2(t,y)\left[\frac{dr^2}{(1kr^2)}+r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2)\right]+ϵ\mathrm{\Phi }^2(t,y)dy^2,$$
(1)
where $`k=0,+1,1`$ and $`t,r,\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$ are the usual coordinates for a spacetime with spherically symmetric spatial sections. We adopt signature $`(+)`$ for spacetime and the factor $`ϵ`$ can be $`1`$ or $`+1`$ depending on whether the extra dimension is spacelike or timelike, respectively.

The corresponding field equations in $`5D`$ are

$$G_{AB}=k_{(5)}^2{}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{AB}^{},$$
(2)
where $`k_{(5)}^2`$ is a constant introduced for dimensional considerations, $`{}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{AB}^{}`$ is the energy-momentum tensor in $`5D`$ and the non-vanishing components of the Einstein tensor $`G_{AB}`$ are

$$G_0^0=\frac{3}{n^2}\left(\frac{\dot{a}^2}{a^2}+\frac{\dot{a}\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{a\mathrm{\Phi }}\right)+\frac{3ϵ}{\mathrm{\Phi }^2}\left(\frac{a^{\prime \prime }}{a}+\frac{a_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{a^2}\frac{a^{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}}{a\mathrm{\Phi }}\right)+\frac{3k}{a^2},$$
(3)
$`G_1^1=G_2^2=G_3^3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{\mathrm{\Phi }}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2\ddot{a}}{a}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{\mathrm{\Phi }}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\dot{a}}{a}}{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{n}}{n}}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\dot{n}}{n}}\right)\right]+`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{\mathrm{\Phi }^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2a^{\prime \prime }}{a}}+{\displaystyle \frac{n^{\prime \prime }}{n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{a^{}}{a}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{a^{}}{a}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2n^{}}{n}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Phi }^{}}{\mathrm{\Phi }}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2a^{}}{a}}+{\displaystyle \frac{n^{}}{n}}\right)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{k}{a^2}},`$
$$G_4^0=\frac{3}{n^2}\left(\frac{\dot{a}^{}}{a}\frac{\dot{a}n^{}}{an}\frac{a^{}\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{a\mathrm{\Phi }}\right),$$
(5)
and

$$G_4^4=\frac{3}{n^2}\left(\frac{\ddot{a}}{a}+\frac{\dot{a}^2}{a^2}\frac{\dot{a}\dot{n}}{an}\right)+\frac{3ϵ}{\mathrm{\Phi }^2}\left(\frac{a_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{a^2}+\frac{a^{}n^{}}{an}\right)+\frac{3k}{a^2}.$$
(6)
Here a dot and a prime denote partial derivatives with respect to $`t`$ and $`y`$, respectively.

Introducing the function

$$F(t,y)=ka^2+\frac{(\dot{a}a)^2}{n^2}+ϵ\frac{(a^{}a)^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }^2},$$
(7)
which is a first integral of the field equations, we get

$$F^{}=\frac{2a^{}a^3}{3}k_{(5)}^2{}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{0}^{0},$$
(8)
and

$$\dot{F}=\frac{2\dot{a}a^3}{3}k_{(5)}^2{}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{4}^{4}.$$
(9)
Bearing in mind a net cosmological constant in $`4D`$, in what follows we will assume that the five-dimensional energy-momentum tensor has the form

$${}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{AB}^{}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}g_{AB},$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}`$ is the cosmological constant in the bulk. We will see that, in this case the effective energy-momentum tensor in $`4D`$ is conserved. We notice that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}`$ can be (i) positive as in the usual de Sitter $`(dS_5)`$ solution, (ii) negative as in the brane-world scenarios where our spacetime is identified with a singular hypersurface (or $`3`$-brane) embedded in an $`AdS_5`$ bulk, or (iii) zero as in STM where the matter in $`4D`$ is interpreted as an effect of the geometry in $`5D`$.

## 3 The wave-like model

Now, following Liu and Wesson we assume that the metric coefficients in (1) are “wave-like” functions of the argument $`(t\lambda y)`$:

$$n=n(t\lambda y),a=a(t\lambda y),\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }(t\lambda y),$$
(11)
where $`\lambda `$ is a constant. It is clear that these functions have the same values for coordinates $`t`$ and $`y`$ that satisfy the relation $`t\lambda y=const`$. Therefore we can say that the values of the metric functions are propagated111The wave-like model requires $`\lambda 0`$, otherwise the $`5D`$ metric is independent of $`y`$ like in the classical Kaluza-Klein theory with cylindricity. along the extra dimension $`y`$ with “speed” $`\lambda ^1=dy/dt`$.

Now, from $`G_4^0=0`$ we get

$$\dot{a}=\alpha n\mathrm{\Phi },$$
(12)
where $`\alpha `$ is a constant of integration. Substituting this into (7) we obtain

$$F=a^2\left(k+\alpha ^2\mathrm{\Phi }^2+ϵ\lambda ^2\alpha ^2n^2\right)a^2f^2.$$
(13)
The auxiliary function $`f`$ satisfies the equation

$$af\frac{df}{da}+f^2=\frac{a^2}{3}k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)},$$
(14)
which follows from (9), (10) and (13). Integrating we get

$$f^2=\frac{\beta \alpha ^2}{a^2}+\frac{1}{6}a^2k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)},$$
(15)
where $`\beta `$ is a constant of integration. Consequently,

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^2=ϵ\lambda ^2n^2\frac{k}{\alpha ^2}+\frac{\beta }{a^2}+\frac{a^2}{6\alpha ^2}k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)},$$
(16)
and from (12)

$$\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{n}\right)^2+k=ϵ\lambda ^2\alpha ^2n^2+\frac{\beta \alpha ^2}{a^2}+\frac{a^2}{6}k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}.$$
(17)
After some manipulations one can verify that the remaining field equation $`G_1^1=G_2^2=G_3^3=k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}`$ is identically satisfied.

Thus, the complete specification of the solution requires the consideration of some physics, or a simplifying mathematical assumption, to determine $`\dot{a}`$ (or $`n`$). Then, from (17) we find $`n`$ (or $`a`$). Finally, the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is given by (16).

It is not difficult to show that the solution, thus specified, depends only on two parameters; namely $`\beta `$ and $`\lambda `$. Indeed, let us consider the scale transformation $`y=\xi \overline{y}`$, where $`\xi `$ is some constant. It leads to $`\lambda =\overline{\lambda }/\xi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\xi `$. If we choose $`\xi =\alpha `$, then we get rid of $`\alpha `$ in the set of equations (12), (16) and (17), provided we retune the constant $`\beta `$ as $`\beta \alpha ^2`$ ($`\overline{\beta }=\beta \alpha ^2`$). Consequently, one can always set $`\alpha =1`$, without loss of generality.

In what follows, however we will keep $`\alpha `$ arbitrary and $`\lambda 0`$. The case $`\lambda =0`$, for which the metric is independent of $`y`$, is examined in Section 7. The physical interpretation of $`\beta `$ in terms of the so-called black or Weyl radiation is discussed in Section 5.

## 4 Effective matter

The simplest way of completing the above system of equations is making some assumption on the metric functions for example $`n=1`$, or some more general relation $`n=n(a)`$. The same can also be done for $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$.

However, we consider here a more physical approach. Namely, we are concerned about the “effective” matter induced in $`4D`$. We show that if we assume an equation of state, for the effective quantities, then the problem becomes fully determined, i.e., we do not have to assume anything else.

The interpretation of the five-dimensional field equations, in terms of four-dimensional quantities, is provided by the fact that, for an arbitrary five-dimensional metric, the $`15`$ equations (2) in $`5D`$ can be split up into three parts. Namely, a set of $`10`$ equations which looks effectively as the field equations in $`4D`$ with an effective energy-momentum tensor. A set of $`4`$ equations which resembles Maxwell equations with sources, and an equation for the scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ .

In absence of off-diagonal terms $`(g_{4\mu }=0)`$ the dimensional reduction of the five-dimensional equations is particularly simple. The usual assumption is that our spacetime is orthogonal to the extra dimension. Thus we introduce the normal unit ($`n_An^A=ϵ`$) vector, orthogonal to hypersurfaces $`y=constant`$,

$$n^A=\frac{\delta _4^A}{\mathrm{\Phi }},n_A=(0,0,0,0,ϵ\mathrm{\Phi }).$$
(18)
Consequently, the physical metric coincides with the spacetime part of (1). Following the usual procedure, we define the energy-momentum tensor in four-dimensions (on the hypersurfaces $`y=const`$) through the effective Einstein field equations in $`4D`$, namely

$`{}_{}{}^{(4)}G_{\alpha \beta }^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}k_{(5)}^2[{}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{\alpha \beta }^{}+(^{(5)}T_4^4{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{}_{}{}^{(5)}T)g_{\alpha \beta }]`$ (19)
$`ϵ\left(K_{\alpha \lambda }K_\beta ^\lambda K_\lambda ^\lambda K_{\alpha \beta }\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{2}}g_{\alpha \beta }\left(K_{\lambda \rho }K^{\lambda \rho }(K_\lambda ^\lambda )^2\right)ϵE_{\alpha \beta },`$
where $`K_{\mu \nu }`$ is the extrinsic curvature

$$K_{\alpha \beta }=\frac{1}{2}_ng_{\alpha \beta }=\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Phi }}\frac{g_{\alpha \beta }}{y},K_{A4}=0,$$
(20)
and $`E_{\mu \nu }`$ is the projection of the bulk Weyl tensor $`{}_{}{}^{(5)}C_{ABCD}^{}`$ orthogonal to $`\widehat{n}^A`$, i.e., “parallel” to spacetime, viz.,

$`E_{\alpha \beta }`$ $`=`$ $`{}_{}{}^{(5)}C_{\alpha A\beta B}^{}n^An^B`$ (21)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{\displaystyle \frac{K_{\alpha \beta }}{y}}+K_{\alpha \rho }K_\beta ^\rho ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{\alpha ;\beta }}{\mathrm{\Phi }}}ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{k_{(5)}^2}{3}}\left[{}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{\alpha \beta }^{}+({}_{}{}^{(5)}T_{4}^{4}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{}_{}{}^{(5)}T)g_{\alpha \beta }\right].`$
The first term on the r.h.s. of (19) yields

$$T_{\mu \nu }^{(\mathrm{\Lambda })}=\frac{1}{2}k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}g_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Lambda }g_{\mu \nu },$$
(22)
where we have used (10) and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=k_{(5)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}/2`$ is the effective cosmological constant in $`4D`$. The rest of the terms on the r.h.s. of (19) represent the effective mater, viz.,

$$8\pi GT_{\mu \nu }^{(eff)}ϵ\left(K_{\mu \lambda }K_\nu ^\lambda K_\lambda ^\lambda K_{\mu \nu }\right)+\frac{ϵ}{2}g_{\mu \nu }\left(K_{\lambda \rho }K^{\lambda \rho }(K_\lambda ^\lambda )^2\right)ϵE_{\mu \nu }.$$
(23)
In cosmological problems, the effective matter is commonly assumed to be a perfect fluid

$$T_{\mu \nu }^{(eff)}=(\rho _{eff}+p_{eff})u_\mu u_\nu p_{eff}g_{\mu \nu }.$$
(24)
It is clear that this interpretation is not unique. For example, we could assume that the effective matter is the superposition of several fluids with distinct equations of state. What we are doing here, since we want to recover known results, is a “modest” extension of four-dimensional general relativity. Besides, only the effective (or total) quantities have observational consequences.

As a consequence of the contracted Bianchi identities in $`4D`$, $`{}_{}{}^{(4)}G_{\nu ;\mu }^{\mu }=0`$, and (10), the effective energy-momentum tensor satisfies the standard general relativity conservation equations, viz.,

$$^\mu T_{\mu \nu }^{(eff)}=0.$$
(25)
If in the bulk there were scalar and/or other fields, then this would be no longer true, in general.

Since $`G_{01}=0`$, it follows that $`u_1=0`$. Hence the effective perfect fluid is “at rest” in the frame given by (1). Thus, for the case under consideration, the appropriate equations are,

$`8\pi G\rho _{eff}+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{n^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{3k}{a^2}},`$
$`8\pi Gp_{eff}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2\ddot{a}}{a}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\dot{n}}{n}}\right)\right]{\displaystyle \frac{k}{a^2}},`$ (26)
It is important to emphasize here that the effective matter content of the spacetime will be the same whether we interpret it as induced matter, as in STM, or as the “total” matter in a $`𝐙_2`$ symmetric brane universe. This is a consequence of the identification of the tensor $`P_{\mu \nu }`$ of STM with the energy-momentum tensor on the brane in brane theory , .

It is useful to introduce the “proper” time $`\tau `$, as

$$d\tau =ndt.$$
(27)
In terms of which the expressions for matter density and pressure become simpler. Namely,

$`8\pi G\rho _{eff}+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{a^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{da}{d\tau }}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{3k}{a^2}},`$
$`8\pi Gp_{eff}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{a}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{d^2a}{d\tau ^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{a^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{da}{d\tau }}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{k}{a^2}}.`$ (28)
We now assume that the effective matter quantities satisfy the isothermal equation of state222Negative values of $`\gamma `$ are also allowed in the study of inflationary models of our universe, which require violation of the “strong” energy condition, viz., $`(\rho _{eff}+p_{eff})<0`$., viz.,

$$p_{eff}=\gamma \rho _{eff},\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\; 0}\gamma 1.$$
(29)
This provides a differential equation for $`a`$, viz.,

$$\frac{2}{a}\left(\frac{d^2a}{d\tau ^2}\right)+\frac{(3\gamma +1)}{a^2}\left(\frac{da}{d\tau }\right)^2+(3\gamma +1)\frac{k}{a^2}=(\gamma +1)\mathrm{\Lambda },$$
(30)
whose first integral is

$$\left(\frac{da}{d\tau }\right)^2=\frac{C}{a^{3\gamma +1}}k+\frac{a^2}{3}\mathrm{\Lambda },$$
(31)
where $`C`$ is a constant of integration related to the effective matter in $`4D`$. Thus, solving this equation and using (27) we obtain the solution as a function of the argument $`(t\lambda y)`$.

## 5 The solution in the bulk

Thus, the problem of finding the wave-like cosmological metrics in $`5D`$ becomes totally specified by the equation of state (29). Collecting results, the metric functions in the five-dimensional metric (1) are given by

$`n^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{\lambda ^2\alpha ^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\beta \alpha ^2}{a^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{C}{a^{(3\gamma +1)}}}{\displaystyle \frac{a^2}{6}}\mathrm{\Lambda }\right),`$
$`\mathrm{\Phi }^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha ^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{C}{a^{(3\gamma +1)}}}k+{\displaystyle \frac{a^2}{3}}\mathrm{\Lambda }\right),`$ (32)
where $`a`$ is the solution of the equation

$$\dot{a}^2=\frac{ϵ}{\lambda ^2\alpha ^2}\left(\frac{C}{a^{3\gamma +1}}k+\frac{a^2}{3}\mathrm{\Lambda }\right)\left(\frac{\beta \alpha ^2}{a^2}\frac{C}{a^{(3\gamma +1)}}\frac{a^2}{6}\mathrm{\Lambda }\right).$$
(33)
We note that the parameter $`\beta `$ is related to the so-called Weyl or black radiation. Indeed, substituting (12) and (5) into (21) we obtain

$$8\pi G\rho _{Weyl}=ϵE_0^0=\frac{3\beta \alpha ^2}{a^4},p_{Weyl}=\frac{1}{3}\rho _{Weyl},$$
(34)
where $`8\pi Gp_{Weyl}=ϵE_1^1=ϵE_2^2=ϵE_3^3`$. Thus setting $`\beta =0`$ is equivalent to eliminating the contribution coming from the free gravitational field.

Some particular solutions to (33), namely those with $`\beta =0`$, $`k=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ where discussed by Liu and Wesson. Although they make the additional assumption $`n=a^{(3\gamma +1)/2}`$, which as we see here is unnecessary.

We note that the asymptotic behavior of the solution for $`a0`$ is independent of $`k`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. In this limit, the positiveness of $`\mathrm{\Phi }^2`$ requires $`C>0`$. The particular case $`\beta =0`$ requires the extra dimension to be spacelike $`(ϵ=1)`$. For $`\beta 0`$, it can be either spacelike or timelike. For $`\gamma =1/3`$, which corresponds to a radiation-dominated era, $`n^2>0`$ demands $`ϵ(\beta \alpha ^2C)>0.`$ Besides, from (33), with $`(\gamma =1/3)`$, it follows that both the matter and the Weyl radiation (i.e., $`C`$ and $`\beta `$) contribute to the dynamics, viz.,

$$a^2\left(\frac{9ϵC(\beta \alpha ^2C)}{\lambda ^2\alpha ^2}\right)^{1/3}(t\lambda y)^{2/3}.$$
(35)
For $`\gamma <1/3`$, which includes dust $`(\gamma =0)`$, the Weyl contribution dominates over the matter and $`\dot{a}^2(ϵ\beta C/\lambda ^2)a^{3(\gamma +1)}`$ with $`ϵ\beta >0`$, as $`a0`$. For $`\gamma >1/3`$, which includes the stiff equation of state $`p_{eff}=\rho _{eff}`$, it is the opposite. Namely, in this limit the effective matter dominates over the Weyl term and $`\dot{a}^2ϵC^2/a^{(6\gamma +2)}`$. This becomes possible only if the extra dimension is spacelike333If the extra dimension is timelike, then $`\beta `$ must be positive and $`a`$ is bounded from bellow. For example, for $`\gamma =1`$, $`a^2a_{min}^2C/\beta \alpha ^2`$. $`(ϵ=1).`$

At late times, the specific details of the solution in $`5D`$ for $`a>>1`$ do depend on $`k`$, $`\beta `$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and the signature of the extra dimension.

## 6 The solution in $`4D`$: FLRW universe

Since (33) depends on a number of parameters, it is clear that the general solution in $`5D`$ is very rich and complex. What is amazing here is that the physical scenario in $`4D`$ is always the same regardless of the specific choice of the $`5D`$ parameters $`\beta `$, $`\lambda `$ and signature of the extra dimension. Namely,

$$d𝒮^2=d\tau _0^2a_0^2(\tau )\left[\frac{dr^2}{(1kr^2)}+r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2)\right],$$
(36)
where the evolution of the scale factor is given by the usual equation in FLRW universes

$$\left(\frac{da_0}{d\tau _0}\right)^2=\frac{C}{a_0^{3\gamma +1}}k+\frac{a_0^2}{3}\mathrm{\Lambda }.$$
(37)
Here the subscript $`0`$ for $`\tau `$ and $`a`$ means that these functions are evaluated at some $`y=const`$. The corresponding energy density is given by

$$8\pi G\rho _{eff}=\frac{3C}{a_0^{3(\gamma +1)}}.$$
(38)
Since the solutions to these equations can be found in many textbooks, we are not going to discuss them here.

In addition to the FLRW universes, we obtain some specific expressions for the extra dimension. Indeed, let us notice that444In what follows we omit the subscript $`0`$.

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^2=\frac{1}{\alpha ^2}\left(\frac{da}{d\tau }\right)^2.$$
(39)
Consequently the “size” of the extra dimension is related to the matter in $`4D`$ as

$$\alpha \frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }}{d\tau }=\left[\mathrm{\Lambda }4\pi G(3\gamma +1)\rho _{eff}\right]\frac{a}{3}=\frac{d^2a}{d\tau ^2}.$$
(40)
Thus for the rate of change of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ we get

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Phi }}\frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }}{d\tau }=qH,$$
(41)
where $`H=(a_\tau /a)`$ and $`q=(aa_{\tau \tau }/a_\tau ^2)`$ are the Hubble and “deceleration” $`4D`$ parameters, respectively. According to modern observations, the universe is expanding with an acceleration, so that the parameter $`q`$ is, roughly, $`0.5\pm 0.2`$. Assuming $`H=h\times 10^{10}yr^1`$ we come to the estimate

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Phi }}\frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }}{d\tau }(3.5\pm 1.4)\times 10^{10}yr^1,$$
(42)
where we have taken $`h=0.7`$ . Also for the dimensionless ratio $`\mathrm{\Phi }/a`$ we have

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{a}=\alpha ^1\times h\times 10^{10}.$$
(43)
We also note that the above relations hold for the three cases, $`k=1,0,+1`$ and arbitrary cosmological constant.

## 7 Summary and conclusions

In this work we have discussed cosmologies in five-dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory where the metric coefficients have a wave-like behavior, in the sense that they depend on the single variable $`(t\lambda y)`$. The non-vanishing parameter $`\lambda `$ is the one that permits the universe to have diverse equations of state during its evolution. Namely, in the limit $`\lambda 0`$ from (17) we get

$$\left(\frac{da}{d\tau }\right)^2+k=\frac{\beta \alpha ^2}{a^2}+\frac{a^2}{3}\mathrm{\Lambda }.$$
(44)
Then, from (4) it follows that

$$8\pi G\rho _{eff}=8\pi G\rho _{Weyl}=\frac{3\beta \alpha ^2}{a^4}.$$
(45)
Thus for $`\lambda =0`$ there is only (Weyl) radiation, while for $`\lambda 0`$ other equations of state are possible as we have seen in (37) and (38).

We have shown that an equation of state, for the effective matter quantities, completely specifies wavelike cosmologies in $`5D`$. We note that the introduction of induced matter is not reduced to a trivial isolation of the “extra” $`5D`$-terms in the r.h.s. of the $`5D`$-equations. If we had proceed in this way, we would have obtained $`k_{(4)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}`$ (or $`2\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) in (4) instead of the correct term $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=k_{(4)}^2\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)}/2`$.

The specific form of the solution in $`5D`$ depends on the choice of the parameters $`(\beta ,C,k,\mathrm{\Lambda }_{(5)})`$ and the signature of the extra dimension. In four dimensions (on the hypersurfaces $`y=const`$) these cosmologies are just the same as those of the standard FLRW universes with $`k=0,+1,1`$.

Our model also predicts the development of the extra dimension. Equations (38) and (40) show how the dynamics of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is influenced by the effective matter. On the basis of our model we can reach some conclusions.

(i) Although $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is small today, it is growing in size if the universe is speeding up its expansion. The opposite also holds, the size of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is decreasing is the universe is speeding down its expansion.

(ii) The relative change of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is determined by the Hubble and deceleration parameters as shown in (41).

(iii) At any time during the evolution555The parameter $`\alpha `$ can be taken as $`\alpha =1`$, without loss of generality. $`(\alpha \mathrm{\Phi })=Ha`$.

These conclusions are general in the sense that they are the same regardless of the details of the model in $`4D`$, ie., the value of $`\gamma `$, $`k`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

The estimate given by (42), almost certainly cannot be independently tested. However, it could have important observational implications. This is because the ratio $`(\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\mathrm{\Phi })`$ appears in different contexts, notably in expressions concerning the variation of rest mass , electric charge  and variation of the gravitational “constant” $`G`$ ,.

Indeed, in the Randall-Sundrum brane-world scenario and other non-compact Kaluza-Klein theories, the motion of test particles is higher-dimensional in nature. In other words, all test particles travel on five-dimensional geodesics but observers, who are bounded to spacetime, have access only to the $`4D`$ part of the trajectory. In general, the effective rest mass measured in $`4D`$ changes as the test particle travels on $`5D`$ geodesics666The general, invariant equations for the change of mass are given in .. The total change consists of two parts, one of them is induced by the non-trivial dependence of the metric on the extra coordinate $`(g_{\mu \nu }/y0)`$ and the other part is due to $`\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Even in the simplest situation, where the metric does not depend on the extra coordinate, but only on time, $`m_0`$ the effective rest mass in $`4D`$ of a massless particle in $`5D`$ would change as

$$\frac{1}{m_0}\frac{dm_0}{d\tau }=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Phi }}\frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }}{d\tau },$$
(46)
where we have used equation (25) in Ref. . Similarly, the variation of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ induces a change in the electric charge, and consequently in the fine structure constant .

Regarding the time-variation of $`G`$, it is remarkable that in different models with extra dimensions the ratio $`(\dot{G}/G)`$ is found to be proportional to $`(\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\mathrm{\Phi })`$ ,. At this point we have to mention that the specific value of $`(\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\mathrm{\Phi })`$ depends on the cosmological model. For example, for the cosmologies with separable metric coefficients mentioned in the Introduction $`(\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\mathrm{\Phi })=(1+q)H`$, instead of (41). Consequently, the measurement of quantities like $`(\dot{m_0}/m_0)`$ and $`(\dot{G}/G)`$ will give the opportunity to test different models for compatibility with observational data.

For completeness we mention another important aspect of these cosmologies pointed out by Liu and Wesson for the case with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$. It concerns the nature of the big-bang which occurs at $`a=0`$. In this limit the scale factor is given by (35), $`a(t\lambda y)^{1/3}`$. If observers have different values of $`y`$, they will experience the big-bang as having occurred at different times $`t`$. Thus they will measure different values for the age of the universe.

### Acknowledgments

I would like to thank V.N. Melnikov, J.F. Nieves and Paul S. Wesson for comments on the ratio $`\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}/\mathrm{\Phi }`$.


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# Introducing GOLDMine: A new Galaxy Database on the WEB

## 1 Introduction

Galaxies come in many different forms and sizes, but they can be broadly divided into two main species: Spirals, with a flattened, disk-like shape, blue colors, much gas and dust, and a widespread star formation activity that results in the presence within them of many young stars and Elliptical, with a spheroidal shape, red colors, little or no gas and dust, and no star formation activity, thus containing exclusively old stars. While these differences are well documented, and have been extensively studied over the last 70 years, astronomers are not yet able to convincingly explain the origin of such a diversity. In fact one of today’s major open issues for astronomy is to obtain a plausible reconstruction of the processes of galaxy formation and evolution. The task is of course enormously complicated by the sheer disparity between cosmological and human time-scales, that makes it impossible for astronomers to witness galaxy evolution directly. One possible way to overcome this problem is to take advantage of the ”time machine” effect provided by the finite speed of light. Observing today galaxies at different distances means observing them at different epochs in the history of the Universe, and thus with different ages. Unfortunately distances must be very large before age differences become significant, and therefore unveiling the evolution of galaxies with direct observations of very distant objects is becoming a reality only today, with the advent of the 10m class telescopes. Galaxies at progressively larger look-back time (redshift), thus in a younger evolutionary stage, will be observed in the near future, back to a small fraction of the present age of the Universe. This will provide us with a sequence of ”fossil” galaxies, eventually disclosing the secret of their evolution, much as fossil organisms guided entomologists tracing back the evolution of species. However, 15 years ago, when we initiated this project, a direct observational approach to the problem was unconceivable, because of the lack of proper telescopes and instrumentation. The only available option was to attack the evolutionary enigma starting from the study of evolved systems, i.e. the nearby galaxies. This approach is based on the conviction that ”adult” galaxies still preserve some memory of their past, and that adequate observations would eventually help to disclose it.
With this purpouse we started in 1985 an observational campaign aimed at providing the phenomenology of local galaxies in the widest possible frequency range. We took observations and collected data from the literature from the 2000 Å(UV) range to the centimetric radio domain, spending a large effort in making the literature data as homogeneous as possible with our own data. GOLDMine is designed to provide access to this massive data-set on local galaxies trough the World Wide Web. Numeric parameters as well as the (reduced) scientific FITS images can be downloaded.

## 2 The sample selection

GOLDMine is focused on two regions of the sky: the Virgo cluster and the Coma Supercluster111Additional 382 galaxies (with $`m_p15.7`$) in the A262 (Perseus-Pisces) and Cancer clusters and in the Hercules supercluster (A2147, A2151, A2197, A2199) will be included shortly in GOLDMine.. Among rich-clusters of galaxies, the Virgo cluster is the nearest to us (17 Mpc, Gavazzi et al. 1999b) (see Fig.1). The Coma supercluster contains two rich clusters (Coma and Abell 1367) corresponding to the density enhancements in Fig.2. In addition, this region contains a filament of nearly isolated galaxies, the so called ”Great Wall” at a distance of approximately 90 Mpc (7000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, Gavazzi et al. 1999a) from us (see Fig.2). The studied regions contain 3 rich clusters of galaxies as well as isolated objects, thus providing the ideal laboratory for a comparative analysis of galaxies in different environments.
As opposed to other more extensive galaxy data-bases (eg. NED, LEDA), which include all objects with published parameters, galaxies in GOLDMine were selected with the criterion of optical completeness. All galaxies brighter than a threshold magnitude were selected in both areas. In the Coma supercluster all galaxies brighter than $`m_p=15.7`$ were selected from the Catalogue of Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies (CGCG) by Zwicky et al. (1961-1968).222The number of galaxies meeting the $`m_p15.7`$ criterion is 1082. However 45 galaxies listed as ”pairs” in the CGCG were split into fainter ($`m_p17.0`$) components. The resulting Coma galaxies in GOLDMine are 1127. The Virgo region contains all (2096) galaxies brighter than $`m_p=20.0`$ from the Virgo Cluster Catalogue (VCC) by Binggeli et al. (1985)33344 additional Virgo galaxies with $`m_p14.5`$, $`12^h<R.A.<13^h`$, but outside the area covered by the VCC are included..

Obviously, due to the factor of 5 difference in distance between the Virgo and the Coma clusters, this selection limit results in dwarf galaxies being included in our database only for the Virgo cluster. However globally GOLDMine covers the whole range (4 orders of magnitude) of luminosities spanned by real galaxies.
Altogether GOLDMine contains 3267 galaxies, approximately 60 % of which of early-type (elliptical and S0) and the remaining 40 % of late-type (spirals and irregulars).
Extensive campaigns were carried out to observe as many as possible of the 3267 target galaxies through all possible observational windows, a task that we did not complete yet. Moreover we collected data from the literature and we made all possible effords in trying to homogenize them with the ones obtained by us.

## 3 Database fields

The parameters listed in the GOLDMine database are divided into 5 categories: General, Continuum and Line photometry, Dynamical and Structural. All parameters are extensively described and referenced in the section ”GOLDMine glossary”. See also the section ”GOLDMine tutorial” to learn about using the database.
The parameters can be obtained from GOLDMine in two ways:
1) by querying the database for an individual galaxy name, or
2) by a multiple query ”by parameters”. In this case all galaxies in a given range of photographic magnitude, and morphological type can be selected. The query criteria include also the availability of continuum, line photometry, dynamical and structural parameters.
General parameters include: CGCG (Zwicky et al. 1961-1968), NGC (Dreyer 1888), IC (Dreyer 1895, 1908), VCC (Binggeli et al. 1985), UGC (Nilson 1973) designations; Celestial coordinates precessed to the year 2000; isophotal diameters; photographic magnitude; heliocentric recessional velocity; distance and morphological type.
Continuum photometry parameters consist of total magnitudes from aperture or CCD photometry, uncorrected for extinction either internal or due to our Galaxy. They include: UV (2000 Å); optical (U,B,V); Near-IR (J,H,K) magnitudes; Far-IR (IRAS 60 and 100 $`\mu m`$); radio continuum (1420 and 610 MHz) fluxes.
Line photometry parameters include: the atomic (HI) and molecular (H2) hydrogen mass (the corresponding fluxes can be derived using the source distance); the H$`\alpha `$+\[NII\] line equivalent width and flux.
Dynamical parameters include: the width of the HI line, with a quality flag; the width of the H$`\alpha `$ line and the central velocity dispersion.
Structural parameters include the light concentration index (C31); the effective radius $`R_e`$; the effective surface brightness $`\mu _e`$; the total asymptotic magnitude. These quantities are given separately for the H, V and B bands.

## 4 Imaging

The novelty of GOLDMine consists of its image section, where images can be downloaded in JPG and FITS format. They can be accessed via the the queries ”by name” or ”by parameters”. Images include:

* Finding Charts from the Digitized Palomar Sky Survey. Each selected galaxy appears at the center of the 10x10 $`\mathrm{arcmin}^2`$ finding chart. When multiple catalogued galaxies appear in the same finding chart, by clicking over their names each of them can be selected. In this case the database and image queries are re-directed to the selected galaxy.
* Broad band images obtained in the B, V, H and K bands.
* Narrow band images in the light of H$`\alpha `$. Each galaxy has two H$`\alpha `$ images: the ”OFF-band” one which gives the underlying stellar continuum near H$`\alpha `$ and the ”NET” one, obtained by subtracting the OFF-band image from the ON-band one.
* RGB images. For few miscellaneous galaxies we combined several images to obtain ”true” color pictures (only available in JPG format). Some are combinations of H,V and B frames, other of H$`\alpha `$ OFF, ON and NET frames.
* Light profiles. Radial profiles of the light distribution as obtained on the available (B, V, H) images. See Gavazzi et al. (2000). When at least two radial profiles are available the color radial profile is also shown (only available in JPG format).
* Spectroscopy. These are optical spectra integrated over the whole surface of the galaxy (obtained in drift-scan mode, i.e. by drifting the spectrograph slit over the galaxy extension), see Gavazzi et al. (2002). Spectra were obtained in several observational campaigns carried out with optical telescopes (OHP 1.9m, ESO 3.6m) by Gavazzi et al. (2002). Spectra exist for 141 galaxies, but 80 additional spectra will be included in GOLDMine shortly.
* SEDs. These are Spectral Energy Distributions from the UV to the centimetric radio continuum obtained from broad-band photometry (only available in JPG format). The plotted data are total fluxes (extrapolated to the optical radii), unlike the individual aperture data given by NED. However they are given as observed, i.e. uncorrected for extinction from our Galaxy and for internal extinction444some SEDs contain more data points than listed in the GOLDMine database. For example the IRAS 25$`\mu m`$ flux and the fluxes obtained by ISO (CAM and PHOT) are plotted without being listed in GOLDMine..

It is our goal to provide a homogeneous set of keywords in all FITS header to characterize the data. These will include:

* Galaxy name.
* Effective integration time.
* Filter.
* Telescope.
* WCS parameters.
* Photometric effective zero point (when available) in mag/s for broad band images or in $`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ for H$`\alpha `$ images, such that $`logFlux=Zp+logCntslogT_{exp}`$. The effective zero point includes the atmospheric extinction term.

This homogeneization is not yet complete. Its progress will be detailed in the online ”GOLDMine news” section.

## 5 Summary

We undertook a 15 years research project focused on the properties of galaxies in the local universe which brought some new insight on their phenomenology and possibly will help disclosing their origin and evolution (see Gavazzi 1993; Gavazzi & Scodeggio 1996; Gavazzi et al. 1996a, 2002; Boselli et al. 2001).

* A complete, optically selected sample of 3267 galaxies representative of all morphological types and luminosities was extensively surveyed through various observational windows from the UV to the centimetric radio.
* The surveyed regions include the Virgo cluster and the Coma supercluster.
* Numeric parameters and images are made available to the international community through the World Wide Web site http://goldmine.mib.infn.it.

If your research benefits from the use of GOLDMine, we would appreciate the following acknowledgement in your paper: ”This research has made use of the GOLDMine Database, operated by the Universita’ degli Studi di Milano- Bicocca”. Please also cite the present paper.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank all people who contributed with data to GOLDMine: Gery Bernstein, Christian Bonfanti, Barbara Catinella, Luis Carrasco, Fabienne Casoli, Alessandra Contursi, Luca Cortese, John Dickey, Anna Gallazzi, Bianca Garilli, Jorge Iglesias-Paramo, Walter Jaffe, Robert Kennicutt, James Lequeux, Silvia Martocchi, Paola Pedotti, Daniele Pierini, Isabella Randone, Gerry Sanvito, Ginevra Trinchieri, Richard Tuffs, Jose M. Vilchez, Stefano Zibetti. In particular the FOCA team (J. Donas, B. Milliard, M. Laget, M. Viton) is acknowledged for UV fluxes made available prior to publication. We also wish to thank the Time Allocation Committee of many observatories where the data here collected were taken. GOLDMine is supported by the Physics Department of Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca. A.B. acknowledges financial support from the French Programme National Galaxies (PNG). P.F. acknowledges support from CNR/ASI grant I/R/27/00.
The GOLDMine web site has been created using the Python programming language, the Apache web server software and the MySQL database. We wish to thank the developers of these packages for freely distributing these resources that have made possible the construction of this site.


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# Numerical Simulations of High Redshift Star Formation in Dwarf Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Radiative and stellar feedback have long been recognized as an essential ingredient in galaxy formation and they are thought to play an important role in determining the properties of dwarf galaxies. The smallest dark matter halos are thought to be the sites for the formation of the first stars (Couchman and Rees 1986; Tegmark et al. 1997, Haiman and Loeb 1997; Abel et al. 1998; Bromm, Coppi and Larson 1999; Abel, Bryan and Norman 2000, 2001). Whether these smallest objects will allow a significant fraction of the baryons to participate in primordial star formation is unclear because of the effect of complex radiative feedback processes on molecular hydrogen formation (Haiman, Abel and Rees 2000; Ciardi, Ferrara, Abel 2000; Mahacek, Bryan and Abel 2001, Glover and Brand 2001). However, the early formation of even a few stars in such low-mass objects may significantly affect the evolution of their baryon content due to supernova explosions driving a significant fraction of the gas away from the gravitational potential of the host.

Stellar feedback was first discussed in the context of primordial globular cluster formation by Peebles and Dicke (1968). In the context of hierarchical structure formation, the possibility that supernovae may remove a significant fraction of the gas present in dwarf galaxies was discussed by Dekel & Silk (1986) and by Couchman & Rees (1986). Further analytical treatment of such supernova-driven winds was presented by Babul & Rees (1992) and Efstathiou (1992).

Star formation and feedback have also been studied in the context of cosmological structure formation simulations. However, the efficiency of supernova energy feedback in driving the gas out of the dark matter potentials was found to depend on the details of the feedback prescription: Katz (1992) and Weinberg, Hernquist & Katz (1997) found that the properties of their simulated galaxies were insensitive to the inclusion of star formation and feedback to the simulations. Navarro & White (1993) and Navarro & Steinmetz (1999, 2000) found that the effect of supernova feedback depends on whether the energy returned to the ISM is in the form of thermal or kinetic energy. In the former case, the energy was quickly radiated away and the effect of feedback was minimal, while in the latter case feedback was efficient in driving gas away from the dark matter potentials and in suppressing star formation. In addition, Mac Low & Ferrara (1999) and Navarro & Steinmetz (2000) found that the effect of feedback depends on the total mass of the system under consideration, with the low-mass systems being affected much more than the higher-mass systems.

Energy feedback from supernovae is also believed to have a significant effect on the metallicities of dwarf galaxies. The idea of metals being driven away from galaxies is supported by observations of the chemical enrichment of the IGM (e.g. Ellison et al. 2001 and references therein) as well as observations of dwarf galaxies in he Local Group. Prada & Burkert (2002) have summarized a correlation between mass-to-light ratio and metallicity of dwarf spheroidals, which they attribute to metal loss being more efficient for objects with shallower potential wells.

The ability of supernova-driven winds to remove metals from galaxies has been studied by Mac Low & Ferrara (1999) and by Aguirre et al. (2001). Mac Low & Ferrara (1999) modeled the effects of repeated supernova explosions from starbursts in dwarf galaxies with hydrodynamic simulations performed in a pre-determined dark matter gravitational potential and with an initial baryon-to-gas mass ratio extrapolated from observations of higher mass systems. Their results suggest that galactic winds are very efficient in removing metals from dwarf galaxies, with the effect being more pronounced for the least massive objects. For larger energy ejection rates (Mac Low & Ferrera considered star formation rates only up to about 0.004 $`M_{}`$/year), the gas in the galaxy can be completely blown away (Mori, Ferrara & Madau 2002).

Aguirre et al. (2001) used results from completed N-body + hydrodynamic simulations including star formation which, however, did not directly incorporate the result of feedback, and assumed a series of ad hoc algorithms to reconstruct the metal enrichment process starting from the star formation history in each simulated object. They found that most galaxies at redshift $`3`$ should exhibit winds driving metals away from their gravitational potentials and enriching the IGM with metals. Note that such winds can now be studied directly using aborption spectra of quasars behind Lyman break galaxies (Adelberger et al. 2002).

An additional factor affecting the baryon contents of dwarf galaxies is photoionization. The Jeans mass prior to reionization is approximately a factor $`10^5`$ smaller than after, i.e. the minimum masses of dark matter halos that can confine baryons are much less at times before the intergalactic medium has been ionized.

Efstathiou (1992) and Babul & Rees (1992) discussed analytically the possibility that a photoionizing background might significantly affect the formation of dwarf galaxies and may be the mechanism preventing the collapse of most of the baryonic material into subgalactic objects at high redshifts. Thoul and Weinberg (1996) showed, using a one–dimensional hydrodynamics code, that photo-ionization affects the collapse of gas into dark halos with velocity dispersions even in excess of $`30\text{km\hspace{0.17em}s}\text{-1}`$.

Kepner, Babul and Spergel (1997) have looked at the formation of molecular hydrogen in the cores of proto–dwarf galaxies and Kepner et al. (1999) investigated observational consequences of the picture of delayed dwarf galaxy formation. The scenario for the formation of dwarf galaxies outlined by Ferrara and Tolstoy (2000) also takes into account the feedback from photo-ionization. In their model the first stars in observed dwarfs form prior to reionization. Star formation at later epochs originates from new gas infall as the meta–galactic UV background radiation field decreases. Gnedin (2000) studied the effect of photoionization on the gas fraction of low-mass objects and found a deviation from the universal baryon fraction at low masses.

Many of these papers, as well as Ciardi et al. (2000), did implicitly predict that not all the substructure seen in dark matter–only simulations should also host luminous objects. Images of multiply lensed quasars may be used to constrain the amount of dark substructure in galaxies (Metcalf and Madau 2001). Interestingly, existing data on such systems favors the existence of such dark matter substructure (Metcalf and Zhao 2002, Dalal and Kochanek 2002).

In this paper, we use high-mass resolution, 3-dimensional hydrodynamic AMR simulations to examine the effect of stellar feedback and photoionization on the gas content, star formation histories and metallicities of dwarf galaxies down to a redshift of 3. Star formation and feedback are included using a phenomenological recipe. Since star formation, metal and energy feedback are followed concurrently with the dark matter and gas evolution, our simulations do not require invoking any assumptions  on the nature of supernova driven winds (as in Aguirre et al. (2001)) or on the shape of the dark matter gravitational potentials (as in Mac Low & Ferrara (1999)). In addition, grid based methods are known to be superior to particle techniques when a multi-phase medium needs to be resolved (Croft et al. 2001, Pearce et al. 2000, Ritchie & Thomas 2001, and references therein). Here, we will only discuss aspects of the simulation that are expected to be insensitive to the details of the star formation algorithm.

Our paper is organized as follows: In §2 we describe the simulations carried out as well as relevant aspects of our implementation of star formation and feedback. In §3 we discuss the global star formation history in our cube before and after reionization. In §4 we present the effects of feedback and reionization on the baryon contents, star formation histories and metallicities of individual halos. Finally, we discuss our findings in §5.

## 2 Simulations

We have used the 3-D AMR cosmology code described by Bryan & Norman (1997a), Norman and Bryan (1999), Bryan, Abel and Norman (2001). The AMR algorithm used is similar to the one described by Berger and Collela (1989). It utilizes an adaptive hierarchy of grid patches at various levels of resolution. Each rectangular grid patch covers the region of space in its parent grid needing higher resolution, and may itself become the parent grid to an even higher resolution child grid. Initial and boundary conditions are obtained by interpolation from the parent grid when the child grid is created.

In the simulations presented in this paper, we limited the refinement to 9 levels in a $`128^3`$ top grid. However, at the end of each run, only 7 levels of refinement had been used, so our simulations were not resource bounded. We have used a box size of $`10h^1`$ Mpc comoving, which was chosen as a compromise between high mass resolution and reasonable volume. The maximum spatial resolution (i.e. minimum cell size) achieved was 610$`h^1`$ comoving pc or better than 150 proper pc for the redshifts simulated. The dark matter mass resolution was $`M_{\mathrm{DM}}5\times 10^7M_{}`$.

While this resolution is insufficient to model the detailed internal structure of the galaxies and the way that feedback works on pc scales, it is enough to correctly model the conversion of SN energy into high-velocity outflows which affect the gas surrounding (and infalling into) galaxies. For a more detailed examination of the impact of a burst of SN within a single high-redshift halo of this mass, see Mori, Ferrara & Madau (2002); their results support our findings that massive outflows are common around starbursting galaxies.

The simulations were set up as a flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$. The total matter density consists of a baryonic and a dark matter component, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=0.04`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{DM}=0.26`$. The present-day value of the dimensionless Hubble parameter was $`h=0.67`$ in units of $`100\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{Mpc}`$. The simulations were initialized at redshift 60 and terminated at redshift 3. The cosmological density field was initialized using power spectra for the dark matter and the baryons given by the fitting functions of Eisenstein & Hu (1999).

Our simulations have allowed for star formation, however radiation feedback from the formed “stars” was not taken into account - instead, the simulation implements a homogeneous radiation field of Haardt & Madau type (Haardt and Madau 1996), with an index of $`1.5`$, i.e. full reionization occurs in our models at $`z6`$. 111A more refined study of cosmological reionization using the galaxies formed in our no–feedback run has been presented in Razoumov et al (2002). We also solve the non-equilibrium chemistry and cooling from hydrogen and helium and their ions (Abel et al. 1997, Anninos et al. 1997). Cooling from metal lines has been approximated by assuming collisional equlibrium. However, it should be noted that in the case of galaxy formation radiative processes may strongly affect the ionization balances and hence the cooling rates.

In order to allow for star formation, given that it is not feasible to directly simulate the formation of individual stars since the range of scales and additional physics required to do so is prohibitive, a parametric method was adopted which attempts to model star-forming regions following a prescription similar to the one introduced by Cen and Ostriker (1992). A detailed description of the implementation of the star-formation and feedback scheme can be found in O’Shea et al. (2002).

Groups of stars forming are treated as pressureless particles which return feedback to the surrounding medium (star particles). For a star particle to be created, the following criteria need to be met:

1. The baryon density at the particular grid where the star particle is to be created exceeds the mean density in the universe by a predefined factor, set to be equal to 100 in our simulation.
2. The gas in the particular grid cell has $`\text{v}<0`$, i.e. the gas is infalling rather than expanding (or $`T<10^4`$ K).
3. The cooling timescale for the gas is smaller than the dynamical collapse timescale.
4. The baryonic mass in the cell exceeds the local Jeans mass.

The mass of the star particle to be created is calculated as

$$m_{}=f_{\mathrm{eff}}m_b\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t}{t_{\mathrm{dyn}}}$$
(1)
where $`m_b`$ is the baryon mass of the cell, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the duration of a timestep, $`t_{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ is the dynamical collapse timescale and $`f_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the “star formation efficiency” (fraction of mass of the initial cloud which is converted into stars), set equal to 80% in this simulation. This value of $`f_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is significantly larger than values expected in realistic systems but we have used it in order to investigate the limiting case as to the maximal effect of feedback. Additionally, we never allow more than $`90\%`$ of the mass in a cell to be converted to stars.

Conditions 1-4 are necessary but not sufficient for a star particle to be formed: in order to prevent the formation of an excessive number of star particles which would require a prohibitively high amount of computational resources in order to be followed, a minimum star particle mass $`m_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is introduced. A star particle is formed in a cell fulfilling the criteria 1-4 only if $`m_{}`$ exceeds this minimum mass. The value of $`m_{\mathrm{min}}`$ we used was $`10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$. However, since the minimum mass requirement is associated with computational resources limitations rather than underlying physics, a “bypass mechanism” for this restriction was included in the algorithm to account for small-mass star particles which should have been created on physical grounds: there is a certain probability per time step that a star particle with mass lower than the minimum mass threshold is created in a cell fulfilling the requirements 1-4 but not the minimum mass requirement. This probability is equal to the ratio of the mass of the star particle that would be created in the cell over the minimum star particle threshold.

To avoid the unphysical situation of forming a star particle (corresponding to a cluster of stars) instantaneously, a more reasonable star formation history has been assigned to each cold collapsing cloud. Therefore, each star particle $`i`$ is assumed to have a time-dependent star formation rate of

$$\psi _i(t)=m_{}\frac{tt_{\mathrm{cr}}}{\tau ^2}\mathrm{exp}(\frac{tt_{\mathrm{cr}}}{\tau })$$
(2)
where $`t_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is the time of creation of the star particle and $`\tau =\mathrm{max}[t_{\mathrm{dyn}},10\mathrm{M}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{s}]`$, with $`t_{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ being the dynamical time from equation (1). Thus, one observes a rapid star formation after a dynamical time with an exponential tail at longer times. If $`t_{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ is shorter than the small but non-zero life-span of massive stars, an estimate of the latter (here taken to be 10 Myrs) is used in place of $`t_{\mathrm{dyn}}`$.

The star particles formed give energy, metals and momentum feedback to the baryon gas. The energy equivalent to $`10^5`$ of the rest mass energy of the stars generated is converted into thermal energy (this corresponds to 1 SNe of $`10^{51}`$ erg for every 55M of stars being formed) over a time period corresponding to the dynamical time from equation (1) and is put directly into the thermal energy of the cell in which the star particle resides. Metals are also returned to the gas over the same time period and the yield (mass of metals generated per mass of stars created) is 0.02. The mass fraction of created stars which is returned to the gas phase is 25%. The values for the parameters of our star formation algorithm are taken from Cen & Ostriker (1992).

In order to better understand which effects in the output of our simulation can be attributed to the feedback from the star particles to the baryonic gas, we have run a second, control simulation, with the exact same cosmological parameters and initial conditions as our original simulation, in which stellar particles are born following the exact same recipe as before, but they do not return energy, momentum or metals to the gas. In the following sections we will present and compare results from both simulations. We will refer to the original simulation (the one which allows for stellar feedback) as “feedback run” and to the control simulation (the one without stellar feedback) as “no-feedback run”. It is interesting to note that the two simulations presented here are both limiting cases as far as feedback is concerned, in the sense that in our original simulation the feedback from each individual star particle is rather overestimated compared to theoretical expectations for realistic physical systems, while in our second (control) simulation the feedback is entirely absent.

## 3 The Global Star Formation History

Fig. 1 gives the global star formation rate in our simulated box (in $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ per year per comoving $`\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$ ) as a function of redshift. In the same plot, we have overplotted observational data points compiled by Blain (2001). The observational points are meant to give a feeling of the magnitude of the star formation rate density in our box in terms of the corresponding quantity observed in the real universe rather than serve as an observational test for our model. The unrealistically large value of the star formation efficiency, combined with the small box size, can result to rapid gas depletion, causing the cosmic star formation rate to peak at too high a redshift and therefore a direct comparison between our results and the observational data points can be misleading. With these caveats in mind, it is nevertheless interesting to note that the magnitude of the cosmic star formation rate as derived from our simulations is comparable with that of the observational data over a considerable range of redshifts.

The overall star formation rate is significantly larger in the no-feedback case: allowing SN to inject energy into the ISM causes strong galactic winds which drive the baryonic gas away from the halos, while at the same time contributing to the increase of the temperature and pressure in the ISM, hindering the process of star formation. As a result, the global star formation rate can take much larger values in the no-feedback run.

In both runs, there is a change of slope of the cosmic star formation rate at around the epoch of re-ionization, an effect associated with both reionization and gas depletion. The radiation field is implemented in the same way in both runs and is independent of stellar feedback, so reionization is felt equally in both simulations. However, the decrease of the star formation activity at low redshifts is much more prominent in the feedback run, due to the extra effect of gas depletion of halos.

## 4 Dwarf Galaxies

### 4.1 The Inventory of simulated Dwarf Galaxies

We find and define the centers of halos using HOP (Eisenstein & Hut 1998) on the dark matter. A halo is then defined as the spherical region around these centers which has an average dark matter density $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{vir}}(z)`$ times the critical density $`\rho _{\mathrm{crit}}(z)`$ (Bryan and Norman 1998). We require a minimum of 100 dark matter particles (corresponding to a dark matter mass of $`10^9M_{}`$) in order to identify an overdense region as a dark matter halo. Sub-halos (objects identified as halos by our algorithm but which are included in larger virialized structures) have been removed from the resulting set of halos.

Fig. 2 shows the variations of the baryonic content (i.e. stars + gas) of the simulated galaxies at redshift $`z=3`$ as well as their gas and stellar contents vs total mass, for both the feedback run (left panel) and the no-feedback run (right panel). Open circles represent halos with no stellar content while crosses represent halos with stellar content. The dashed line corresponds to the ratio $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ (average ratio of baryon density over total matter density in the universe).

In the no-feedback run, the total baryon content is closely scattered around the $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ line, as seen in previous $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM simulations (e.g. Pearce et al. 2001). The deviation from the cosmic mean at low masses is due to the effect of photoionization on the baryon contents of dark matter halos and follows the shape also found by Gnedin (2000). On the contrary, in the feedback run, even the largest halos at z=3 consistently contain only a small fraction of the baryons corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$, which is also suggested by the properties of observed dwarf galaxies in the local group (e.g. Mateo 1998 and references therein) This significant difference between the results of the two runs indicates that low galaxy baryon contents can occur as a result of energy and momentum feedback from supernovae to the baryon gas: the latter is driven out of the potential well of the dark matter halos, leaving behind galaxies of lowered baryon content.

We can draw additional support for this picture by comparing the two panels in the middle row of figure 2 which displays the ratio of gas mass over total mass for the z=3 halos. In the left panel figure, which corresponds to the case with stellar feedback, the scatter of halos towards low gas mass values is much larger than in the no-feedback case. This fact, considered in the framework of the scenario described above, is no surprise: in the no-feedback run the only mechanisms for gas depletion in a halo are the pressure from photo-ionization (reionization), tidal stripping and the conversion of baryon gas to stars. In the simulation where feedback is taken into account, gas can be lost both to star formation and to the intergalactic medium because of galactic winds driven by supernovae. The additional gas depletion mechanism drives galaxies towards lower gas content values in the feedback run.

By comparing the two bottom panels of figure 2 we can draw conclusions concerning the stellar population of halos in the feedback and no-feedback runs. A first obvious result is the existence of a large scatter in the total stellar content of galaxies both in the no-feedback and the feedback case. However, if we compare the galaxies with the largest stellar contents in both simulations, we find that the no-feedback run galaxies have much larger stellar contents, with the ratio of stellar mass over total mass reaching the $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ value. This result is consistent with the much higher value of overall star formation rate in the no-feedback run when compared to that of the feedback run. Thus stellar feedback is a factor that clearly hinders star formation through the depletion of baryonic gas and the increase of the temperature and pressure of the ISM.

It is also interesting to note that dark halos which do not host stars (open circles in Fig. 2) all have relatively low masses. This can be understood within a hierarchical clustering scenario in terms of the inability of such small halos to hold photo-ionized gas.

An additional effect of feedback is that by z=3 there already exists a population of halos with no stellar content whose baryon gas content is also extremely low (as low as $`10^6\times M_{\mathrm{dark}\mathrm{matter}}`$). The observational detection of such halos which are practically ”emptied” from baryonic gas would be extremely difficult. This result could at least partially explain the deficit of low-mass satellite galaxies in observations in the Local Group as compared to the expectations from CDM cosmological simulations (Moore et al. 1999, Klypin et al. 1999). The difference in mass to light ratios at small masses caused by reionization has also been investigated by Somerville (2002) and Benson et al. (2002). Integration of the effect of stellar feedback to such simulations naturally drives a portion of the low-mass systems to baryon contents low enough to render them unobservable by means other than their dynamical effects.

The morphology and complexity of the gas outflows responsible for the modification of the baryon contents of our simulated halos are demonstrated in figures 3 and 4. In Fig. 3 the projection along the x-axis of the gas density in the simulated cube is plotted in a logarithmic scale for redshifts 8, 5 and 3, and for both the feedback and the non-feedback runs. The color scale for $`\mathrm{log}[\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}/(M_{}/\mathrm{proper}\mathrm{Mpc}^2)]`$ ranges from 11.1 to 13.6 for all snapshots. The deviation between the feedback and non-feedback behaviour is evident from $`z=5`$ and is most striking at $`z=3`$. Winds driven by the stellar feedback increase the temperature of the baryonic gas and drive the gas away from the galaxies in a rather asymmetrical fashion.

Fig. 4 shows the projection along the x-axis of the x-ray weighted temperature in our cube, again for redshifts 8, 5 and 3 and for both the feedback and non-feedback run. The color scale is again logarithmic, and extends from $`10^2`$ to about $`10^8`$ K, and is the same for all snapshots. Feedback is shown to result in the creation of non-spherical bubbles of hot gas, which, by redshift 3, have a typical size of about 1 comoving Mpc. The bubbles overlap, resulting in a global increase of the mean temperature of the gas in the cube, from $`2.2\times 10^4`$ K in the non-feedback case, to $`5.6\times 10^4`$ K in the feedback run, for z=3. The wind-blown bubbles also do noticeably sweep up material in shells ahead of them.

### 4.2 Star Formation Histories of Dwarf Galaxies at $`z3`$

#### 4.2.1 Galaxies with and without Stellar Content

The dwarf galaxy stellar content is affected by both feedback and photoionization. To demonstrate the relative importance of the two effects, we plot, in Fig. 5, the fraction of halos with stellar content (i.e. the number of halos which do host stars over the total number of halos in this mass range) in three different mass ranges ( between $`10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and $`3\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for panel a, between $`3\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and $`6\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for panel b and between $`6\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and $`2\times 10^{10}\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for panel c) as a function of redshift. The results of the feedback run are represented by the dashed curves, while the results of the no-feedback run correspond to the solid curves.

Most low-mass halos (panel a) have not yet formed stars by $`z=8`$ but, as time progresses, the baryon density and Jeans mass criteria of our star formation algorithm are satisfied in an increasing number of these halos and therefore the fraction of halos with stellar content initially increases. However, between redshifts 5 and 6, when photoionization occurs, the process is reversed. The temperature (and therefore the Jeans mass) increase, cooling rates and typical densities decrease, and star formation is inhibited. Halos which accumulate enough mass to enter this mass range after reionization do not form stars, and the fraction of halos with stars decreases (no-feedback run, solid curve). When feedback is added to this picture, it enhances the effect of reionization, by providing a second mechanism for increasing the temperature of the interstellar medium and decreasing the maximum densities reached in a given halo. The curve maximum occurs at a higher redshift and the fraction of halos with stars decreases even more at low z (feedback run, dashed curve).

In halos of higher virial masses and temperatures, the central baryon densities are less affected by photo-ionization from reionization (panels b and c). However, in the same mass ranges, feedback is effective in increasing the ISM temperature and inhibiting star formation and is responsible for the small decrease in the number of higher-mass halos hosting stars at low redshifts, which is present only in the feedback run (dashed curves).

#### 4.2.2 Star Formation Rates of Individual Galaxies

In Fig. 1 we have seen the effect of feedback on the global SFR, which is to hinder the SF process. We will now examine how the CSFR is distributed among halos of different SF rates. By extracting information on the characteristic SFR of the typical SF sites, we can infer whether the bulk of the SF occurs in sites of large SF activity which could be observable at high redshifts, or rather in many low-SFR galaxies which would be unobservable. If the latter is the case, then observations would tend to underestimate the CSFR at high ($`>3`$) redshifts, as has been suggested by Lanzetta et al. (2002).

Fig. 6 shows the distribution of the number of galaxies per logarithmic star formation interval for both feedback and non-feedback simulations and for redshifts z=3, 4, 6 and 8. Star formation rates are measured in $`\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. In the case with stellar feedback (top panel of Fig. 6), as we move to lower redshifts, the peak of the distribution moves towards lower star formation values, a result of the depletion of halos of baryon gas as the latter is being driven away from the dark matter halo potential wells by stellar explosions. This effect is absent in the case of the no-feedback run (lower panel of Fig. 6). Thus, in the presence of stellar feedback, halos tend to shift towards lower SFR with advancing cosmic time. By z=3 the distribution of halos in our simulation per SFR interval peaks around $`10^3\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{y}^1`$.

Although Fig. 6 clearly demonstrates that there are many more halos with low SFR by z=3, this does not necessarily suggest that most SF activity takes place at low SFR halos. We would like to determine whether the low SFR halo population has a significant cumulative contribution to the global SF activity or if the latter is dominated by the few high-SFR sites. For this purpose, in Fig. 7 we plot the distribution of star formation activity per logarithmic star formation rate interval, $`\mathrm{SFR}\times (\mathrm{dN}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{log}\mathrm{SFR})`$ vs $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{SFR}`$. The area under this curve gives the total SFR at the specific redshift due to all star particles in our cube. Again the plots are for both the feedback and the non-feedback simulation and for redshifts z=3, 4, 6 and 8. Star formation rates are measured in $`\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. In the no-feedback plot, the total SFR saturates after reionization (as also seen in Fig. 1), while in the feedback case there is a significant decline in the overall star formation rate as we progress to lower redshifts, due to the additional effect of gas depletion. It is also interesting that in the feedback run results, and at redshifts $`<5`$, a significant portion of the total star formation is indeed coming from low-SFR galaxies, potentially unobservable, which might lead to an underestimate of the cosmic star formation rate from observations of individual objects after reionization. However, before reionization, most SF activity comes from high-SFR halos and starburst-like events. In addition, when interpreting these results, the reader should keep in mind that due to the small volume of our simulation, the large galaxies with high SF are under-represented: On the one hand, our small volume can only host 4 at most Lyman break galaxies. On the other hand, the high SF efficiency and the consequent rapid gas depletion force the SFR to peak at too high a redshift, so that by $`z=3`$ the SFRs of our simulated halos are being underestimated.

### 4.3 Metallicities of Dwarf Galaxies at z=3

Prada & Burkert (2002) have pointed out that there is a correlation between the mass-to-light ratio M/L of dwarf spheroidal Local Group satellites and their metallicities, \[Fe/H\]. They have found that

$$\mathrm{log}(M/L)=[Fe/H]+\mathrm{constant}.$$

In order to look for a similar correlation in the inventory of our simulated halos, we plot in Fig. 8 the logarithm of the ratio of total mass over stellar mass ($`\mathrm{log}M/M_{}`$) vs the metallicity \[Fe/H\] of each halo. To estimate the luminosities of our stellar particles, we have used $`LM_{}`$. This is only an approximation, since $`L`$ depends on stellar age and metallicity as well; however, it is sufficient to estimate the trend of the $`M/L`$ ratio. Under the above assumption, $`\mathrm{log}M/M_{}`$ only differs from $`\mathrm{log}M/L`$ by an additive constant. In the same plot, we have drawn a line of slope -1, as in the observational result of Prada & Burkert (2002), with a shifted intercept (since we are plotting $`M/M_{}`$ rather than mass-to-light ratios). Although the scatter of the points is significant, one can observe the trend for the metallicity to decrease for increasing $`M_{\mathrm{total}}/M_{}`$.

A large $`M/L`$ implies a small stellar population relative to the total mass and consequently less integrated metal enrichment of the ISM than systems with lower total mass to light ratios. In addition, small halos tend to blow out gas and metals and halt star formation before a high metallicity is reached within them. Thus, these systems tend to have lower metal abundances than more massive systems.

When comparing Fig. 8 with observations, one should keep in mind that the Local Group satellites are much more evolved objects, while the evolution of our simulated halos stops at z=3. However, it is encouraging that the simulations do show this trend and the hope is that in the future it will be possible to simulate a larger volume at similar mass and spatial resolution down to redshift zero.

## 5 Discussion

We have presented the first results of a large-scale three-dimensional cosmological hydrodynamic AMR simulation of a cube of comoving size $`10`$ Mpc living in a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM universe with cosmological parameters $`(\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Omega }_m,h)=(0.7,0.3,0.67)`$. Star formation was allowed for, according to a parametric prescription creating collisionless particle out of baryonic fluid condensations exceeding the local Jeans mass. We have compared the results of two runs, differing in the treatment of the stellar particles: in one case the latter did return energy, momentum and metal feedback to the interstellar medium, while in the other no stellar feedback was allowed for. The effects of reionization were studied by subjecting the baryon fluid to a homogeneous, Haardt & Madau radiation field of index -1.5, independent of the cosmic star formation.

Over 300 galaxies are produced in our simulation over the mass range $`3\times 10^9M_{\mathrm{tot}}/M_{\mathrm{}}7\times 10^{11}`$. The smallest dwarf galaxies in the local group show kinematic masses of $`2\times 10^7M_{}`$ (Mateo 1998 and references therein). However, these observed galaxies may be hosted in much more extended dark matter halos (Stoehr et al 2002). It seems premature to argue for a significant modification of the cold dark matter scenarios such as to ask for significant annihilation rates (Cen 2001) to accommodate for their existence. The star formation histories of the smallest dwarf galaxies are also essential in understanding the recently proposed substructure problem raised by Moore et al. (1999) and Klypin et al. (1999). It has been argued that the systems associated with the extensive dark matter substructure found in N–body simulations of galaxy formation would not be in accord with the observations. This was one of the reasons for the proposal of Spergel and Steinhardt (2000) that the dark matter may be self–interacting which has attracted significant theoretical interest (Burkert 2000; Kochanek and White 2000; Yoshida et al. 2000, and references therein). The connection between simulated dark matter substructure and observable quantities is a complex one and must depend dramatically on the intricacies of star formation and feedback in the small potential wells of interest (Bullock et al. 2000, Somerville 2002, Benson et al. 2002).

Our results have shown that feedback from stars is a factor which can deplete halos of baryonic gas and significantly reduce their baryon mass fraction. The gas depletion due to feedback results in halos having a baryon - to - dark matter mass ratio which is consistently below the cosmic mean, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_{DM}`$, even in the very high mass objects. In addition, feedback can result to the formation of dark matter halos empty of stars by z=3, and a baryon fraction so low that their observation would be particularly difficult. The existence of such a population of dark dwarf halos could at least partially explain the problem of missing satellites in the Local Group.

We have found that feedback and reionization affect the star formation rate both globally and locally. The slope of the cosmic star formation history curve changes around the epoch of reionization with the effect being much more pronounced when feedback is present. In addition, most halos assembling after reionization do not form stars by $`z=3`$, an effect which is again enhanced by the presence of feedback. Furthermore, while before reionization most SF activity originates from high-SFR objects, after reionization there is a shift towards lower SFR halos as the source of most cosmic star formation. Thus, to the extent that this effect is not an artifact of rapid gas depletion due to our high SF efficiency, a significant amount of the total star formation at intermediate redshifts (3-5) might be taking place in low-SFR halos. This effect has been first discussed by Barkana and Loeb (2000) and is here reported in full cosmological hydrodynamical simulations.

Finally, we find that the metallicity of galaxies is correlated with the mass-to-light ratio, increasing for decreasing metallicity. This trend is consistent with observational results of dwarf spheroidals in the Local Group. However, most of the objects in our simulation will merge to make larger galaxies and only a very small fraction will survive as isolated dwarf sized galaxies until today. So the presented comparison again only serves as an illustration and has as yet little predictive quality for the formation of dwarf galaxies. Nevertheless, we find it very encouraging that these first results show that with yet larger simulations one will be able to make predictions and direct comparisons with properties of local dwarf galaxies.

K.T. would like to thank Brian O’Shea and Vasiliki Pavlidou for enlightening discussions. K.T. was partially supported by a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. T.A. is grateful for the hospitality of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, UK where this work has been completed. We thank an anonymous referee for comments and suggestions which have improved this paper. Simulations were carried out on the Origin2000 system at the NCSA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with support from NSF grant AST-9803137 and NRAC allocation MCA98020N.