Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / iii / Paper 349 (The Life and Death of Galaxies)

Interstellar dust both hides and reveals galaxies. Absorption and scattering remove short-wavelength photons from a line of sight, causing interstellar extinction, reddening, anisotropic scattering, and polarization. These effects obscure embedded star formation, bias luminosities, colours, stellar masses, and star-formation rates, and can make an edge-on or dusty galaxy appear older and fainter. Dust also converts absorbed ultraviolet and optical power into far-infrared and submillimetre thermal radiation. That reradiation exposes otherwise hidden star formation, constrains dust temperature and mass, and helps map cold molecular material; polarization traces magnetic-field orientation. Grain surfaces also catalyse molecular-hydrogen formation, while photoelectric emission from grains heats interstellar gas.

One spherical grain has emitting area $4\pi a^2$. Since isotropic blackbody intensity $B_{\nu }$ gives surface flux $\pi B_{\nu }$, its spectral luminosity isFor $N=M_d/m_d$ optically thin grains at distance $D$, the inverse-square law givesDefining the grain mass absorption coefficientthe optically thin dust-mass estimator is

For a constant source function and no incident background, the radiative transfer equation integrates toIf the cloud subtends solid angle $\Omega$, uniform intensity givesThe physical projected area is $A=\Omega D^2$. Its grain column density is $N/A=M_d/(m_d\Omega D^2)$, so the dust optical depth isEliminating ${\tau }_{\nu }$ gives the finite-optical-depth resultIt requires $F_{\nu }<\Omega B_{\nu }$, as demanded by the blackbody brightness limit. When ${\tau }_{\nu }\ll 1$, $1-e^{-{\tau }_{\nu }}={\tau }_{\nu }+O({\tau }_{\nu }^2)$, so $F_{\nu }\simeq \Omega B_{\nu }{\tau }_{\nu }={\kappa }_{\nu }{M}_d{B}_{\nu }/D^2$ and the result reduces to the optically thin estimator.

Equating the satellite's mean density inside $r_t$ with the host's mean density inside orbital radius $R$ givesThus a measured tidal radius and independently estimated satellite mass infer $M(<R)\simeq m(R/r_t{)}^3$. Measurements from satellites over a range of $R$ trace the host's enclosed-mass profile and hence its gravitational potential. Globular clusters are more often tidally limited: their stellar extent can approach the Jacobi boundary, whereas dwarf galaxies commonly occupy extended dark-matter haloes and their observed stars may substantially underfill it. Orbital eccentricity, mass loss, and nonequilibrium structure complicate this inference.

Let the separation vector point from the host to the satellite. Subtracting the two Newton's second law equations givesThe relative orbit is therefore a one-body Kepler orbit with gravitational parameter $G(M+m)$. A circular orbit of separation $R_0$ hasThe centre-of-mass condition gives $x_m=M{R}_0/(M+m)$ for the satellite's distance from the barycentre.

Consider the inner collinear equilibrium a distance $r_J$ toward the host from the satellite. Taking the positive axis from the host toward the satellite, differentiation of the gravitational plus centrifugal effective potential givesSince $r_J\ll R_0$,The constant host-gravity term cancels ${\Omega }^2{x}_m=GM/R_0^2$. The remaining equation isFor a low-mass satellite, the term proportional to $m{r}_J$ is negligible compared with $3M{r}_J$, and the Jacobi tidal radius isThe outer collinear point gives the same leading result.

Stars that cross the two nearby Lagrange points are no longer bound to the satellite. Small energy and angular-momentum offsets place them on slightly different host orbits, producing one leading and one trailing tidal tail. Differential orbital frequency stretches these streams around the host, while epicyclic motion can create density clumps. The tail's position and velocity structure retain information about the satellite orbit and host potential.

The closed-box model of galactic chemical evolution assumes a fixed total baryonic mass, no gas inflow or outflow, instantaneous and homogeneous mixing, a constant stellar yield, a fixed initial mass function, and usually the instantaneous recycling approximation. It predicts $Z=y\log (1/\mu )$ for gas fraction $\mu$, but real galaxies violate these assumptions.

Evidence for galactic outflows includes blueshifted absorption, broad or split emission lines, extraplanar ionized and molecular gas, X-ray bubbles, and metal-enriched circumgalactic material. The low baryon fractions and low effective yields of dwarf galaxies, together with the galaxy mass--metallicity relation, provide indirect evidence for preferential gas and metal loss. Sustained star formation for longer than a closed reservoir's depletion time, low-metallicity high-velocity clouds, metallicity dilution during starbursts, the G-dwarf problem, and circumgalactic or intergalactic accretion signatures imply continuing galactic gas inflow.

Let $f(t)=A{e}^{-t/\tau }$ be the inflow rate, let the outflow rate be $\lambda \psi$, and let $R$ be the promptly returned fraction. The total baryonic, gas, and metal masses obeyThe first metal term is newly synthesized material; the second locks existing metals into long-lived stars and removes them in an ambient-composition wind. Expanding the final derivative and substituting ${\dot{M}}_g$ cancels those common terms, leaving

The observed Kennicutt–Schmidt law relates star-formation and gas surface densities approximately by ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}\propto {\Sigma }_g^{1.4}$, with a nearly linear relation to molecular gas over many resolved regimes. For the simple integrated model requested here, take a constant depletion coefficient $S$ so thatThen, with $\alpha =S(1-R+\lambda )$,The integrating factor $e^{\alpha t}$ gives, for $\alpha \ne 1/\tau$,At resonance, $\alpha =1/\tau$, the continuous limit isThe first term is depletion of the initial reservoir; the second is gas supplied by the exponentially declining inflow and subsequently consumed or expelled.