EVOLUTION OF COLD STREAMS AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE HUBBLE SEQUENCE

A new physical framework for the emergence of the Hubble sequence is outlined, based on novel analyses performed to quantify the evolution of cold streams of a large sample of galaxies from a state-of-the-art ultra-high resolution, large-scale adaptive mesh-refinement hydrodynamic simulation in a fully cosmological setting. It is found that the following three key physical variables of galactic cold inflows crossing the virial sphere substantially decrease with decreasing redshift: the number of streams N ₉₀ that make up 90% of concurrent inflow mass flux, average inflow rate per stream M-dot ₉₀ and mean (mass flux weighted) gas density in the streams n _gas. Another key variable, the stream dimensionless angular momentum parameter λ, is found to instead increase with decreasing redshift. Assimilating these trends and others naturally leads to a physically coherent scenario for the emergence of the Hubble sequence, including the following expectations: (1) the predominance of a mixture of disproportionately small irregular and complex disk galaxies at z ≥ 2 when most galaxies have multiple concurrent streams, (2) the beginning of the appearance of flocculent spirals at z ∼ 1-2 when the number of concurrent streams are about 2-3, (3) the grand-design spiral galaxies appear at z ≤ 1 when galaxies with only one major cold stream significantly emerge. These expected general trends are in good accord with observations. Early-type galaxies are those that have entered a perennial state of zero cold gas stream, with their abundance increasing with decreasing redshift