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# Mid-rapidity Λ and Λ̄ Production in Au+Au Collisions at √𝑠__{𝑁𝑁}=130 GeV

## Abstract

We report the first measurement of strange ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) and anti-strange ($`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$) baryon production from $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130`$ GeV Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Rapidity density and transverse mass distributions at mid-rapidity are presented as a function of centrality. The yield of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ hyperons is found to be approximately proportional to the number of negative hadrons. The production of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ hyperons relative to negative hadrons increases very rapidly with transverse momentum. The magnitude of the increase cannot be described by existing hadronic string fragmentation models.

Ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions provide a unique means to create nuclear matter of high energy density (temperature) and/or baryon density over an extended volume Blaizot . The first results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have shown that the large charged particle multiplicity, measured in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130`$ GeV, corresponds to an energy density significantly higher than that previously achieved in heavy ion collisions mult ; phenix ; starh . In addition, the anti-proton to proton ratio at mid-rapidity has been measured to be in the range $`0.6`$$`0.7`$ ratio ; phobos ; brahms , which is indicative of particle production from a low net baryon density regime. Thus the global characteristics of nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC are the formation of a high energy density and low net baryon density region at mid-rapidity.

The yield of baryons and anti-baryons produced in relativistic nuclear collisions is very important because it is sensitive to two fundamental, not yet fully understood aspects of hadron production dynamics: baryon/anti-baryon pair production and the transport of baryon number from beam rapidity to mid-rapidity. The nature of baryon/anti-baryon production itself is the subject of much interest, with theoretical conjecture addressing a range of possible mechanisms from string fragmentation jetset , to exotic mechanisms involving Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) domain walls Ellis . The physical nature of the entity which carries baryon number, and the means by which baryon number is transported over a large rapidity gap into the mid-rapidity region are also subjects of considerable experimental and theoretical interest Ledoux ; Baryon ; Khar .

Strange baryon/anti-baryon production is particularly interesting due to the increased sensitivity to the availability of strange/anti-strange quarks, which is expected to be suppressed relative to light quarks in hadronic matter due to the strange quark mass. Strangeness production has long been predicted to be a signature of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) formation Rafelski . The strangeness production in previous generations of heavy ion experiments has been observed to be significantly increased compared to those from p+p, p+A and light ion collisions E802 ; Ahm ; WA97 ; NA49 , although questions remain about the exact strangeness production mechanism. In particular, the relative importance of strange baryon production from hadronic rescattering differs between calculations Koch ; Rene , depending on both the evolution of the system and the scattering cross sections assumed. Exotic dynamical mechanisms that have been proposed for strange baryon production include, for example, Color String Ropes Sorge , String Fusion Amelin  and Multi-mesonic Reactions Rapp . All require a high local energy density and therefore suggest that strangeness production occurs early in the collision.

In this letter we report on mid-rapidity ($`|y|`$$`<`$$`0.5`$) Lambda ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) and anti-Lambda ($`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$) production in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130`$ GeV. The data were taken with the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC) detector. The main components of the detector system for this analysis have been described in detail elsewhere Flow . They included a large volume Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) TPC , a pair of Zero-Degree Calorimeters (ZDC) located at +/- 18 meters from the center of the TPC, and a Central Trigger Barrel (CTB) constructed of scintillator paddles surrounding the TPC.

The TPC was used to provide tracking information and particle identification by measuring the specific ionization loss (dE/dx) for charged particles. The ZDCs were used in coincidence to define a minimum bias trigger by selecting interactions from the intersection region of the colliding beams, and to measure the forward going energy of near-beam rapidity fragments, consisting primarily of spectator neutrons. The CTB was used to define a central interaction trigger based on the energy deposition from charged particles entering its acceptance.

Data from both the minimum bias trigger and central trigger have been used for this analysis. Similar to a previous analysis starh , the collision centrality was defined off-line using the total charged particle multiplicity within a pseudo-rapidity window of $`\left|\eta \right|<0.5`$. The charged particle multiplicity distribution was divided into five centrality bins, corresponding to approximately the most central $`5\%`$, $`5`$$`10\%`$, $`10`$$`20\%`$, $`20`$$`35\%`$, $`35`$$`75\%`$ of the total hadronic inelastic cross section of Au+Au collisions.

The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ particles were reconstructed from their weak decay topology, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\overline{p}\pi ^+`$, using charged tracks measured in the TPC. These tracks were projected back from the TPC to find their Distance of Closest Approach (DCA) to the primary vertex. Since the tracks of particles from $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ decays should not originate from the primary vertex, only proton (anti-proton) candidate tracks missing the primary vertex by 0.90 cm and $`\pi ^{}`$ ($`\pi ^+`$) candidate tracks missing the primary vertex by 2.85 cm were selected. Particle assignments for $`p`$ ($`\overline{p}`$) and $`\pi ^{}`$ ($`\pi ^+`$) candidates were based on charge sign and the mean energy loss, $`<`$$`dE/dx`$$`>`$, measured for each track. Candidate tracks were then paired to form neutral decay vertices, which were required to be at least 5 cm from the primary vertex. The momentum vector of the reconstructed parent particle was required to originate from the primary interaction: the distance of closest approach of the parent trajectory to the primary vertex was required to be less than 0.5 cm. The effect of these cuts on the reconstruction efficiency was determined using the embedding techniques described below.

Figure 1 shows the invariant mass distributions for the reconstructed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ candidates in $`\left|y\right|<0.5`$ for two typical $`p_T`$ bins from the data sample. The mass resolutions ($`\sigma `$) for reconstructed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are typically about $`3`$$`4`$ MeV/c2 based on a Gaussian fit to the peak. The background beneath the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$($`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$) peak is dominated by combinatoric pairs of charged particles. Decays of $`K_s^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ also contribute to the smooth background due to pions misidentified as protons. The yield is obtained from the invariant mass distribution in each transverse momentum ($`p_T`$) and rapidity ($`y`$) bin, where the shape of the background near the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }})`$ peak is fit with a second order polynomial function. The signal to background ratios in the peak are greater than 6 for all the measured $`p_T`$ bins. Variations in the yield due to different fits for the background have been included in the estimate of systematic errors.

The raw yield for each $`p_T`$-$`y`$ bin was then corrected for finite detection efficiency. The overall correction factor was obtained from a Monte Carlo embedding procedure. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$($`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$) particles were generated using a STAR GEANT package for detector simulation including all physical processes to take into account effects such as scattering and absorption in the detector support structures. A TPC Response Simulator (TRS) was used to generate TPC information at the pad level for all charged tracks inside the TPC from simulated $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ decays. The TRS includes all TPC resolution effects ranging from electron transport in the gas to signal processing in the readout electronics. The simulated data were then embedded into real collision events from STAR detectors and were analyzed with the standard STAR software package as real data. The correction factor for each $`p_T`$-$`y`$ and multiplicity bin was obtained from the number of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ ($`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$) particles reconstructed from the embedded sample, divided by the number generated. The combined acceptance and efficiency for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ ranges from $`0.8\%`$ to $`5.8\%`$ as a function of $`p_T`$ for the most central collision sample.

The measured $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ spectra contain contributions from primordial $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ decays, and feed-down from multiply-strange hyperons–notably $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$. The primordial $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ decay products cannot be separated in our analysis and have been treated as primary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We have investigated the feed-down from $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ hyperons by comparing systematically the distribution of the DCA to the primary interaction vertex for the reconstructed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ from real data versus simulated primary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and secondary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ from $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ decay. From this analysis, we estimate the contributions of feed-down from multiply-strange hyperons, mostly $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}`$ decays, to be approximately $`(27\pm 6)\%`$ of the measured $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ yields respectively.

Figure 2 presents the $`m_T`$ spectra (invariant distributions) of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ for five selected centrality bins. Systematic errors from various methods of yield extraction, reconstruction efficiencies and uncorrected sector-by-sector variations in the TPC performance are included. Both exponential ($`e^{(m_Tm)/T_E}`$) and Boltzmann ($`m_Te^{(m_Tm)/T_B}`$) functions, as well as a Gaussian ($`e^{p_T^2/(2\sigma ^2)}`$) in $`p_T`$ have been used to fit the data, following the ansatz described in starpbar .

All three functional forms were fit to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ spectra used for this analysis. The slope parameter obtained from the exponential fit is systematically higher than that for the Boltzmann by approximately $`40`$$`65`$ MeV. However, overall the integrated yields from all three fit functions are consistent within the statistical errors. The slope parameters and the $`dN/dy`$ for the Boltzmann and exponential fits are presented in Table 1. The Boltzmann form was adopted in Figure 2 because it typically provides a better $`\chi ^2`$ and gives a reasonable description of the $`m_T`$ spectra over the entire range of centrality and tranverse momenta investigated.

Within the systematic error, the slope parameters measured for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ $`m_T`$ distributions are the same. There is a systematic increase in the slope parameters from approximately 254 MeV for the least central ($`35`$-$`75\%`$) to 312 MeV for the most central ($`0`$-$`5\%`$) bin. Similar behavior as a function of centrality is found for the $`\overline{p}`$ transverse mass distributions starpbar . Assuming the temperature at which particle interactions cease (the “freezeout temperature ssh ) is constant independent of collision centrality, the increase in the slope parameter may be interpreted as an increase in the collective radial velocity na44 ; na49flow .

A possible indication of hydrodynamic flow is the increase of the observed mean transverse momenta for various species with increasing particle mass. The transverse momentum distributions of negatively charged hadrons, as well as $`\overline{p}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are shown in Figure 3. The $`\overline{p}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ $`p_T`$ distributions are similar in shape in the region where they can be compared (below $`1`$ GeV/c), even though the data sets cover somewhat different ranges in $`p_T`$. Both distributions are qualitatively different from and much less steep than the corresponding h- distribution, which is dominated by pions. Qualitatively similar behavior was observed in heavy ion collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) na44 ; na49flow ; slope . In general, the slope parameters for all species are observed to be larger at RHIC, which is attributed to an increase in the collective radial velocity as a function of center-of-mass energy kaneta .

Figure 3 indicates that at higher $`p_T`$ ($`p_T`$$`>`$$`1`$ GeV/c) the ratio of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ to negative hadrons increases rapidly. The baryon to meson ratio at RHIC for $`p_T`$$`>`$$`1`$ GeV/c exceeds expectations from perturbative QCD inspired string fragmentation models which were tuned to fit $`e^+e^{}`$ collision data and are the basis for modeling particle production in hadronic collisions as well jetset ; gyulassy ; hijingpr . For example, the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ to h- ratio is approximately 0.35 at $`p_T`$ of $`2`$ GeV/c. Data from $`e^+e^{}`$ collisions and calculations from string fragmentation models, however, indicate that although the baryon to meson ratio from quark and gluon fragmentation increases as a function of Feynman $`x`$, the ratio never exceeds 0.2 hofmann . As mentioned above, a natural explanation for the increase at high $`p_T`$ would be a large collective radial flow at RHIC ssh ; slope . Alternatively, it has also been suggested that the energy loss of high $`p_T`$ partons could modify the baryon to meson ratio gyulassy . To determine the exact dynamics that cause the relative enhancement of baryons to mesons at high $`p_T`$, more experimental measurements over a larger $`p_T`$-range are needed.

The average ratio of $`p_T`$ integrated yield $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is $`0.74\pm 0.04`$ with no significant variation over the measured range of centrality. Given that there is a net excess of baryons at mid-rapidity, it is reasonable to conclude that there is more than one process contributing to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ production and that significant baryon number from the colliding beams is transported to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperons at mid-rapidity. A question in that regard is why the shapes of $`m_T`$ spectra for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are the same within errors. It has been suggested that significant rescattering of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ during the evolution of the collision can lead to equilibration Rene ; pbm01 . The nature of baryon number transport itself requires further study.

Figure 4 shows the $`dN/dy`$ of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ from the Boltzmann fit as a function of the h- pseudo-rapidity density starh . At mid-rapidity the hyperon production is approximately proportional to the primary h- multiplicity in Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The dashed lines in the figure correspond to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=(0.054\pm 0.001)`$h- and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}=(0.040\pm 0.001)`$h- from a linear fit to the data. Similar centrality dependence of the lambda production was observed at the SPS energies. The $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ to h- ratio at RHIC is much larger than that at the SPS while the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to h- ratio is smaller at RHIC WA97 . This may be understood from the fact that at the SPS, most of the observed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperons carry baryon number transported from the colliding nuclei through associated production, rescattering and fragmentation processes. In this case, the yield of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to h- ratio is larger than that at RHIC due to the relatively high fraction of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ yield not resulting from pair production. Conversely, the increased importance of baryon pair production at RHIC energies must contribute to the observed increase of the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ to h- ratio relative to the SPS measurement.

In conclusion, we have presented the first inclusive mid-rapidity ($`|y|`$$`<`$$`0.5`$) $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ spectra as a function of centrality from Au+Au collisions at the $`\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130`$ GeV energy. Salient features of the data include 1) large slope parameters of transverse mass spectra probably resulting from increased collective radial velocity at RHIC, 2) similar shapes for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ spectra despite the fact that a significant fraction of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperons at mid-rapidity carry baryon number from the incoming nuclei while the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ hyperons are primarily pair produced, and 3) a significant increase in the $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ yield relative to negatively charged primary hadrons at moderate $`p_T`$ above $`1`$ GeV/c which cannot be described by existing perturbative QCD inspired string fragmentation models. The $`p_T`$ integrated rapidity densities of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ are approximately proportional to the number of negative hadrons at mid-rapidity.

Acknowledgments: We wish to thank the RHIC Operations Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory for their tremendous support and for providing collisions for the experiment. This work was supported by the Division of Nuclear Physics and the Division of High Energy Physics of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States National Science Foundation, the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung of Germany, the Institut National de la Physique Nucleaire et de la Physique des Particules of France, the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.


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# Colour Evolution of Disk Galaxy Models from z=4 to z=0

## 1 Introduction

Today, it is possible to observe galaxies out to high redshift and to study how they form and evolve. Long exposures in different wavelength bands result in images with very faint limiting magnitudes, such as the Hubble Deep Field (HDF Williams et al., 1996) and its NICMOS counterpart (Thompson et al., 1999), or the FORS deep field (Appenzeller et al., 2000), to name but a few. In these deep fields, we can see galaxies back to epochs shortly after their formation. Together with ground-based observations, these data provide morphological and photometric information on the evolution of disk galaxies as a function of redshift (Vogt et al., 1996; Roche et al., 1998; Lilly et al., 1998; Simard et al., 1999). At redshifts $`z>2`$, the deep fields reveal a wide range of galactic morphologies with considerable substructure and clumpiness (Pentericci et al., 2001). From redshift $`z=2`$ to $`z=1`$, massive galaxies seem to assemble (Kajisawa & Yamada, 2001), while for $`z<1`$ most of the Hubble type galaxies show only little or no evolution (Lilly et al., 1998). These results are obtained from still small samples of galaxies, but with the new large telescopes much more information about high redshift galaxies will be available in the future.

However, for understanding of the galaxy formation process also theoretical models are needed. Modern galaxy formation models, based on the hierarchical structure formation scenario, predict halo formation histories and the assembly of the baryonic matter inside these halos (Nagamine et al., 2001; Pearce et al., 2001; Cole et al., 2000; Navarro & Steinmetz, 2000; Hultman & Pharasyn, 1999), but the spatial resolution of these simulations is not sufficient to describe the formation of galaxies in detail. This can be done either in the framework of semi-analytical models (Cole et al., 2000; Firmani & Avila-Reese, 2000; Diaferio et al., 1999; Mo et al., 1998), with hybrid models (Bossier & Prantzos, 2001; Jimenez et al., 1998) or with dynamical models that simulate the formation and evolution of single galaxies (Bekki & Chiba, 2001; Williams & Nelson, 2001; Berczik, 1999; Samland et al., 1997; Steinmetz & Müller, 1995a; Katz & Gunn, 1991). In order to compare the models with the colours and magnitudes of real galaxies, realistic transformations of the models into spectral properties are needed. Only through transformation into spectra and colours, can the galactic models be compared with observations and thereby be confirmed or refined.

Recent applications of such transformations include Gronwall & Koo (1995), who use the Bruzual & Charlot (1993) Galaxy Isochrone Spectral Synthesis Evolution Library (GISSEL93) code to derive integrated spectra for their models of galaxies of different spectral type, and then obtain final spectral energy distributions by adding a simple reddening with a constant $`E_{BV}`$ of 0.1. The GISSEL93 code was also used by Roche et al. (1996) for their non-evolving and pure luminosity evolution models of different galaxy types, but they use an absorption coefficient that is proportional to the star formation rate (SFR) divided by the galaxy mass. Campos & Shanks (1997) also use the GISSEL93 code and a constant absorption for their spiral and early type luminosity evolution models. To take account of the cosmology, they used the K corrections of Metcalfe et al. (1991). The 1999 version of GISSEL, combined with the BaSeL 2.2 (Lejeune et al., 1997, 1998) semi-empirical stellar spectral energy distribution (SED) library was used by Kauffmann & Charlot (1998a, b) for their semi-analytical models. Jimenez et al. (1998, 1999) use their own isochrones and Kurucz 1992 (Buser & Kurucz, 1992) SEDs, complemented with atmosphere models of their own, in their low surface brightness disk galaxy models. Contardo et al. (1998) interpolate the colour evolution of the underlying stars from a grid of theoretical colour evolutionary tracks and then apply a K correction. In all these models no correction for internal dust absorption is made.

In this paper, we combine the disk galaxy formation models of Samland & Gerhard (2002) with the latest metallicity-calibrated stellar SED library (Westera et al., 2002) and galaxy evolutionary code (Bruzual & Charlot, 2000), including the spatially resolved internal absorption obtained from the three-dimensional distribution of gas in these models. We obtain $`UBVRIJHKLM`$ images and spectra (intrinsic and redshifted) of the model galaxies. The redshifted spectra include the Lyman line blanketing and Lyman continuum absorption by absorption systems at cosmological distances using the formulae given by Madau (1995). Comparison of the model galaxies with bulge observations in the Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N) shows good agreement, confirming our approach. We can disentangle different effects on the spectral properties of a model galaxy, such as from metallicity and internal absorption, by artificially blinding these contributions out, and then recalculating the spectral properties.

The outline of the paper is as follows: In Section 2, the galaxy models are briefly described (for a detailed description, see Samland & Gerhard, 2002). In Section 3, we discuss the programme used for the transformation into colours and spectra, and in Section 4, we present our first results and a comparisons with empirical (HDF-N) data. In the last section, conclusions are drawn, and an outlook on further work is given.

## 2 Short description of the new galaxy evolution models

The observations of high redshift galaxies of interest here provide magnitudes, colours and some information about morphology (asymmetry and concentration parameter). Interpreting these data fully requires detailed models for galactic evolution. In this paper, we want to show, that a dynamical multi-phase galaxy model provides the necessary physical information to interpret the high redshift data. For this purpose, we use the 3-dimensional chemo-dynamical models described in detail in the companion paper (Samland & Gerhard, 2002). Here, we only summarize briefly their main properties. These models include cosmological initial conditions, dark matter, stars and the different phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), as well as the feedback processes which connect the ISM and the stars.

We use two different models, both describing the formation and evolution of a disk galaxy in a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM universe ($`H_0=70`$ km/s/Mpc, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, and $`M_{baryon}/M_{dark}=1/5`$). The spin parameters of the model galaxies are chosen to be $`\lambda =0.05`$ (Gardner, 2001; van den Bosch, 1998; Cole & Lacey, 1996; Steinmetz & Bartelmann, 1995b; Barnes & Efstathiou, 1987) and we follow the evolution of both models from $`z=4.85`$ (corresponding in this cosmology to a universal age of $`1.2`$ Gyr) until $`z=0`$ ($`13.5`$ Gyr).

The first model, which we call the collapse model, is an extreme case which starts with an extended halo of $`250`$ kpc radius and which has a total mass of $`1.810^{12}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$. Initially the baryonic and dark matter is distributed according to the density profile proposed by Navarro et al. (1995). We assume that only the baryonic matter can collapse, similar to an Eggen, Lynden-Bell, and Sandage scenario (Eggen et al., 1962). We use this model mainly as a reference to highlight the differences to a second more realistic, cosmologically motivated model.

This second model, from now on called the accretion model, is characterized by a slowly growing dark halo with a continuous gas and dark matter infall. The time dependent accretion rate is derived by averaging 96 halo merging histories from cosmological N-body simulations from the VIRGO-GIF project (Kauffmann et al., 1999). In this scenario, the dark halo grows slowly from a radius of $`15`$ kpc at $`z=4.85`$ to $`250`$ kpc at $`z=0`$. We assume that, at $`z=4.85`$, the baryonic matter outside the $`r_{200}`$ radius consists of ionized primordial gas. The accreted gas can cool, forms clouds, dissipates kinetic energy and finally collapses inside the dark halo. The collapse is delayed by the feedback processes and a galaxy with an extended disk forms. This is in agreement with the result of Weil et al. (1989), that the formation of disc galaxies requires feedback processes which prevent gas from collapsing until late epochs.

In the collapse model, the infall of baryonic matter into the innermost $`20`$ kpc of the dark halo is determined only by dissipation and feedback processes between stars and ISM. The black line in Fig. 1 represents the baryonic mass flow into resp. out of a sphere of $`20`$ kpc radius surrounding the model galaxy centre. The collapse model shows an early mass infall that ends more or less at $`z=1`$. Later there is some in and outflow, but this does not change the mass of the galaxy significantly. As this $`20`$ kpc region is responsible for most of the star formation (SF), the total SFR (Fig. 2, upper left panel) is strongly correlated with the collapse time, and thus peaks very early at $`z2`$ (corresponding to an age of $`3`$ Gyr). The modest SF from $`z=1`$ until the present epoch, is maintained by the gas return from long lived main sequence stars entering the planetary nebula phase. For the colour evolution of a galaxy it is important to know the SF and the enrichment history. The lower left panel of Fig. 2 shows the metallicity distribution and the average metallicity of the stellar particles as a function of the time when they were born. In the first $`1.5`$ Gyr of the simulation, the metallicity shoots up from $`4`$ dex to around solar. From this point on, it stays constant, reaching not much more than $`0.1`$ dex at the present epoch. This can be explained by the fact that after the first $`1.5`$ Gyr, the bulk of the SF, and hence of the gas enrichment, is completed. Morphologically, the outcome of the collapse model is an early-type disk galaxy.

In the accretion model, the galaxy forms in a smoother way. The mass flow into the inner $`20`$ kpc is shown in Fig. 1 by the grey (in the colour version: red) line. It has a maximum at $`z=1.1`$, but remains significant until the present epoch, because of the steady accretion of baryonic (and dark) matter. Therefore, we expect a larger mixture of stellar populations of many different ages and metallicities, compared to the collapse model. The SFR in the accretion model (Fig. 2, upper right panel) peaks at around $`z=1`$ ($`5.75`$ Gyr after the big bang), and stays high until $`z=0`$. In analogy to the collapse model, the average stellar particle metallicity $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ of this model (shown in the lower right panel of Figure 2) increases most steeply during the phase of maximum SF. It also starts at $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]4`$, and reaches its present value of $`0.1`$ dex at $`z1`$. The accretion model galaxy forms from inside-out and from top-to-bottom, with the halo as the oldest component, followed by the bulge and the disk. At $`z=1`$, the galaxy begins to form a bar which later turns into a triaxial bulge. This model nicely produces a barred disk galaxy, and since it uses more realistic cosmological initial conditions, we shall in the following concentrate on this model.

Fig. 3 shows the radial profile of the (stellar) mass surface density, the ages of the stellar particles, and the stellar metallicity, at four redshifts ($`z=1.382`$, $`0.642`$, $`0.252`$ and $`0`$, corresponding to universe ages of $`4.5`$, $`7.5`$, $`10.5`$ and $`13.5`$ Gyr). The profiles (the lines in Fig. 3) were calculated by first projecting the respective quantities on the disk plane, then determining the point of the highest (stellar) mass concentration in this projection, and in the end averaging (mass-weighted) the projections over rings surrounding this point. To show the spread in stellar particle age and metallicity, a representative sample of stellar particles is shown as dots.

In the surface density profile, one can see a clear bulge and a bump appearing at around $`6`$ Gyr at a radius of $`10`$ kpc, indicative of the bar (Lerner et al., 1999; Efstathiou et al., 1982). These features are clearly visible in the images in Section 4. In stellar age, not much of a radial dependence can be seen, apart maybe from a small negative gradient in the inner region, whose outer limit (thus the minimum) slowly wanders outwards from $`8`$ kpc at $`z=0.642`$ to $`20`$ kpc today, due to an inside-out forming disk. In metallicity, there is an evident negative gradient, that stays nearly constant from $`z=0.6`$ on. This is due to a combination of the metallicity gradient of the disk, which, due the redistribution from the bar, is flat out to $`10`$ kpc (hence the bump there) and drops further outwards, and the shallow halo gradient. More quantitatively, the average metallicity reaches solar in the centre, with the most metal-rich stellar particles reaching $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=+0.3`$ while at $`40`$ kpc from the centre, the average metallicity has dropped to $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]1`$. The important results which we need in Subsection 4.4 are:

1. The surface density drops with radius at all times, and from $`z=0.6`$ on, a very steep gradient in the inner few kpc and a bump at around 10 kpc reflect the existence of a bulge and a bar.
2. The stellar age distribution shows almost no gradient.
3. The metallicity drops with increasing projected radius, also showing a bump at around $`10`$ kpc.

The output quantities of interest (which are the input quantities for the programme which calculates the spectral properties) are the following: $`614500`$ stellar particles, each with its position in $`x`$, $`y`$, and $`z`$, initial mass, age, and metallicity, as well as the gas density on a three-dimensional grid covering the galaxy out to where the gas density is negligible ($`100`$ kpc). We use the gas density to calculate the internal dust absorption in the model (Section 3). All quantities are followed during the whole galactic evolution. With these data we determine the evolution of the brightness, colours, metallicities and the structure of the model galaxy. In comparison with the observations, we can use the results to interpret the high redshift data but also to improve the galactic models and to learn more about the processes that strongly influence the galactic evolution.

## 3 From theoretical quantities to colours and spectra

To derive 2-dimensional colour ($`UBVRIJHKLM`$) images from the distributions of stars and gas, we proceeded in the following way:

First, a library of simple stellar population (SSP) spectra was produced. With the Bruzual and Charlot 2000 Galaxy Isochrone Spectral Synthesis Evolution Library (GISSEL) code (Charlot & Bruzual, 1991; Bruzual & Charlot, 1993, 2000), integrated spectra (ISEDs) of populations were calculated for a grid of population parameters consisting of $`8`$ metallicities ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.252`$, $`1.65`$, $`1.25`$, $`0.65`$, $`0.35`$, $`0.027`$, $`0.225`$, and $`0.748`$) and 221 SSP ages ranging from $`0`$ to $`20`$ Gyr. As input, we used Padova 2000 isochrones (Girardi et al., 2000). For the highest and the lowest metallicity, where no Padova 2000 isochrones are available, we used Padova 1995 isochrones (Fagotto et al., 1994; Girardi et al., 1996). The spectral library used was the BaSeL 3.1 ”Padova 2000” (Westera et al., 2002; Westera, 2001) stellar library. This library is able to reproduce globular cluster colour-magnitude diagrams in combination with the Padova 2000 isochrones for all metallicities from $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.0`$ to $`0.5`$, because it was calibrated (in a metallicity-dependent way) for this purpose, and does a similarly good performance on integrated SSP spectra. Colour differences with template empirical spectra from Bica (1996) amount to a few $`100`$th of a magnitude only (Westera et al., 2002; Westera, 2001). A Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) with cutoff masses of $`0.1\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`50\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ was chosen in accordance with the galaxy models. The spectra of this ISED library contain fluxes at $`1221`$ wavelengths from $`9.1`$ nm to $`160`$ $`\mu `$m, comfortably covering the entire range where galaxy radiation from stars is significant.

After choosing the viewing direction and the size (up to $`160\times 160`$ pixels) and resolution for the ”virtual CCD camera”, the stellar particles are grouped into pixels. For each stellar particle, the spectrum is (flux point by flux point) interpolated from the ISED library. For metallicities lower than the range covered by the library (some stellar particles have metallicities down to $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=4.0`$, but none have metallicities above the library range), the spectra for the lowest metallicity ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.252`$) were used. This should not pose any problems, as trends of spectral properties with metallicity are expected to become weak below $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.0`$, and these lowest-metallicity stellar particles become negligible in number very soon ($`0.5`$ Gyr after the beginning of the simulation).

The spectrum is reddened as follows. According to Quillen & Yukita (2001) we assume a dust-to-gas ratio which is proportional to the metallicity of the gas. The absorption coefficient $`A_V`$ can be expressed as

$$A_V=\frac{\mathrm{pc}^2}{15\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}}_{\mathrm{line}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{sight}}\rho _Z(r)𝑑r$$
(1)
with the metallicity-weighted gas density $`\rho _Z(r)=\rho _{gas}(r)Z(r)/Z_{\mathrm{}}`$. Only the cold cloud medium is assumed to contain dust. For each stellar particle, $`\rho _Z(r)`$ is integrated along the line of sight to derive the absorption coefficient $`A_V`$. The spectrum of the stellar particle is then reddened using the extinction law of Fluks et al. (1994).

All the spectra of stellar particles from the same pixel are added up to give the integrated absolute spectrum of the pixel, which is then redshifted and dimmed according to the distance modulus $`mM`$ (Carroll et al., 1992).

$`(mM)=25+5\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{c(1+z)}{H_0}}\right)`$
$`+5\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle _0^z}{\displaystyle \frac{dz^{}}{\sqrt{(1+z^{})^2(1+\mathrm{\Omega }_Mz^{})z^{}(2+z^{})\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }}}}\right).`$ (2)
In a next step, we correct the spectra for Lyman line blanketing and Lyman continuum absorption using the formulae given by Madau (1995) for QSO absorption systems. Finally, apparent $`UBVRIJHKLM`$ colours and magnitudes are calculated for each pixel through synthetic photometry. At the same time, the absolute (rest frame) spectra and the apparent spectra of all the pixels are added up to derive the absolute and apparent integrated spectra of the galaxy. An example of such an integrated spectrum is shown in Fig. 4. It shows the intrinsic (upper panel) and the apparent (lower panel) spectra of the accretion model galaxy at $`z=1.065`$ from $`0`$ nm to $`5000`$ nm. These spectra differ from previous model spectra, because they take into account the three-dimensional metallicity and age distribution of the stars and the intrinsic dust absorption. However, as one can see from these spectra, gas emission lines are not implemented. Including HII regions, as well as planetary nebulae and supernovae, will be one of the next steps in improving the programme.

On these integrated spectra, synthetic photometry is performed too. At the moment, the spectra of individual pixels or stellar particles are not stored. The final output quantities of the programme are:

1. 2-dimensional $`UBVRIJHKLM`$ images of the model galaxy including the effect of internal absorption in apparent (redshifted and corrected for the distance modulus and Lyman line blanketing and by continuum absorption) magnitudes of up to $`160\times 160`$ pixels, as seen from a freely chosen angle.
2. the integrated intrinsic spectrum of the entire galaxy plus integrated intrinsic colours and absolute magnitudes.
3. the integrated apparent spectrum of the entire galaxy plus integrated redshifted colours and apparent magnitudes.

We also included the possibility to account for Galactic foreground reddening, but this option only makes sense for specific applications, where the foreground reddening is known. In this work, it is not used.

All these quantities were calculated for both the accretion and the collapse model, at universe ages from $`1.5`$ Gyr ($`0.3`$ Gyr after the beginning of the simulations) to $`13.5`$ Gyr (the present day) in steps of $`0.5`$ Gyr, and from three different directions: face-on, inclined by $`60^{}`$, and edge-on. The size of a pixel was chosen to be $`0.5`$ kpc. At the moment higher resolution makes no sense, as the galaxy model has a resolution of only $`0.37`$ kpc. The entire ”camera” was chosen $`160\times 160`$ pixels wide, thus representing a field of view $`80\times 80`$ kpc wide.

To study metallicity effects, the face-on and inclined images and spectra were calculated for the accretion model again, but assigning solar metallicity to each stellar particle. The differences between the regular accretion model and this model should therefore purely reflect metallicity effects, allowing us to estimate the error that is made in models using solar metallicity. For the sake of simplicity, we will from now on call this the solar metallicity model.

Analogously, to identify absorption effects, the same photometric properties were calculated for the accretion model without internal absorption. Thus, the differences between the regular model and this one should reflect absorption effects, or the error that is made in models that do not include internal absorption. This model will be called the absorptionless model.

Our synthetical photometric data have been produced in the Johnson-Cousins $`UBVRIJHKLM`$ system, but of course, they can in principle be produced in any system with known passband response functions. Other spectral features, such as line strength indices from the integrated pixel/galaxy spectra can also be derived.

## 4 Results

A sample of the synthesized $`U`$, $`V`$, and $`K`$-band face-on and edge-on images are plotted in Figs. 5, 6, and 7. Each figure shows the evolution in one colour band ($`U`$, $`V`$, and $`K`$) of the collapse and the accretion models. They show a time sequence starting at $`2.5`$ Gyr with the last image representing the galaxy at the present epoch (ages: $`2.5`$, $`3.5`$, $`5.5`$, $`8.5`$, and $`13.5`$ Gyr, corresponding to $`z=2.57`$, $`1.84`$, $`1.07`$, $`0.49`$, and $`0.00`$). The galaxies are appropriately redshifted, but placed at the same distance (something that of course cannot be observed, but is necessary to plot all diagrams with the same scaling), so one sees in these images the effect of the K-correction (the dimming due to redshift and time dilatation), but not the dimming due to the increasing distance modulus. For each colour, all images are scaled in the same way, such that the brightness range spreads $`5^m`$ with the brightest pixel of the whole sample overexposed by $`3^m`$ (i.e. the brightest $`3^m`$ are plotted in white). Already from these images, one can observe interesting evolutionary features. The collapse model shows its most interesting features at the beginning of its evolution, when its SF is strongest. At a universe time of $`3.5`$ Gyr, when the core is already burnt out, a ring-shaped star forming region appears, and collapses at $`4.5`$ Gyr to a bar and two spiral arms. The bar survives until around $`10.5`$ Gyr, and from there on the galaxy appears as an early disk-type galaxy until the present day.

The fact that in the $`U`$ and $`V`$ band figures, the $`z=0`$ images are the brightest, whereas these magnitudes are expected to peak at $`z12`$, when the SFR peaks, is due to the K corrections (see the middle row of panels in Fig. 8), and is not seen in the evolution of the intrinsic integrated magnitudes $`M_U`$ and $`M_V`$ (Fig. 8, top row). In the $`K`$ band, the K correction (Fig. 8, middle right panel) is much smaller than in the visual and ultraviolet, which makes the well-known property of the $`K`$ magnitude as a (stellar) mass tracer hold approximately true even at high redshift. Therefore, the brightness of these images levels off at $`z1`$, when the bulk of the SF is completed. The accretion model shows its most prominent features at low redshift. Among them are a bar, formed at $`6`$ Gyr and spiral arms, formed a bit later. Both features survive until the present epoch.

### 4.1 Integrated photometric quantities

In tables 1 to 10, the integrated photometric properties (rest frame absolute colours and magnitudes, K corrections, and apparent colours and magnitudes according to the used cosmology) are summarized for both models in the inclined view ($`60^{}`$). The integrated (intrinsic and apparent) magnitudes of the inclined view lie somewhere between the ones of the face-on and of the edge-on view, but closer to the magnitudes of the galaxy seen face-on. In the accretion model, the inclination does not play a role for the intrinsic apparent magnitudes until a redshift of $`1.4`$, because only then, the disk begins to form. From then on, the face-on view becomes gradually brighter than the edge-on view in all passbands. At $`z=0`$ the difference amounts to $`0.6^m`$ in $`m_U`$, $`m_B`$, $`m_V`$, $`m_R`$ and $`m_I`$ and $`0.15^m`$ in $`m_K`$. The spatial resolution of the simulations is still too low, to resolve the vertical stratification of the gaseous disk. Therefore, the absorption in the edge-on view is overestimated and the differences between face-on and edge-on view are only upper limits.

The same is seen for the collapse model, but much earlier and with a higher magnitude. The two models diverge already at a redshift of $`2`$ and reach differences of $`1^m`$ ($`m_U`$, $`m_B`$, $`m_V`$, $`m_R`$, $`m_I`$) resp. $`0.5^m`$ ($`m_K`$).

Integrated photometric properties (in the inclined view) are shown as a function of redshift in Figs. 8 to 10. In the absolute magnitude diagrams (Fig. 8, top row), we see again that the brightening of the accretion model begins to level off at $`z1`$, while the collapse model has already passed its zenith. The absolute magnitude evolution is shown here only for $`M_U`$, $`M_V`$, and $`M_K`$, but it looks similar in all bands.

The K corrections are shown in the middle row of Fig. 8. The strong $`K_U`$ correction for $`z>3`$ is caused by the Lyman line blanketing and Lyman continuum absorption The $`K_B`$ looks similar to $`K_U`$; the same holds for ($`K_V`$, $`K_R`$ and $`K_I`$), and for ($`K_K`$, $`K_J`$, $`K_H`$, and $`K_L`$).

In the $`m_U`$, and $`m_V`$ diagrams of Fig. 8, bottom row (here again, the same diagrams for $`m_B`$, $`m_R`$, $`m_I`$, $`m_J`$, $`m_H`$, and $`m_L`$ would look very similar), the approximate HDF limiting magnitudes of the $`F300W`$, $`F606W`$ and $`F222M`$ bands for the Hubble Deep Field North (Williams et al., 2000) are shown as dotted lines. These limits indicate that we should see galaxies like the one modelled in the accretion model out to a redshift of $`2.4`$ in the visible and infrared passbands according to the $`J_{110}`$ and $`H_{160}`$ limits of the NICMOS HDF counterpart (Thompson et al., 1999). The HDF objects seen at higher redshift are probably the progenitors of more massive early type galaxies (E or S0), rather than young disk galaxies. Morphologically, they may be hard to distinguish at these redshifts, as the model galaxies do not show their disk structure yet. This is confirmed at least qualitatively by Abraham et al. (1999a, b). The collapse model should be seen in the HDF out till $`z3`$ in $`m_U`$ or even $`3.5`$ in $`m_V`$, $`m_I`$, $`m_J`$ or $`m_H`$. The HDF limits also indicate that we need to go $`4^m`$ fainter in $`V`$ and $`I`$, $`10^m`$ in $`U`$ to catch a galaxies like the accretion model near birth.

The intrinsic colours (Fig. 9) become redder with time for both models, with the collapse model colours starting off bluer than the accretion model colours, but becoming redder than the latter at $`z3`$ in all colours, which is not surprising, if we take the star formation history into account.

The oscillating evolution of the apparent colours (Fig. 10) is a combination of the evolution of the corresponding intrinsic colour and the K corrections (see Fig. 8) of the two involved passbands. Again, the collapse model starts off bluer in all colours and turns redder than the accretion model at $`z3`$. Interestingly though the collapse model does not show the very red colours at intermediate redshift that are predicted (Zepf, 1997; Barger et al., 1999) by monolithic models like those of Arimoto & Yoshii (1987) or Matteucci & Tornambe (1987). Zepf (1997) predicts, for example, $`VK`$ colours of up to $`7`$, whereas our collapse model does reach only $`VK=5`$, due to the modest, but in the integrated light important SF that continues until the present epoch (Fig. 2). This shows that the lack of observed red galaxies does not exclude the possibility that some galaxies formed early in a single collapse out of one protogalactic gas cloud, provided that a minimum SF is maintained after the main ”starburst”.

### 4.2 Interpretation of the integrated photometric quantities

In the following, we concentrate on the accretion model. In order to interpret the evolution of the intrinsic colours (table 1 and 2), we compare them with the colour evolution of SSPs (Fig. 11). These were also produced with the GISSEL code, using the same tracks, stellar library and IMF as for the galaxy model, so any systematics stemming from the input SSP spectra should cancel out (actually these are the SSPs, from which the model galaxy colours were derived). The two SSPs shown here are for solar metallicity (dash-dotted), which is not far above the average metallicity at which the galaxy model ends, and $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.252`$ (long dashes), the lowest metallicity available. The regions between these two curves are shaded to show the ranges in which the colours of SSPs evolve. The solid lines represent the colour evolution of the accretion model. In order to identify metallicity and absorption effects, the solar metallicity and the absorptionless models (see Section 3) are shown as dashed resp. dotted lines.

Of course all three, the accretion model, the solar metallicity model, and the absorptionless models behave smoother with redshift than the SSPs, because they represent convolutions of SSPs with an SFR. In $`(UB)_0`$ (the metallicity indicator for individual stars), $`(VI)_0`$, and other ultraviolet and optical colours not shown here, ongoing star formation dominates the colours, so the models remain even bluer than for the $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.252`$ SSP during the entire evolution. The SF determines the colour evolution as long as SF continues and metallicity and absorption change these two colours by less than $`0.1^m`$. It is expected that the colours will rapidly (within a few Gyr) tend towards the lower (solar metallicity) curve once SF is completed. In the infrared colours $`(VK)_0`$ and $`(JK)_0`$, where SF does not leave such a strong imprint, we see a combination of SF and internal reddening, placing the colours well below the $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.252`$ SSP evolution from $`z1.4`$ on. $`(JK)_0`$ comes out even redder than the solar metallicity SSP for a few Gyr around $`z=1`$, when the gas density in the centre of the model galaxy is the highest. The fact that the absorptionless model (dotted) lies between the two SSPs proves that this is an absorption effect. These colours are of course also expected to tend towards the ones of the solar SSP with time. As can be seen from the colour evolution of the solar metallicity model (dashed), the metallicity effect is relatively minor for $`z\stackrel{_<}{_{}}1.4`$. With $`0.2^m`$ in $`(VK)_0`$ and $`0.1^m`$ in $`(JK)_0`$, it is stronger than in the ultraviolet and optical colours, even though these infrared colours are known to be metallicity insensitive for individual stars.

Obviously, different rules apply for the metallicity dependence of colours for composite stellar populations than for individual stars. This is explained by the fact that, by comparing populations of different metallicities, we are not looking at stars of the same stellar parameters, but at stars of the same age. Populations of the same age do not necessarily show the same metallicity dependence as stars of the same stellar parameters (that is, a strong metallicity dependence in the ultraviolet and metallicity independence in the infrared). As stars of different $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ develop differently (metal-rich stars have longer lifetimes than metal-poor stars of the same mass), the infrared colours do depend on metallicity for stellar populations. This can actually already be seen from the colour evolutions of SSPs in Fig. 11. Hence, in our galaxy model, metallicity effects can be observed in $`(JK)_0`$, whereas in $`(UB)_0`$, they are suppressed as long as SF continues.

So far, we have discussed only intrinsic colours. For the comparison with real galaxies, we have to look at the evolution of the redshifted intrinsic colours. This evolution is shown in Fig. 12 for the same colours as in Fig. 11 (the comparison with SSPs is omitted here). Again, $`UB`$ is only slightly affected by both metallicity and absorption, and mainly reflects SF and the absorption of intervening gas at high redshifts. In $`VI`$, the differences between the accretion model and the solar metallicity model amount to $`0.2^m`$ at high redshift, but become negligible at $`z2`$. From then on, absorption effects become important, but they do not change $`VI`$ by more than $`0.15^m`$. Metallicity is crucial for the evolution of the infrared colours $`VK`$ and $`JK`$. At high redshift, it can change $`VK`$ by up to $`0.75^m`$, and $`JK`$ by $`0.25^m`$. At $`z=0`$, the difference is still $`0.2^m`$ resp. $`0.05^m`$.

Absorption is most important at $`z\stackrel{_<}{_{}}2`$. At $`z1`$, it changes $`VK`$ by $`0.6^m`$, and $`JK`$ by $`0.25^m`$. The main difference between the evolution of the two infrared colours shown here is seen from $`z1.8`$ to $`z2.6`$, when $`JK`$ becomes bluer by $`0.4^m`$, due to the $`4000`$ Å break that wanders through the $`J`$ band between these redshifts.

The lack of absorption effects in all colours at high redshift in these models is explained by the lack of gas in the dark halo at this epoch. Of course, the gas that falls in at a later stage is already there outside the halo, and its absorption would in principle have to be included in our models too, but it is distributed over such a large volume that only a negligible fraction will be located in the line of sight.

From the large metallicity and absorption influences on colours, it follows that the metallicity distribution of the stars and the internal absorption by gas must be taken into account when deriving colours from galaxy models.

### 4.3 Bulge colours

To test the properties of our models, we compared the colours of HDF-N disk galaxy bulges from Ellis et al. (2001) with our results. We expect bulge colours to be more accurate than integrated galaxy colours, as they are usually measured within isophotes well above the noise level. To derive bulge colours from our models, we located for each ”frame” the highest concentration of light, and calculated the integrated colours over a range of $`1.25`$ kpc around this centre (corresponding to around $`20`$ ”pixels”). Varying this ”aperture size” showed that this is a reasonable value. It also corresponds well to the aperture used by Ellis et al. (2001). Tables 11 and 12 summarize our bulge colours for the face-on and the edge-on view, and in Figs. 13 and 14, the redshift evolutions of $`VI`$ and $`JH`$ are plotted, as well as the empirical data, which had to be transformed from the HST $`V_{606}I_{814}`$ resp. $`J_{110}H_{160}`$ system into Johnson-Cousins $`VI`$ (Fukugita et al., 1995) and $`JH`$ (Stephens et al., 2000). The thick points in Figs. 13 and 14 show the transformed data, while the crosses in the $`VI`$ diagram are still in the HST system, as no transformation was available. The model predictions for the face-on (dashed), the inclined (solid), and edge-on (dotted) view are drawn as thick lines, and for comparison, the integrated colours of the same models are shown as thin lines. The Ellis et al. (2001) integrated galaxy colours are not shown here in order not to overload the figure. On average, they are only around $`0.1^m`$ bluer than their bulge colours, whereas our model predicts them to be $`0.2^m`$ to $`0.3^m`$ bluer. This is probably due to the fact, that we calculate the model galaxy colours by using all the light out to $`40`$ kpc from the galactic centre. The model shows a colour gradient in the sense that the galaxy is bluer in the outer parts. In fact, the colour of the model galaxy integrated over the inner $`10`$ kpc is less than $`0.1^m`$ bluer than the bulge colour. This is why, in our comparison with observations, we use bulge colours rather than full galaxy colours. Clearly, the models reproduce the observed colours well. One can argue that our $`JH`$ predictions are too blue, but they are within the measuring errors ($`0.15^m`$).

The different evolutions of the edge-on model and the face-on model bring us to an interesting result: At low redshift, the models predict much redder bulge colours for edge-on than for face-on galaxies. The inclined model follows the face-on model more or less. The difference amounts to $`0.5^m`$ in both $`VI`$ and $`JH`$ (the two colours studied here, but the effect is present in all colours). This is due to absorption from the dust in the disk. In $`JH`$, this absorption begins to take its toll already at a redshift of $`1.2`$, whereas in $`VI`$, it does not appear until $`z0.4`$. This corresponds well with the fact that the $`V`$ and $`I`$ band are shifted into the $`J`$ and $`H`$ band at redshift $`1`$. In the edge-on view, the absorption effect is overestimated as a result of the limited spatial resolution in our models. In the models, a significant fraction of the bulge is reddened by the thick gas disk, while in observed galaxies, the absorbing material is concentrated in a thin disk, which affects only a small fraction of the bulge. Nevertheless, this result shows that it is important to know the inclination of disk galaxies, in order to interpret their bulges’ colours, especially if one wants to compare the colour evolution of these bulges with the colour evolution of elliptical galaxies.

### 4.4 Magnitude - and colour profiles

Finally, we study the profiles in different colours and magnitudes and their possible correlations with the profiles of the physical quantities presented in Section 2, Fig. 3, stellar mass surface density, stellar particle age, and stellar metallicity.

The apparent magnitude profiles (calculated in the same way as for the quantities in Fig. 3) in $`U`$, $`V`$, and $`K`$ are shown in Fig. 15 as solid lines. In order to see if there are any metallicity or absorption effects on these profiles, the same profiles are drawn as dashed lines for the solar metallicity model, and as dotted lines for the absorptionless model. All magnitude profile plots are scaled in the same way which means $`1^m`$ has the same size in all plots, so they can directly be compared.

As expected, all three profiles reflect the mass density, whereas the metallicity gradient causes only a small modification, which in real data can hardly be disentangled from the mass density contribution. The best mass density tracer is obviously $`m_K`$, which is well known for this property. It follows the mass density perfectly, and shows almost no metallicity or absorption influence. An agreeable property of $`m_K`$ as a mass tracer is that it holds true even for the redshifted models, although we are actually looking at wavelength regions corresponding to the $`I`$, $`J`$, and $`H`$ bands there. In $`m_U`$ and $`m_V`$, absorption amounts to $`2^m`$ in the centre at redshifts around 1.

More surprising are the results for the colour gradients. In Fig. 16, they are shown for $`UB`$, $`VI`$, and $`JK`$ as solid lines vs. the same profiles for the solar metallicity model (dashed) and the absorptionless model (dotted). Again, they are plotted on the same scale for each redshift. Surprisingly, $`UB`$ and $`VI`$ prove almost metallicity independent (the $`UB`$ profile at $`z=1.382`$ should not be over-interpreted, because the stellar library was not calibrated in the range that is shifted into the $`U`$ and $`B`$ here), whereas metallicity seems to leave a stronger effect on $`JK`$ (at the same time, absorption is negligible here), a result we already encountered for the time evolution of the integrated light of the two models. Indeed, the profiles of the differences $`\mathrm{\Delta }(JK)`$ between the regular accretion model and the solar metallicity model (shown for low redshifts in Fig. 17) are well correlated with the $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ profile (Fig. 3). There is some profit to be taken from this, due to the fact that the solar metallicity model profile is more or less horizontal (apart from the inner bulge; Fig. 16), at least at low redshift. This means that a $`JK`$ gradient should be directly related to the metallicity gradient, even though the absolute colour will not necessarily yield the absolute $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ value. We find

$$\frac{d[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]}{dR}4\frac{d(JK)}{dR},z0.5.$$
(3)
Of course, this finding needs to be confirmed observationally, but it is an indication that $`JK`$ could prove a useful metallicity gradient tracer.

## 5 Discussion and Conclusions

We present the spectral analysis of two chemo-dynamical galaxy formation models, evaluated with a state of the art evolutionary code and spectral library. The programme transforming the models into spectral properties takes into account the three-dimensional distribution of the stars and the interstellar matter. It includes internal gas absorption and is also able to include foreground reddening.

We obtain two-dimensional $`UBVRIJHKLM`$ images of the model galaxies, giving apparent magnitudes and colours in up to $`160\times 160`$ pixels. We also obtain intrinsic and apparent integrated spectra and intrinsic colours of the model galaxies. All of these quantities can be calculated with a time resolution of $`10`$ Myr. In the present work, they were calculated in time steps of $`0.5`$ Gyr. We find that

1. The integrated colours of the model galaxy depend more strongly on the metallicity of the stars in the infrared ($`(VK)_0`$, $`(JK)_0`$, $`VK`$, $`JK`$) than in the optical and ultraviolet.
2. In the ultraviolet ($`(UB)_0`$, $`UB`$), star formation blankets metallicity - and absorption effects.
3. In the infrared and optical, metallicity effects are crucial for $`z>1.5`$; at lower redshifts absorption becomes more important than metallicity. Thus both the metallicity distribution of the stars and the internal absorption by gas must be taken into account when deriving colours from galaxy models.
4. At low redshifts, bulge colours depend on the inclination of the model galaxy due to absorption from the disk. In our model, bulges are up to $`0.5^m`$ redder in edge-on projection than when seen face-on, which however is an upper limit because of the limited spatial resolution of the underlying numerical model.
5. We confirm the usefulness of $`m_K`$ as a mass tracer, and find indications that metallicity gradients manifest themselves in $`JK`$ (at low redshift), which would give us a means to measure $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ gradients from $`JK`$ gradients, if confirmed observationally.
6. A comparison of our model colours for disk galaxy bulges with empirical data from the HDF North (Ellis et al., 2001) shows good agreement, confirming that the star formation history and time dependent gas density distribution of the models are realistic.

The produced colour images and spectra have not been fully exploited yet by far. There is still a lot more information to extract and a lot more conclusions to be drawn from these files. This will be done in future work.

Our result that internal absorption is crucial at $`z<1.5`$ shows that it is necessary in any galaxy formation model to have a realistic description of the gas component, if galaxy colours are to be predicted reliably. This requires at least a 2-phase model of the interstellar matter in which a cold star-forming medium coexists with a hot component which absorbs most of the energy and metal return from massive stars, i.e., a chemo-dynamical approach. Three-dimensional and high-resolution chemo-dynamical models, when embedded in a realistic cosmological model, allow us not only to predict the detailed morphology and colours of forming galaxies, but also to investigate the physical processes relevant during the formation and evolution of galaxies. Much further work on improving the present models is needed, but will be very rewarding.

The spectro-photometric programme that transforms the quantities calculated by the galaxy models into spectral properties has great potential, as it calculates colours and spectra in a realistic way including, e.g., spatially resolved absorption, using as few simplifications and assumptions as possible. Improvements of the input ingredients (the stellar evolutionary tracks, the stellar library, the absorption law) can easily be implemented. Other possible improvements are the inclusion of emission from HII regions and planetary nebulae, or the inclusion of supernovae spectra. The results do not need to be restricted to the $`UBVRIJHKLM`$ system. Two dimensional distributions can in principle be calculated in any colour system, or for other spectral properties, such as line strength indices.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

## Appendix A Intrinsic magnitudes and colours

## Appendix B Bulge colours


text:
# Introduction

## Introduction

A most fascinating challenge in neuron biology is a deep understanding of the mechanisms involved in long-term-effects (LTE) such as long-term-potentiation (LTP) and long-term-depression (LTD). The multiplicity of possibly important mechanisms is immense and is explored in a great variety of experiments . However, the interpretations of those experiments are not as conclusive as they could be if it was possible to better compare experiments executed on different systems. We claim that a lot of detailed information on LTE is hidden in presently available experiments.

One possible way to uncover this hidden knowledge is to construct a tool which is able to translate different experiments into a common language and then to compare them quantitatively. Such a tool is provided here for the analysis of the intracellular calcium concentration in presynaptic nerve terminals. It is very well established by experiments that LTE are mostly connected with dynamical changes in the calcium concentration . Larger calcium concentrations induce a lot of mechanisms that may influence the transmission efficiency of synapses. This applies not only to the postsynaptic side of the synapse, where an calcium influx is believed to be necessary for the induction of LTP . Intracellular calcium also induces exocytosis on the presynaptic side of the synapse and therefore is in parts responsible for the release of neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft . It is believed that calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinases may trigger the amount of released neurotransmitter. This has been shown for example for the calcium/calmodulin kinase II in the squid giant synapse . Therefore, we think that the intracellular calcium concentration is an appropriate observable to study the induction of effects as LTD and LTP from the very beginning.

Already on this early level of LTE-induction a comparative quantitative evaluation of different experiments may lead to new insights. Corresponding experiments have been done using different systems or using the same system under different conditions. In addition, a dependence of the presynaptic calcium dynamics on the corresponding target cell has been observed . In order to compare those experiments quantitatively one has to determine characteristics of the experiment that are important for the calcium dynamics and to introduce them into the model terminology.

In the following we will develop a corresponding model which is based on previously developed models of the intracellular calcium dynamics. The number of models describing presynaptic calcium dynamics is comparably small . The main focus of model work in this field lies on the postsynaptic calcium dynamics  (for a review we refer to ). This is surely related to the fact that dendrites are better accessible in experiment than presynaptic boutons. Therefore, we use the knowledge which has been established on the postsynaptic side of the synapse in order to build a new model which can be used for comparison of presynaptic calcium dynamics in different experiments. Presynaptic measurements became more frequent due to technical developments in the last years .

The model has to be adjusted to specific experiments in a well-defined procedure, which is illustrated for the example of presynaptic nerve terminals in the rat neocortex . The results found here are discussed in the context of LTE. For more details of the model and the results presented here we refer to . This especially concerns a more detailed analysis of the model assumptions and the robustness of the results.

## The model on the level of single proteins

We construct a new deterministic one-compartment model for the presynaptic calcium dynamics. The intracellular calcium concentration is changed in response to variations of the membrane potential by an ion-flux through voltage-gated calcium channels. The flux is driven by the electro-chemical gradient at the membrane. Intracellular calcium is bound by an endogenous buffer. Only a small number of ions remains free and increases the concentration of free calcium. An increased calcium concentration is reduced by two types of transport proteins: ATP-driven calcium pumps and natrium-calcium exchangers. Their activity basically depends on the free calcium concentration. A leakage transmembrane calcium current is assumed, that compensates the activity of transport proteins and channels in the rest state of the cell.

The model is formulated in terms of a set of ordinary coupled differential equations for the intracellular calcium concentration $`c`$:

$$\frac{dc}{dt}=\frac{G}{zF}\frac{\rho _\mathrm{U}J_U(g_\mathrm{U}(U),U(t),\overline{U}(c))\rho _\mathrm{P}J_\mathrm{P}(g_\mathrm{P}(c))\rho _\mathrm{E}J_\mathrm{E}(g_\mathrm{E}(c))+L}{1+\mathrm{\Theta }_b(c)+\mathrm{\Theta }_i(c)}$$
(1)
where $`\rho _{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{E}}`$ are the surface densities of the voltage-gated channels (HVA), the PMCA-type calcium pumps, and the natrium-calcium exchanger (type 1), respectively.

$$J_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{E}}=g_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{E}}I_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{E}}$$
(2)
are the corresponding single protein currents. They are determined by the the single protein open probabilities $`g_{\mathrm{U},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{E}}`$, where $`g_{\mathrm{P},\mathrm{E}}`$ depend on $`c`$ according to standard Hill equations  for the pumps and the exchangers with Hill coefficient $`2`$  and $`1`$ , respectively. The open probability for the voltage gated calcium channels (HVA) obeys

$$\frac{dg_\mathrm{U}(U)}{dt}=\frac{1}{\tau }\left\{\left[1+\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{U_{1/2}U}{\kappa }\right\}\right]^1g_\mathrm{U}(U)\right\},$$
(3)
with $`\tau =1ms`$ the channel mean open time, $`U_{1/2}=3mV`$ the half activation voltage, and $`\kappa =8mV`$ the steepness factor. The values are taken from a representative HVA-channel . $`I_\mathrm{U}`$ is the voltage dependent current which is assumed to follow Ohms law with open channel conductivity of $`17pS`$. The electrochemical gradient is calculated with respect to $`\overline{U}(c)`$, the (calcium dependent) calcium reversal potential, which depends on $`c`$ according to the Nernst equation.

$`I_\mathrm{P}=10^{17}A`$ and $`I_\mathrm{E}=\mathrm{40\hspace{0.17em}10}^{17}A`$ are the maximum activities of the transport proteins. $`G`$ is a geometry factor (ratio of surface and volume in the compartment), $`z=2`$ is the valence of the calcium ions, $`F`$ the Faraday constant, and $`L`$ the leak current which is determined by the steady state condition.

$`U(t)`$ is the stimulating transmembrane voltage function. We assume that the feedback effect of the calcium influx on the membrane potential is small with respect to standard action potentials. One may think of a voltage clamped situation. However, for large calcium concentrations as they may appear in high frequency stimulations, calcium buffers may saturate and the impact on the membrane potential may become non-negligible. Such effects are not considered in the present analysis.

The buffers (endogenous and indicator) are treated in a quasi-steady state approximation, which claims that the calcium binds and dissociates faster than the typical time scale under consideration. Then the dynamical behavior of the buffers reduces to a correction factor in Eq. (1) which depends on the calcium concentration only:

$$\mathrm{\Theta }_b(c)=\frac{b_{\mathrm{max}}K_b}{\left(K_b+c\right)^2}\text{and}\mathrm{\Theta }_i(c)=\frac{i_{\mathrm{max}}K_i}{\left(K_i+c\right)^2}.$$
(4)
Here $`b_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`i_{\mathrm{max}}`$ are the total concentrations of the endogenous buffer and the indicator, respectively. $`K_{b,i}`$ are the corresponding dissociation constants. Note that it is important to include the indicator used in the experiment, because the indicator is basically acting as additional buffer and may drastically change the amount of free intracellular calcium.

The differential equations are solved numerically and the solution describes the time course of the calcium concentration resulting in response to single action potentials or to series of action potentials (as they are used to induce LTD or LTP). The above mentioned aspired generality of the model is reflected in a separation of the model parameters into three classes, described in the following subsections.

### Universality

The model is universal enough to be applicable to a wide class of different neuron types. To this end the model is based on the experimental knowledge about single proteins which are postulated to have neuron-type independent properties. These are the single protein characteristics $`g_x`$ (including all derived physiological properties) and the single protein transmembrane currents $`J_x`$, where $`x`$ stands for the corresponding type of protein (see e.g. ).

### Type specificity

The model is specific enough to be applicable to well defined neuron types. This is achieved by the introduction of measurable neuron-type specific parameters which has to be determined for each experiment separately. Basically, these are the protein densities $`\rho _x`$ in the membrane. As no space resolution of the calcium concentration is considered, these densities may be thought as average values over the whole synaptic membrane. Also the concentration of the endogenous buffer $`b_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and its dissociation constant $`K_b`$ belong to the neuron-type specific class of parameters. Finally, the surface to volume ratio $`G`$ of the synaptic compartment quantitatively determine the concentration changes due to transmembrane currents.

### Condition specificity

The model includes enough general specifications in order to adjust the model to specific experimental conditions. The form and amplitude of the action potential $`U(t)`$ is simulated with a system of coupled differential equations (not shown here) and can be adapted to the specific action potential used in experiment. The LTE-stimulation protocols used in experiment are simulated with a corresponding series of single action potentials. Intracellular calcium concentrations are generally visualized with the help of calcium indicators. They act as an additional buffer in the cell and, therefore, may influence the calcium dynamics. In the model they are treated in complete analogy to the endogenous buffer and are characterized by the indicator specific dissociation constant $`K_i`$ and the used indicator concentration $`i_{\mathrm{max}}`$.

## Adjustment to a specific experiment

The idea of this semi-universal model for presynaptic calcium dynamics is to determine the universal parameters using single protein experimental data and to maintain the resulting values for the evaluation of different systems and experimental conditions. Universality has to be understood as the postulated statement, that universal parameters are not the parameters that are most sensitive to a transfer from one experiment to another. The adjustment of the model to a specific experiment is achieved through the determination of the system-specific and condition-specific parameters. Note, that without any exception these are parameters with direct physiological interpretation. Therefore, most of them may be accessible up to a sufficient precision in several experiments.

In the described procedure the main part of the model is determined by sources that are independent of the experiment under consideration. Therefore, the value of the model is tested by its capability of reproducing the answer of the calcium concentration to single action potentials on the basis of those independent and fixed universal parameters. As in general not all specific parameters will have been determined in the experiment under consideration, we will fit the remaining unknown parameters to the single action potential calcium response. With the help of a thus defined model it should be possible to analyse the measured calcium transients evoked by LTD or LTP stimulation protocols.

This has been executed for an experiment on single nerve terminals of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex of rats : Most specific parameters used in the model are directly accessible in this experiment. This concerns for example the form of the action potential applied to the nerve terminal, the geometry (i.e. the surface to volume ratio $`G=3/\mu m`$), the concentration of endogenous buffer $`b_{\mathrm{max}}=120\mu M`$, and the characteristics and concentrations of the used calcium indicator (magnesium green). Therefore, we are in the situation that the whole model is a priori determined either by independent sources (concerning universal parameters) or by the available data from the experiment under consideration. The only unknown parameters are the surface densities of the calcium transport proteins. These are fitted to the measured calcium transient evoked by single action potentials ($`\rho _\mathrm{U}=2.65/\mu m^2`$, $`\rho _\mathrm{P}=4000/\mu m^2`$, and $`\rho _\mathrm{E}=\rho _\mathrm{P}/30`$). The result Fig. 1 shows, that the measured calcium transient is reproduced correctly.

## LTE stimulation

In order to check if the thus defined model has predictive power, we calculate the intracellular calcium transients evoked by series of action potentials with varying frequency. Basically, the model parameters remain unchanged. As in the corresponding experimental setup (see  Fig. 9) a different action potential (compared to Fig. 1) has been used, the action potential is adapted in the model and the channel densities are fitted to the single action potential calcium response, correspondingly ($`\rho _\mathrm{U}=2.77/\mu m^2`$, $`\rho _\mathrm{P}=3400/\mu m^2`$, and $`\rho _\mathrm{E}=\rho _\mathrm{P}/30`$). In addition the indicator concentration is increased, which is considerably higher in this experimental setup. Now the $`10Hz`$ stimulus is applied and the result is shown in Fig. 2.

The model result is in quantitative agreement with the calcium transients seen in the experiment: The intracellular calcium concentration reaches a new baseline level during the stimulation process which breaks down when the stimulus is switched off. The calcium concentration oscillates on the top of the new base line in coherence with the stimulation potential. The calcium reducing processes are slightly to slow in the model.

On this basis we can calculate the calcium transients in response to stimulation protocols with various frequencies. We find that calcium transients do not overlap for low frequencies typical for LTD-induction. The emergence of a new baseline in the calcium concentration at frequencies around $`10Hz`$ may be interpreted as threshold for the induction of LTP. Note, that this threshold frequency strongly depends on the used calcium indicator concentration. This is especially relevant for the interpretation of experimental results. A stimulation with frequencies around $`50Hz`$ (typical for the induction of LTP) leads to a more pronounced enhancement of the calcium baseline. This qualitative behavior is in agreement with experiments carried out on dendritic spines of pyramidal neurons .

## Conclusion

Our new model for transients of the presynaptic intracellular calcium concentration evoked by various stimulation protocols reproduces the general behavior observed in experiment. It is exclusively constructed with parameters that have a direct physiological interpretation. Its basis are the single proteins properties. The characteristics of single proteins are considered to be universal in the sense that they remain unchanged for different experimental setups. The model has been adjusted to a specific experiment that measured intracellular calcium transients in nerve terminals of pyramidal neurons of the rat neocortex. To this end the parameters specific for this experiment have been extracted from it or, if not available, have been fitted to the single action potential calcium response. The model results turned out to be in quantitative agreement with the experiment. This applies not only to the presynaptic calcium concentration response to single action potentials but also to $`10Hz`$ stimuli. We did not find any reason for the involvement of calcium-induced-calcium-release in the induction of LTE. However, it seems that an additional mechanism (e.g. calcium channel inactivation) may be necessary to understand the induction of LTD on the level of presynaptic calcium transients.

More generally, the separation of universal and specific parameters enables us to analyse different results observed in several experiments. With the help of the new model one may decide, if those differences are significant or due to different experimental setups.