Luminous red galaxies in simulations

Abstract

There have been a number of attempts to measure the expansion rate of the Universe using age-dating of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs).Assuming stars in LRGs form at the same time, age-dating of two populations of LRGs at different redshifts can provide an estimate of the time difference associated with the corresponding redshift interval (dt/dz). This gives a direct estimate of the Hubble parameter at the average redshift of the two populations. In this thesis, we explore the validity of the assumptions in this method using LRGs identified in the Millenium Simulation.We study the properties of LRGs simulated using two semi-analytical models for galaxy evolution and discuss LRG selection criteria. We use stellar population modelling and spectral synthesis to estimate the errors on ages that can be expected and discuss optimization of an age-dating experiment.We find that H(z) using simulated galaxies from MS can be recovered with high accuracy. Using Single Stellar Populations (SSPs) to age -date LRGs is not sufficient for this experiment but if the star formation histories of galaxies are used, accurate ages are obtainable. We discuss an observing program to carry out this experiment using SALT (Southern African Large Telescope).