Turbulent gas-rich disks at high redshift: bars & bulges in a radial shear flow

Understand

Recent observations of high-redshift galaxies ($z \lesssim 7$) reveal that a substantial fraction have turbulent, gas-rich disks with well-ordered rotation and elevated levels of star formation.

• In some instances, disks show evidence of spiral arms, with bar-like structures.
• These remarkable observations have encouraged us to explore a new class of dynamically self-consistent models using our hydrodynamic N-body simulation framework that mimic a plausible progenitor of the Milky Way at high redshift.
• We explore disk gas fractions of $f_{\rm gas} = 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100\%$ and track the creation of stars and metals.