Halo merger trees are the essential backbone of semi-analytic models for galaxy formation and evolution. Srisawat et al. (2013) show that different tree building algorithms can build different halo merger histories from a numerical simulation for structure formation. In order to understand the differences induced by various tree building algorithms, we investigate the impact of halo merger trees on a semi-analytic model. We find that galaxy properties in our models show differences between trees when using a common parameter set. The models independently calibrated for each tree can reduce the discrepancies between global galaxy properties at z=0. Conversely, with regard to the evolutionary features of galaxies, the calibration slightly increases the differences between trees. Therefore, halo merger trees extracted from a common numerical simulation using different, but reliable, algorithms can result in different galaxy properties in the semi-analytic model. Considering the uncertainties in baryonic physics governing galaxy formation and evolution, however, these differences may not necessarily be significant.

We construct several Milky Way-like galaxy models containing a gas halo (as well as gaseous and stellar disks, a dark matter halo, and a stellar bulge) following either an isothermal or an NFW density profile with varying mass and initial spin. In addition, galactic winds associated with star formation are tested in some of the simulations. We evolve these isolated galaxy models using the GADGET-3 N-body/hydrodynamic simulation code, paying particular attention to the effects of the gaseous halo on the evolution. We find that the evolution of the models is strongly affected by the adopted gas halo component, particularly in the gas dissipation and the star formation activity in the disk. The model without a gas halo shows an increasing star formation rate (SFR) at the beginning of the simulation for some hundreds of millions of years and then a continuously decreasing rate to the end of the run at 3 Gyr. Whereas the SFRs in the models with a gas halo, depending on the density profile and the total mass of the gas halo, emerge to be either relatively flat throughout the simulations or increasing until the middle of the run (over a gigayear) and then decreasing to the end. The models with the more centrally concentrated NFW gas halo show overall higher SFRs than those with the isothermal gas halo of the equal mass. The gas accretion from the halo onto the disk also occurs more in the models with the NFW gas halo, however, this is shown to take place mostly in the inner part of the disk and not to contribute significantly to the star formation unless the gas halo has very high density at the central part. The rotation of a gas halo is found to make SFR lower in the model. The SFRs in the runs including galactic winds are found to be lower than those in the same runs but without winds. We conclude that the effects of a hot gaseous halo on the evolution of galaxies are generally too significant to be simply ignored. We also expect that more hydrodynamical processes in galaxies could be understood through numerical simulations employing both gas disk and gas halo components.

The warm ionized medium (WIM) outside classical H II regions is a fundamental gas-phase constituent of the Milky Way and other late-type spiral galaxies, and is traced by faint emission lines at optical wavelengths. We calculate the photoionization models of the WIM in the Galaxy by a stellar UV radiation with the effective temperature 35,000 K assuming not only spherical geometry but also plane parallel geometry, and compare the results with the observed emission line ratios. We also show the dependence of the emission line ratios on various gas-phase abundances. The emergent emission-line ratios are in agreement with the average-values of observed ratios of [S II] λ6716/Hα, [N II] λ6583/Hα, [O I] λ6300/Hα, [O III] λ5007/Hα, He I λ5876/Hα. However, their extreme values could not be explained with the photoionization models. It is also shown that the addition of all stellar radiation from the OB stars in the Hipparcos stellar catalog resembles that of an O7-O8 type star.

On the basis of observational constraints, particularly the relationship between metal abundance and cumulative stellar mass, a simple two-zone disk-halo model for the chemical evolution of our Galaxy was investigated, assuming different chemical processes in the disk and halo and the infall rates of the halo gas defined by the halo evolution. The main results of the present model calculations are: (i) The halo formation requires more than 80% of the initial galactic mass and it takes a period of 2 ∼ 3 × 10 9 yrs. (ii) The halo evolution is divided into two phases, a fast collapse phase ( t = 2 ∼ 3 × 10 8 yrs) during which period most of the halo stars ( ∼ 95 are formed and a later slow collapse phase which is characterized by the chemical enrichment due to the inflow of external matter to the halo. (iii) The disk evolution is also divided into two phases, an active disk formation phase with a time-dependent initial mass function (IMF) up to t ≈ 6 × 10 9 yrs and a later steady slow formation phase with a constant IMF. It is found that at the very early time t ≈ 5 × 10 8 yrs, the metal abundance in the disk is rapidly increased to ∼ 1 / 3 of the present value but the total stellar mass only to ∼ 10 of the present value, finally reaching about 80% of the present values toward the end of the active formation phase.