Stellar and HI Mass Functions Predicted by a Simple Preheating Galaxy Formation Model

Abstract

According to the new preheating mechanism of galaxy formation suggested by Mo et al., we construct a simple model of formation of disk galaxies within the current paradigm of galaxy formation. It incorporates preheating, gas cooling, bulge formation and star formation. The predicted stellar and HI mass functions of galaxies are discussed and compared with the observations. It is found that our model can roughly match both the observed galaxy luminosity function and the observed HI-mass function.