Cosmological simulations of Milky Way-sized galaxies
  We introduce a new set of eight Milky Way-sized cosmological simulations
performed using the AMR code ART + Hydrodynamics in a LCDM cosmology. The set
of zoom-in simulations covers present-day virial masses in the 0.83-1.56 x
10^12 msun range and is carried out with our simple but effective deterministic
star formation (SF) and ``explosive' stellar feedback prescriptions. The work
is focused on showing the goodness of the simulated set of ``field' Milky
Way-sized galaxies. Our results are as follows. (a) The circular velocity
curves of our simulated galaxies are nearly flat. (b) Runs ending with a
significant disk component, for their stellar masses, have V_max, radius, SF
rate, gas fraction, and specific angular momentum values consistent with
observations of late-type galaxies. (C) The two most spheroid-dominated
galaxies formed in halos with late active merger histories, but other run that
ends also as spheroid-dominated, never had major mergers. (d) Our simulations
are consistent with the empirical stellar-to-halo mass correlation, and those
that end as disk-dominated, evolve mostly along the low-mass branch of this
correlation. (e) Moreover, since the last 6.5-10 Gyr, the baryonic/stellar and
halo mass growth histories are proportional. (f) Within Rvir ~ 25-50% of the
baryons are missed. (g) The z ~ 0 gas velocity dispersion profiles, sigma_z(r),
are nearly flat and can be mostly explained by the kinetic energy injected by
stars. (h) The average values of sigma_z increase at higher redshifts,
following roughly the shape of the SF history.
