Investigating the imprints of tidal features on simulated galaxy outskirts in LSST-like mock observations

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Main Authors: Khalid, Aman, Brough, Sarah, Martin, Garreth, Kimmig, Lucas C., Remus, Rhea-Silvia, Lagos, Claudia del P., Canepa, Louisa, Desmons, Alice
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Khalid, Aman
Brough, Sarah
Martin, Garreth
Kimmig, Lucas C.
Remus, Rhea-Silvia
Lagos, Claudia del P.
Canepa, Louisa
Desmons, Alice
author_facet Khalid, Aman
Brough, Sarah
Martin, Garreth
Kimmig, Lucas C.
Remus, Rhea-Silvia
Lagos, Claudia del P.
Canepa, Louisa
Desmons, Alice
contents Tidal features provide signatures of recent galaxy mergers, offering insights into the role of mergers in galaxy evolution. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will allow for an unprecedented study of tidal features around millions of galaxies. We use mock images of galaxies at $z\sim0$ ($z\sim0.2$ for \textsc{NewHorizon}) from \textsc{NewHorizon}, \textsc{eagle}, \textsc{IllustrisTNG}, and \textsc{Magneticum Pathfinder} simulations to predict the properties of tidal features in LSST-like images. We find that tidal features are more prevalent around blue galaxies with intrinsic colours $(g-i)\leq0.5$, compared to redder ones, at fixed stellar mass. This trend correlates with elevated specific star formation rates ($\mathrm{sSFR}>10^{-10}\mathrm{\:yr}^{-1}$), suggesting that merger-induced star formation contributes to the bluer colours. Tidal feature hosts in the red sequence appear to exhibit colour profiles offset to bluer colours for galaxies with stellar masses $10^{10}<M_{\star\mathrm{,\:30\:pkpc}}/\mathrm{M}_\odot<10^{11}$, similarly blue cloud tidal feature host galaxies appear to have their colour profiles offset to bluer colours for $10^{9.5}<M_{\star\mathrm{,\:30\:pkpc}}/\mathrm{M}_\odot<10^{10.5}$. However, the differences in colour profiles in either the red sequence or the blue cloud are not statistically robust and larger samples are needed to test if these differences are real. The predictions across the simulations are quantitatively distinct; therefore, LSST observations will allow us to further constrain the differences between different subgrid physics models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_05424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Investigating the imprints of tidal features on simulated galaxy outskirts in LSST-like mock observations
Khalid, Aman
Brough, Sarah
Martin, Garreth
Kimmig, Lucas C.
Remus, Rhea-Silvia
Lagos, Claudia del P.
Canepa, Louisa
Desmons, Alice
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Tidal features provide signatures of recent galaxy mergers, offering insights into the role of mergers in galaxy evolution. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will allow for an unprecedented study of tidal features around millions of galaxies. We use mock images of galaxies at $z\sim0$ ($z\sim0.2$ for \textsc{NewHorizon}) from \textsc{NewHorizon}, \textsc{eagle}, \textsc{IllustrisTNG}, and \textsc{Magneticum Pathfinder} simulations to predict the properties of tidal features in LSST-like images. We find that tidal features are more prevalent around blue galaxies with intrinsic colours $(g-i)\leq0.5$, compared to redder ones, at fixed stellar mass. This trend correlates with elevated specific star formation rates ($\mathrm{sSFR}>10^{-10}\mathrm{\:yr}^{-1}$), suggesting that merger-induced star formation contributes to the bluer colours. Tidal feature hosts in the red sequence appear to exhibit colour profiles offset to bluer colours for galaxies with stellar masses $10^{10}<M_{\star\mathrm{,\:30\:pkpc}}/\mathrm{M}_\odot<10^{11}$, similarly blue cloud tidal feature host galaxies appear to have their colour profiles offset to bluer colours for $10^{9.5}<M_{\star\mathrm{,\:30\:pkpc}}/\mathrm{M}_\odot<10^{10.5}$. However, the differences in colour profiles in either the red sequence or the blue cloud are not statistically robust and larger samples are needed to test if these differences are real. The predictions across the simulations are quantitatively distinct; therefore, LSST observations will allow us to further constrain the differences between different subgrid physics models.
title Investigating the imprints of tidal features on simulated galaxy outskirts in LSST-like mock observations
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05424