Exploring gas thermodynamics around galaxies from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects: impact of galaxy-halo connection, 2D projection and velocity field

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Main Authors: Kadir, Sadaf, Guachalla, Bernardita Ried, Yuan, Sihan, Schaan, Emmanuel, Wechsler, Risa H.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Kadir, Sadaf
Guachalla, Bernardita Ried
Yuan, Sihan
Schaan, Emmanuel
Wechsler, Risa H.
author_facet Kadir, Sadaf
Guachalla, Bernardita Ried
Yuan, Sihan
Schaan, Emmanuel
Wechsler, Risa H.
contents A complete picture of the gas thermodynamics around galaxies is imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Indeed, the thermal, kinematic, and relativistic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (tSZ, kSZ, rSZ) measure the gas density, temperature, pressure of baryonic feedback and bulk velocity around galaxies, along with the gravitational potential it sits in. This full thermodynamic picture promises to constrain galaxy formation models and gas related uncertainties in the impact on galaxy lensing. Recent kSZ measurements around galaxies suggest that the gas may be more extended than anticipated, pointing to powerful feedback processes and large baryonic corrections to lensing. How robust are these conclusions about the galaxy-halo connection, including satellite fraction and high-mass outliers, or to 2D projection effects and large-scale velocity modes? In this paper, we give estimates for these effects using a simulated sample of DESI-like luminous red galaxies within the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamical simulation and the Abacus N-body simulation. We show that analyzing projected 2D profiles can lead to biases when computing quantities like the gas fraction. We also find that in the absence of spatial filtering, the 2-halo term is non-negligible for kSZ even at the smaller radii where the 1-halo term dominates. We show that a 1% uncertainty in the satellite fraction of galaxies can propagate into uncertainties of $\pm$1%, $\pm$3% and $\pm$5% in the 1-halo terms of the kSZ, tSZ, and rSZ signals, respectively. We show that masking the 2% most massive objects in the sample reduces the profile amplitudes by up to 10%, 40%, and 75% for the kSZ, tSZ, and rSZ signals, respectively. Finally, we show that naive simulations of the kSZ effect can be biased by an artificial Doppler term, which is automatically removed when high-pass or compensated aperture filtering is applied.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_04397
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exploring gas thermodynamics around galaxies from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects: impact of galaxy-halo connection, 2D projection and velocity field
Kadir, Sadaf
Guachalla, Bernardita Ried
Yuan, Sihan
Schaan, Emmanuel
Wechsler, Risa H.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
A complete picture of the gas thermodynamics around galaxies is imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Indeed, the thermal, kinematic, and relativistic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (tSZ, kSZ, rSZ) measure the gas density, temperature, pressure of baryonic feedback and bulk velocity around galaxies, along with the gravitational potential it sits in. This full thermodynamic picture promises to constrain galaxy formation models and gas related uncertainties in the impact on galaxy lensing. Recent kSZ measurements around galaxies suggest that the gas may be more extended than anticipated, pointing to powerful feedback processes and large baryonic corrections to lensing. How robust are these conclusions about the galaxy-halo connection, including satellite fraction and high-mass outliers, or to 2D projection effects and large-scale velocity modes? In this paper, we give estimates for these effects using a simulated sample of DESI-like luminous red galaxies within the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamical simulation and the Abacus N-body simulation. We show that analyzing projected 2D profiles can lead to biases when computing quantities like the gas fraction. We also find that in the absence of spatial filtering, the 2-halo term is non-negligible for kSZ even at the smaller radii where the 1-halo term dominates. We show that a 1% uncertainty in the satellite fraction of galaxies can propagate into uncertainties of $\pm$1%, $\pm$3% and $\pm$5% in the 1-halo terms of the kSZ, tSZ, and rSZ signals, respectively. We show that masking the 2% most massive objects in the sample reduces the profile amplitudes by up to 10%, 40%, and 75% for the kSZ, tSZ, and rSZ signals, respectively. Finally, we show that naive simulations of the kSZ effect can be biased by an artificial Doppler term, which is automatically removed when high-pass or compensated aperture filtering is applied.
title Exploring gas thermodynamics around galaxies from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects: impact of galaxy-halo connection, 2D projection and velocity field
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04397