The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals
Galaxy mergers are crucial to understanding galaxy evolution, therefore we must determine their observational signatures to select them from large IFU galaxy samples such as MUSE and SAMI. We employ 24 high-resolution idealized hydrodynamical galaxy merger simulations based on the ‘Feedback In Reali...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/1/ZORA_stac1715.pdf https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1715 |
id |
ftunivzuerich:oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:223322 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivzuerich:oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:223322 2024-10-13T14:10:37+00:00 The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals McElroy, Rebecca Bottrell, Connor Hani, Maan H Moreno, Jorge Croom, Scott M Hayward, Christopher C Twum, Angela Feldmann, Robert Hopkins, Philip F Hernquist, Lars Husemann, Bernd 2022-08-05 application/pdf https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/1/ZORA_stac1715.pdf https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1715 eng eng Oxford University Press https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/1/ZORA_stac1715.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-223322 doi:10.1093/mnras/stac1715 urn:issn:0035-8711 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ McElroy, Rebecca; Bottrell, Connor; Hani, Maan H; Moreno, Jorge; Croom, Scott M; Hayward, Christopher C; Twum, Angela; Feldmann, Robert; Hopkins, Philip F; Hernquist, Lars; Husemann, Bernd (2022). The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 515(3):3406-3419. Institute for Computational Science 530 Physics Space and Planetary Science Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal Article PeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftunivzuerich https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac171510.5167/uzh-223322 2024-10-02T15:06:30Z Galaxy mergers are crucial to understanding galaxy evolution, therefore we must determine their observational signatures to select them from large IFU galaxy samples such as MUSE and SAMI. We employ 24 high-resolution idealized hydrodynamical galaxy merger simulations based on the ‘Feedback In Realistic Environment’ (FIRE-2) model to determine the observability of mergers to various configurations and stages using synthetic images and velocity maps. Our mergers cover a range of orbital configurations at fixed 1:2.5 stellar mass ratio for two gas rich spirals at low redshift. Morphological and kinematic asymmetries are computed for synthetic images and velocity maps spanning each interaction. We divide the interaction sequence into three: (1) the pair phase; (2) the merging phase; and (3) the post-coalescence phase. We correctly identify mergers between first pericentre passage and 500 Myr after coalescence using kinematic asymmetry with 66 per cent completeness, depending upon merger phase and the field of view of the observation. We detect fewer mergers in the pair phase (40 per cent) and many more in the merging and post-coalescence phases (97 per cent). We find that merger detectability decreases with field of view, except in retrograde mergers, where centrally concentrated asymmetric kinematic features enhances their detectability. Using a cut-off derived from a combination of photometric and kinematic asymmetry, we increase these detections to 89 per cent overall, 79 per cent in pairs, and close to 100 per cent in the merging and post-coalescent phases. By using this combined asymmetry cut-off we mitigate some of the effects caused by smaller fields of view subtended by massively multiplexed integral field spectroscopy programmes. Article in Journal/Newspaper sami University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivzuerich |
language |
English |
topic |
Institute for Computational Science 530 Physics Space and Planetary Science Astronomy and Astrophysics |
spellingShingle |
Institute for Computational Science 530 Physics Space and Planetary Science Astronomy and Astrophysics McElroy, Rebecca Bottrell, Connor Hani, Maan H Moreno, Jorge Croom, Scott M Hayward, Christopher C Twum, Angela Feldmann, Robert Hopkins, Philip F Hernquist, Lars Husemann, Bernd The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
topic_facet |
Institute for Computational Science 530 Physics Space and Planetary Science Astronomy and Astrophysics |
description |
Galaxy mergers are crucial to understanding galaxy evolution, therefore we must determine their observational signatures to select them from large IFU galaxy samples such as MUSE and SAMI. We employ 24 high-resolution idealized hydrodynamical galaxy merger simulations based on the ‘Feedback In Realistic Environment’ (FIRE-2) model to determine the observability of mergers to various configurations and stages using synthetic images and velocity maps. Our mergers cover a range of orbital configurations at fixed 1:2.5 stellar mass ratio for two gas rich spirals at low redshift. Morphological and kinematic asymmetries are computed for synthetic images and velocity maps spanning each interaction. We divide the interaction sequence into three: (1) the pair phase; (2) the merging phase; and (3) the post-coalescence phase. We correctly identify mergers between first pericentre passage and 500 Myr after coalescence using kinematic asymmetry with 66 per cent completeness, depending upon merger phase and the field of view of the observation. We detect fewer mergers in the pair phase (40 per cent) and many more in the merging and post-coalescence phases (97 per cent). We find that merger detectability decreases with field of view, except in retrograde mergers, where centrally concentrated asymmetric kinematic features enhances their detectability. Using a cut-off derived from a combination of photometric and kinematic asymmetry, we increase these detections to 89 per cent overall, 79 per cent in pairs, and close to 100 per cent in the merging and post-coalescent phases. By using this combined asymmetry cut-off we mitigate some of the effects caused by smaller fields of view subtended by massively multiplexed integral field spectroscopy programmes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McElroy, Rebecca Bottrell, Connor Hani, Maan H Moreno, Jorge Croom, Scott M Hayward, Christopher C Twum, Angela Feldmann, Robert Hopkins, Philip F Hernquist, Lars Husemann, Bernd |
author_facet |
McElroy, Rebecca Bottrell, Connor Hani, Maan H Moreno, Jorge Croom, Scott M Hayward, Christopher C Twum, Angela Feldmann, Robert Hopkins, Philip F Hernquist, Lars Husemann, Bernd |
author_sort |
McElroy, Rebecca |
title |
The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
title_short |
The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
title_full |
The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
title_fullStr |
The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
title_full_unstemmed |
The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
title_sort |
observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/1/ZORA_stac1715.pdf https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1715 |
genre |
sami |
genre_facet |
sami |
op_source |
McElroy, Rebecca; Bottrell, Connor; Hani, Maan H; Moreno, Jorge; Croom, Scott M; Hayward, Christopher C; Twum, Angela; Feldmann, Robert; Hopkins, Philip F; Hernquist, Lars; Husemann, Bernd (2022). The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 515(3):3406-3419. |
op_relation |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/223322/1/ZORA_stac1715.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-223322 doi:10.1093/mnras/stac1715 urn:issn:0035-8711 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac171510.5167/uzh-223322 |
_version_ |
1812817946570915840 |