StreamGen: Connecting Populations of Streams and Shells to Their Host Galaxies

Kavli Affiliate: Lina Necib

| First 5 Authors: Adriana Dropulic, Nora Shipp, Stacy Kim, Zeineb Mezghanni, Lina Necib

| Summary:

In this work, we study how the abundance and dynamics of populations of
disrupting satellite galaxies change systematically as a function of host
galaxy properties. We apply a theoretical model of the phase-mixing process to
classify intact satellite galaxies, stellar stream-like and shell-like debris
in ~1500 Milky Way-mass systems generated by a semi-analytic galaxy formation
code, SatGen. In particular, we test the effect of host galaxy halo mass, disk
mass, ratio of disk scale height to length, and stellar feedback model on
disrupting satellite populations. We find that the counts of tidal debris are
consistent across all host galaxy models, within a given host mass range, and
that all models can have stream-like debris on low-energy orbits, consistent
with those observed around the Milky Way. However, we find a preference for
stream-like debris on lower-energy orbits in models with a thicker
(lower-density) host disk or on higher-energy orbits in models with a
more-massive host disk. Importantly, we observe significant halo-to-halo
variance across all models. These results highlight the importance of
simulating and observing large samples of Milky Way-mass galaxies and
accounting for variations in host properties when using disrupting satellites
in studies of near-field cosmology.

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