The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals
Article
McElroy, Rebecca, Bottrell, Connor, Hani, Maan H., Moreno, Jorge, Croom, Scott M., Hayward, Christopher C., Twum, Angela, Feldmann, Robert, Hopkins, Philip F., Hernquist, Lars and Husemann, Bernd. 2022. "The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 515 (3), pp. 3406-3419. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1715
| Article Title | The observability of galaxy merger signatures in nearby gas-rich spirals |
|---|---|
| ERA Journal ID | 1074 |
| Article Category | Article |
| Authors | McElroy, Rebecca, Bottrell, Connor, Hani, Maan H., Moreno, Jorge, Croom, Scott M., Hayward, Christopher C., Twum, Angela, Feldmann, Robert, Hopkins, Philip F., Hernquist, Lars and Husemann, Bernd |
| Journal Title | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
| Journal Citation | 515 (3), pp. 3406-3419 |
| Number of Pages | 14 |
| Year | 2022 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| ISSN | 0035-8711 |
| 1365-2966 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1715 |
| Web Address (URL) | https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/515/3/3406/6620846 |
| Abstract | 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. |
| Keywords | galaxies; interactions; galaxies; formation; galaxies; evolution |
| Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
| ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 510102. Astronomical instrumentation |
| Byline Affiliations | School of Mathematics, Physics and Computing |
| University of Sydney | |
| ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, Australia | |
| University of Tokyo, Japan | |
| University of Victoria, Canada | |
| McMaster University, Canada | |
| Pomona College, United States | |
| University of Cambridge, United Kingdom | |
| Flatiron Institute, United States | |
| University of Zurich, Switzerland | |
| California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States | |
| Center for Astrophysics Harvard and Smithsonian, United States | |
| Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany |
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