Satellites around Milky Way Analogs: Tension in the Number and Fraction of Quiescent Satellites Seen in Observations versus Simulations

Karunakaran, Ananthan; Spekkens, Kristine; Oman, Kyle A.; Simpson, Christine M.; Fattahi, Azadeh; Sand, David J.; Bennet, Paul; Crnojević, Denija; Frenk, Carlos S.; Gómez, Facundo A.; Grand, Robert J. J.; Jones, M. G. K.; Marinacci, Federico; Mutlu-Pakdil, Burçin; Navarro, Julio F.; Zaritsky, Dennis

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac0e3a

Cited by 27 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(80 reference statements)

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“…In general, there is a reasonable agreement with the observations, with ARTEMIS showing only slightly elevated quenched fractions with respect to SAGA. This should be contrasted with the findings of Karunakaran et al (2021), who find much larger tensions between SAGA and the Auriga and APOSTLE simulations. Note that the trend here for ARTEMIS differs slightly from that shown in Fig.…”

Section: Sagacontrasting

confidence: 74%

“…1 below). Similarly low quenched fractions have recently been independently obtained for the SAGA satellites by Karunakaran et al (2021), who used data from GALEX to search for signs of recent star formation in the identified SAGA satellites. With reinforced evidence that the dwarf galaxies in these MW analogues are star-forming, the question of why there is such a large difference between the LG and these external MW analogues becomes more pressing.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…We compare our simulations with various samples, including those in the LG and from the LV and SAGA surveys. We demonstrate that, indeed, accounting for observational selection effects is crucially important when making comparisons between the observed and simulated quenched fractions of satellites of MW-mass hosts and that, when this is carefully done, there is no significant tension between the predictions of ΛCDM-based simulations and current observations of MW analogues, contrary to recent claims (e.g., Karunakaran et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…We note that Karunakaran et al (2021) found a tension between the predictions of the Auriga and APOSTLE simulations and the SAGA quenched fraction trend plotted in Fig. 4, but this comparison did not take into account the apparent surface brightness limit of the SAGA data nor differences in the host mass distributions of the observed and simulated systems.…”

Section: Sagamentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Cosmological simulations have been used extensively to study the quenching of satellites around MW-mass galaxies, with the general aim to determine which physical processes are responsible for the observed high quenched fractions in the LG (e.g., Wheeler et al 2014;Fillingham et al 2015Fillingham et al , 2016Simpson et al 2018;Garrison-Kimmel et al 2019;Simons et al 2020;Akins et al 2021;Karunakaran et al 2021). Although the emphasis given to different environmental processes may vary between the studies, a general consensus is that MW-like hosts should be highly efficient at quenching the star formation of satellite dwarf galaxies with stellar masses 10 7−8 M ⊙ .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quenching of satellite galaxies of Milky Way analogues: reconciling theory and observations

Font,

McCarthy,

Belokurov

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The vast majority of low-mass satellite galaxies around the Milky Way and M31 appear virtually devoid of cool gas and show no signs of recent or ongoing star formation. Cosmological simulations demonstrate that such quenching is expected and is due to the harsh environmental conditions that satellites face when joining the Local Group (LG). However, recent observations of Milky Way analogues in the SAGA survey present a very different picture, showing the majority of observed satellites to be actively forming stars, calling into question the realism of current simulations and the typicality of the LG. Here we use the ARTEMIS suite of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to carry out a careful comparison with observations of dwarf satellites in the LG, SAGA, and the Local Volume (LV) survey. We show that differences between SAGA and the LG and LV surveys, as well as between SAGA and the ARTEMIS simulations, can be largely accounted for by differences in the host mass distributions and observational selection effects, specifically that low-mass satellites which have only recently been accreted are more likely to be star-forming, have a higher optical surface brightness, and are therefore more likely to be included in the SAGA survey. This picture is confirmed using data from the deeper LV survey, which shows pronounced quenching at low masses, in accordance with the predictions of ΛCDM-based simulations.

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Section: Sagacontrasting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Sagamentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Quenching of satellite galaxies of Milky Way analogues: reconciling theory and observations

Font,

McCarthy,

Belokurov

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Baryonic solutions and challenges for cosmological models of dwarf galaxies

2022

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Extinguishing the FIRE: environmental quenching of satellite galaxies around Milky Way-mass hosts in simulations

Samuel

Wetzel

Santistevan

et al. 2022

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The star formation and gas content of satellite galaxies around the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) are depleted relative to more isolated galaxies in the Local Group (LG) at fixed stellar mass. We explore the environmental regulation of gas content and quenching of star formation in z = 0 galaxies at $M_{*}=10^{5-10}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$ around 14 MW-mass hosts from the FIRE-2 simulations. Lower-mass satellites ($M_{*}\lesssim 10^7\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) are mostly quiescent and higher-mass satellites ($M_{*}\gtrsim 10^8\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) are mostly star-forming, with intermediate-mass satellites ($M_{*}\approx 10^{7-8}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) split roughly equally between quiescent and star-forming. Hosts with more gas in their circumgalactic medium have a higher quiescent fraction of massive satellites ($M_{*}=10^{8-9}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$). We find no significant dependence on isolated versus paired (LG-like) host environments, and the quiescent fractions of satellites around MW-mass and LMC-mass hosts from the FIRE-2 simulations are remarkably similar. Environmental effects that lead to quenching can also occur as preprocessing in low-mass groups prior to MW infall. Lower-mass satellites typically quenched before MW infall as central galaxies or rapidly during infall into a low-mass group or a MW-mass galaxy. Most intermediate- to high-mass quiescent satellites have experienced ≥1 − 2 pericentre passages (≈2.5 − 5 Gyr) within a MW-mass halo. Most galaxies with $M_{*}\gtrsim 10^{6.5}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$ did not quench before falling into a host, indicating a possible upper mass limit for isolated quenching. The simulations reproduce the average trend in the LG quiescent fraction across the full range of satellite stellar masses. Though the simulations are consistent with the SAGA survey’s quiescent fraction at $M_{*}\gtrsim 10^8\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$, they do not generally reproduce SAGA’s turnover at lower masses.

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Satellites around Milky Way Analogs: Tension in the Number and Fraction of Quiescent Satellites Seen in Observations versus Simulations

Cited by 27 publications

References 59 publications

Quenching of satellite galaxies of Milky Way analogues: reconciling theory and observations

Quenching of satellite galaxies of Milky Way analogues: reconciling theory and observations

Baryonic solutions and challenges for cosmological models of dwarf galaxies

Extinguishing the FIRE: environmental quenching of satellite galaxies around Milky Way-mass hosts in simulations

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