L-GALAXIES 2020: The formation and chemical evolution of stellar haloes in Milky Way Analogues and galaxy clusters

Abstract

We present an analysis of the formation and chemical evolution of stellar haloes around (a) Milky Way Analogue (MWA) galaxies and (b) galaxy clusters in the L-Galaxies 2020 semi-analytic model of galaxy evolution. Observed stellar halo properties are better reproduced when assuming a gradual stripping model for the removal of cold gas and stars from satellites, compared to an instantaneous stripping model. The slope of the stellar mass -- metallicity relation for MWA stellar haloes is in good agreement with that observed in the local Universe. This extends the good agreement between L-Galaxies 2020 and metallicity observations from the gas and stars inside galaxies to those outside. Halo stars contribute on average only $\sim 0.1$ per cent of the total circumgalactic medium (CGM) enrichment by $z=0$ in MWAs, ejecting predominantly carbon produced by AGB stars. Around a quarter of MWAs have a single `significant progenitor' with a mean mass of $\sim 2.3\times 10^9{M}_{\odot }$, similar to that measured for Gaia Enceladus. For galaxy clusters, L-Galaxies 2020 shows good correspondence with observations of stellar halo mass fractions, but slightly over-predicts stellar masses. Assuming a Navarro-Frenk-White profile for the stellar halo mass distribution provides the best agreement. On average, the intracluster stellar component (ICS) is responsible for 5.4 per cent of the total intracluster medium (ICM) iron enrichment, exceeding the contribution from the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) by $z=0$. We find that considering gradual stripping of satellites and realistic radial profiles is crucial for accurately modelling stellar halo formation on all scales in semi-analytic models.

19 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

References in corpus (28)

• Binary interaction dominates the evolution of massive stars
• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• Two Stellar Components in the Halo of the Milky Way
• The Auriga Project: the properties and formation mechanisms of disc galaxies across cosmic time
• Evidence for Two Early Accretion Events That Built the Milky Way Stellar Halo
• The accretion origin of the Milky Way's stellar halo
• Building Late-Type Spiral Galaxies by In-Situ and Ex-Situ Star Formation
• The Streams of the Gaping Abyss: A population of entangled stellar streams surrounding the Inner Galaxy
• Charting the Galactic acceleration field I. A search for stellar streams with Gaia DR2 and EDR3 with follow-up from ESPaDOnS and UVES
• The Atomic to Molecular Transition and its Relation to the Scaling Properties of Galaxy Disks in the Local Universe
• The total stellar halo mass of the Milky Way
• The Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey. I. Substantial variation in the diffuse stellar halos around spiral galaxies
• Diverse Stellar Haloes in Nearby Milky Way-Mass Disc Galaxies
• L-GALAXIES 2020: Spatially resolved cold gas phases, star formation and chemical enrichment in galactic discs
• Stellar Absorption Line Analysis of Local Star-Forming Galaxies: The Relation Between Stellar Mass, Metallicity, Dust Attenuation and Star Formation Rate
• A new formulation of the Type Ia SN rate and its consequences on galactic chemical evolution
• The ARTEMIS simulations: stellar haloes of Milky Way-mass galaxies
• A Low-Mass Stellar-Debris Stream Associated with a Globular Cluster Pair in the Halo
• On the Origin of Intracluster Light in Massive Galaxy Clusters
• Deep SDSS optical spectroscopy of distant halo stars I. Atmospheric parameters and stellar metallicity distribution
• The Pristine survey VIII: The metallicity distribution function of the Milky Way halo down to the extremely metal-poor regime
• Evidence for the inside-out growth of the stellar mass distribution in galaxy clusters since z~1
• L-GALAXIES 2020: The evolution of radial metallicity profiles and global metallicities in disc galaxies
• Full 5D characterisation of the Sagittarius stream with Gaia DR2 RR Lyrae
• The Growth of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light Over the Past Ten Billion Years
• Discovery of a new nearby globular cluster with extreme kinematics located in the extension of a halo stream
• Cosmic metal density evolution in neutral gas: insights from observations and cosmological simulations
• The nature of the Milky Way's stellar halo revealed by the three integrals of motion

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Are Milky-Way-like galaxies like the Milky Way? A view from SDSS-IV/MaNGA
• Simultaneously Modelling Dusty Star Forming Galaxies and Massive Quiescents: A Calibration Framework for Galaxy Formation Models
• Massive Star Clusters in the Semi-Analytical Galaxy Formation Model L-Galaxies 2020