STRRINGS: STReams in Residual Images of Nearby GalaxieS

Abstract

Tidal features from galaxy mergers, particularly stellar streams, offer valuable insights into galaxy assembly and dark matter halo properties. This paper aims to identify a large sample of nearby stellar streams suitable for detailed modelling and comparison with simulations to enable population-level constraints on halo properties. We visually inspect and compile a tidal feature catalogue for $19,387$ galaxies with redshift $z\le 0.02$ from the Siena Galaxy Atlas 2020 using original, model, and residual images from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. Residual images, produced by subtracting models of all sources, enhance the detectability of faint asymmetries such as tidal features. We find that $11.9\pm 0.2\%$ of galaxies host detectable tidal features, more frequently around early-type than late-type galaxies. The tidal feature fraction increases with stellar mass, from $2.4\pm 0.4\%$ at $\sim 10^8$M${}_{\odot }$ to $36.5\pm 1.2\%$ at $\sim 5\times 10^{11}$M${}_{\odot }$. From this, we present the first release of STRRINGS: STReams in Residual Images of Nearby GalaxieS, a subsample of 35 galaxies with long, narrow streams suitable for modelling. We segment these streams and derive their geometry, surface brightness, colours, and stellar masses. The median $g$-band surface brightness is 26.8 magarcsec${}^{-2}$, reaching 27.5 magarcsec${}^{-2}$ for the faintest stream. Mass ratios are consistent with minor mergers, and we identify five potential dwarf galaxy progenitors. Our streams are typically longer (median 124 kpc) than the literature, with comparable widths. Stream mass correlates with length and colour, and wider streams lie at larger galactocentric radii. STRRINGS will be expanded and used to constrain halo properties in future work.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 2025 September 25. 28 pages, 22 figures

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• Tidal Structures Around Edge-On Galaxies in Deep Imaging Surveys
• Adaptive optics imaging of the nuclei of Seyfert 2 galaxies: An unexpectedly high incidence of nuclear stellar rings
• Constraining the population of dark matter halo shapes using hierarchical inference with extragalactic stellar streams