Stellar bar occurrence in TNG50 and TNG100: disentangling environmental effects and assembly history at z = 0

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the dependence of bar presence on environment using TNG50 and TNG100 simulations at z=0. We select disc galaxies within $2R_{200}$, with stellar mass M${}_{\star }\ge 10^{10}$ M${}_{\odot }$ (TNG100) and M${}_{\star }\ge 10^9$ M${}_{\odot }$ (TNG50). With these criteria, our final samples consist of 1719 and 859 satellite galaxies in TNG100 and TNG50, respectively. The environment is characterised by host halo mass: massive (M${}_{\mathrm{h}}\ge 10^{14}$ M${}_{\odot }$), intermediate ($10^{13}<{\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{h}}<10^{14}$ M${}_{\odot }$), and low-mass haloes (M${}_{\mathrm{h}}\le 10^{13}$ M${}_{\odot }$). We find that our samples recover the morphology-density relation, with thin disc fractions increasing with cluster-centric distance and decreasing halo mass. The bar fraction and the bar length normalized by the effective radius decrease mildly with cluster-centric distance, while absolute bar lengths remain constant. At fixed distance, the bar fraction increases with halo mass, partly because more massive galaxies reside in more massive haloes. In addition, we find that galaxies with earlier assembly times show a higher bar fraction, especially within $0.5R_{200}$, suggesting a connection between earlier assembly and a higher probability of hosting a bar. Overall, we find a mild environmental dependence, with a stronger connection to stellar mass and assembly history.

16 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS after moderate corrections