Galaxy interactions in IllustrisTNG-100, I: The power and limitations of visual identification. Blumenthal, K., Moreno, J., Barnes, J. E., Hernquist, L., Torrey, P., Claytor, Z., Rodriguez-Gomez, V., Marinacci, F., & Vogelsberger, M. arXiv e-prints, 1912:arXiv:1912.04371, December, 2019. ![Galaxy interactions in IllustrisTNG-100, I: The power and limitations of visual identification [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper abstract bibtex We present a sample of 446 galaxy pairs constructed using the cosmological simulation IllustrisTNG-100 at z = 0, with M\$_\{FoF, dm\}\$ = 10\${\textasciicircum}\{11\}\$-10\${\textasciicircum}\{13.5\}\$ M\$_\{{\textbackslash}odot\}\$. We produce ideal mock SDSS g-band images of all pairs to test the reliability of visual classification schema employed to produce samples of interacting galaxies. We visually classify each image as interacting or not based on the presence of a close neighbour, the presence of stellar debris fields, disturbed discs, and/or tidal features. By inspecting the trajectories of the pairs, we determine that these indicators correctly identify interacting galaxies \${\textbackslash}sim45{\textbackslash}%\$ of the time. We subsequently split the sample into the visually identified interacting pairs (VIP; 38 pairs) and those which are interacting but are not visually identified (nonVIP; 47 pairs). We find that VIP have undergone a close passage nearly twice as recently as the nonVIP, and typically have higher stellar masses. Further, the VIP sit in dark matter haloes that are approximately 2.5 times as massive, in environments nearly 2 times as dense, and are almost a factor of 10 more affected by the tidal forces of their surroundings than the nonVIP. These factors conspire to increase the observability of tidal features and disturbed morphologies, making the VIP more likely to be identified. Thus, merger rate calculations which rely on stellar morphologies are likely to be significantly biased toward massive galaxy pairs which have recently undergone a close passage.
@article{blumenthal_galaxy_2019,
title = {Galaxy interactions in {IllustrisTNG}-100, {I}: {The} power and limitations of visual identification},
volume = {1912},
shorttitle = {Galaxy interactions in {IllustrisTNG}-100, {I}},
url = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019arXiv191204371B},
abstract = {We present a sample of 446 galaxy pairs constructed using the
cosmological simulation IllustrisTNG-100 at z = 0, with M\$\_\{FoF, dm\}\$ =
10\${\textasciicircum}\{11\}\$-10\${\textasciicircum}\{13.5\}\$ M\$\_\{{\textbackslash}odot\}\$. We produce ideal mock SDSS g-band
images of all pairs to test the reliability of visual classification
schema employed to produce samples of interacting galaxies. We visually
classify each image as interacting or not based on the presence of a
close neighbour, the presence of stellar debris fields, disturbed discs,
and/or tidal features. By inspecting the trajectories of the pairs, we
determine that these indicators correctly identify interacting galaxies
\${\textbackslash}sim45{\textbackslash}\%\$ of the time. We subsequently split the sample into the
visually identified interacting pairs (VIP; 38 pairs) and those which
are interacting but are not visually identified (nonVIP; 47 pairs). We
find that VIP have undergone a close passage nearly twice as recently as
the nonVIP, and typically have higher stellar masses. Further, the VIP
sit in dark matter haloes that are approximately 2.5 times as massive,
in environments nearly 2 times as dense, and are almost a factor of 10
more affected by the tidal forces of their surroundings than the nonVIP.
These factors conspire to increase the observability of tidal features
and disturbed morphologies, making the VIP more likely to be identified.
Thus, merger rate calculations which rely on stellar morphologies are
likely to be significantly biased toward massive galaxy pairs which have
recently undergone a close passage.},
urldate = {2019-12-12},
journal = {arXiv e-prints},
author = {Blumenthal, Kelly and Moreno, Jorge and Barnes, Joshua E. and Hernquist, Lars and Torrey, Paul and Claytor, Zachary and Rodriguez-Gomez, Vicente and Marinacci, Federico and Vogelsberger, Mark},
month = dec,
year = {2019},
keywords = {Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics},
pages = {arXiv:1912.04371},
}
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{"_id":"czM3B4hk74bv5MXQb","bibbaseid":"blumenthal-moreno-barnes-hernquist-torrey-claytor-rodriguezgomez-marinacci-etal-galaxyinteractionsinillustristng100ithepowerandlimitationsofvisualidentification-2019","author_short":["Blumenthal, K.","Moreno, J.","Barnes, J. E.","Hernquist, L.","Torrey, P.","Claytor, Z.","Rodriguez-Gomez, V.","Marinacci, F.","Vogelsberger, M."],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"article","type":"article","title":"Galaxy interactions in IllustrisTNG-100, I: The power and limitations of visual identification","volume":"1912","shorttitle":"Galaxy interactions in IllustrisTNG-100, I","url":"http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019arXiv191204371B","abstract":"We present a sample of 446 galaxy pairs constructed using the cosmological simulation IllustrisTNG-100 at z = 0, with M\\$_\\{FoF, dm\\}\\$ = 10\\${\\textasciicircum}\\{11\\}\\$-10\\${\\textasciicircum}\\{13.5\\}\\$ M\\$_\\{{\\textbackslash}odot\\}\\$. We produce ideal mock SDSS g-band images of all pairs to test the reliability of visual classification schema employed to produce samples of interacting galaxies. We visually classify each image as interacting or not based on the presence of a close neighbour, the presence of stellar debris fields, disturbed discs, and/or tidal features. By inspecting the trajectories of the pairs, we determine that these indicators correctly identify interacting galaxies \\${\\textbackslash}sim45{\\textbackslash}%\\$ of the time. We subsequently split the sample into the visually identified interacting pairs (VIP; 38 pairs) and those which are interacting but are not visually identified (nonVIP; 47 pairs). We find that VIP have undergone a close passage nearly twice as recently as the nonVIP, and typically have higher stellar masses. Further, the VIP sit in dark matter haloes that are approximately 2.5 times as massive, in environments nearly 2 times as dense, and are almost a factor of 10 more affected by the tidal forces of their surroundings than the nonVIP. These factors conspire to increase the observability of tidal features and disturbed morphologies, making the VIP more likely to be identified. Thus, merger rate calculations which rely on stellar morphologies are likely to be significantly biased toward massive galaxy pairs which have recently undergone a close passage.","urldate":"2019-12-12","journal":"arXiv e-prints","author":[{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Blumenthal"],"firstnames":["Kelly"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Moreno"],"firstnames":["Jorge"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Barnes"],"firstnames":["Joshua","E."],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Hernquist"],"firstnames":["Lars"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Torrey"],"firstnames":["Paul"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Claytor"],"firstnames":["Zachary"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Rodriguez-Gomez"],"firstnames":["Vicente"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Marinacci"],"firstnames":["Federico"],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Vogelsberger"],"firstnames":["Mark"],"suffixes":[]}],"month":"December","year":"2019","keywords":"Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics","pages":"arXiv:1912.04371","bibtex":"@article{blumenthal_galaxy_2019,\n\ttitle = {Galaxy interactions in {IllustrisTNG}-100, {I}: {The} power and limitations of visual identification},\n\tvolume = {1912},\n\tshorttitle = {Galaxy interactions in {IllustrisTNG}-100, {I}},\n\turl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019arXiv191204371B},\n\tabstract = {We present a sample of 446 galaxy pairs constructed using the \ncosmological simulation IllustrisTNG-100 at z = 0, with M\\$\\_\\{FoF, dm\\}\\$ =\n10\\${\\textasciicircum}\\{11\\}\\$-10\\${\\textasciicircum}\\{13.5\\}\\$ M\\$\\_\\{{\\textbackslash}odot\\}\\$. We produce ideal mock SDSS g-band\nimages of all pairs to test the reliability of visual classification\nschema employed to produce samples of interacting galaxies. We visually\nclassify each image as interacting or not based on the presence of a\nclose neighbour, the presence of stellar debris fields, disturbed discs,\nand/or tidal features. By inspecting the trajectories of the pairs, we\ndetermine that these indicators correctly identify interacting galaxies\n\\${\\textbackslash}sim45{\\textbackslash}\\%\\$ of the time. We subsequently split the sample into the\nvisually identified interacting pairs (VIP; 38 pairs) and those which\nare interacting but are not visually identified (nonVIP; 47 pairs). We\nfind that VIP have undergone a close passage nearly twice as recently as\nthe nonVIP, and typically have higher stellar masses. Further, the VIP\nsit in dark matter haloes that are approximately 2.5 times as massive,\nin environments nearly 2 times as dense, and are almost a factor of 10\nmore affected by the tidal forces of their surroundings than the nonVIP.\nThese factors conspire to increase the observability of tidal features\nand disturbed morphologies, making the VIP more likely to be identified.\nThus, merger rate calculations which rely on stellar morphologies are\nlikely to be significantly biased toward massive galaxy pairs which have\nrecently undergone a close passage.},\n\turldate = {2019-12-12},\n\tjournal = {arXiv e-prints},\n\tauthor = {Blumenthal, Kelly and Moreno, Jorge and Barnes, Joshua E. and Hernquist, Lars and Torrey, Paul and Claytor, Zachary and Rodriguez-Gomez, Vicente and Marinacci, Federico and Vogelsberger, Mark},\n\tmonth = dec,\n\tyear = {2019},\n\tkeywords = {Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics},\n\tpages = {arXiv:1912.04371},\n}\n\n","author_short":["Blumenthal, K.","Moreno, J.","Barnes, J. 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