The Three Hundred Project: The stellar angular momentum evolution of cluster galaxies

¹ Departamento de Física Teórica, Módulo 15, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
e-mail: robert.mostoghiu@uam.es
² Centro de Investigación Avanzada en Física Fundamental (CIAFF), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
³ International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia
⁴ School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
⁵ ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), Australia
⁶ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sezione di Astronomia, Università di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34123 Trieste, Italy
⁹ Institute of Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, 34151 Grignano, Trieste, Italy
¹⁰ INFN, Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste, Italy
¹¹ University Observatory Munich, Scheinerstraße 1, 81679 Munich, Germany
¹² Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik (MPA), Karl-Schwarzschild Straße 1, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany

Received: 15 May 2020
Accepted: 3 May 2021

Abstract

Using 324 numerically modelled galaxy clusters as provided by THE THREE HUNDRED project, we study the evolution of the kinematic properties of the stellar component of haloes on first infall. We selected objects with M_star > 5 × 10¹⁰ h⁻¹ M_⊙ within 3R₂₀₀ of the main cluster halo at z = 0 and followed their progenitors. We find that although haloes are stripped of their dark matter and gas after entering the main cluster halo, there is practically no change in their stellar kinematics. For the vast majority of our ‘galaxies’ – defined as the central stellar component found within the haloes that form our sample – their kinematic properties, as described by the fraction of ordered rotation, and their position in the specific stellar angular momentum−stellar mass plane j_star − M_star are mostly unchanged by the influence of the central host cluster. However, for a small number of infalling galaxies, stellar mergers and encounters with remnant stellar cores close to the centre of the main cluster, particularly during pericentre passage, are able to spin up their stellar component by z = 0.