The history and mass content of cluster galaxies in the EAGLE simulation^⋆

¹ Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Casilla, 4059 Valparaíso, Chile
e-mail: cristobal.sifon@pucv.cl
² Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China
e-mail: jiaxin.han@sjtu.edu.cn
³ Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE), Shanghai 200240, PR China
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Shanghai 200240, PR China

Received: 16 December 2023
Accepted: 14 March 2024

Abstract

Aims. We explore the mass content of galaxies residing in galaxy clusters at z = 0 in the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. We also explore the galaxies’ mass build-up through cosmic time.

Methods. We used a galaxy catalogue generated with the HBT+ algorithm, which identifies subhaloes consistently over time by tracking their dynamical evolution throughout the simulation.

Results. The satellite subhalo-to-stellar mass relation (SHSMR) is well described by a double power law, becoming increasingly steeper with stellar mass. At stellar masses 9 < log m_⋆/M_⊙ < 10, satellites have 20−25% the subhalo mass of central galaxies at fixed stellar mass. At high stellar masses, m_⋆ > 2 × 10¹¹ M_⊙, the satellite SHSMR is consistent with that of centrals. The satellite SHSMR decreases steeply for satellites closer to the cluster centre, even in projection, broadly consistent with recent weak lensing measurements. The scatter in the satellite SHSMR is larger than that of central galaxies at all cluster masses and cluster-centric distances R < R_200m. The SHSMR scatter decreases with stellar mass by about 12% over an order of magnitude, but this dependence can be explained by the mixing of infall times when binning by stellar mass. By splitting satellites into direct and indirect infallers (those that fell into their current host as a central galaxy or as the satellite of an infalling group, respectively) we clearly show the impact of pre-processing separately on satellite galaxies’ dark and stellar mass. There is significant dark matter pre-processing; the most recent infallers into massive clusters (M_200m ≳ 10¹⁴ M_⊙) had already lost up to 50% of their dark matter by the time of infall, particularly if they fell in indirectly as satellites of another host. On the contrary, on average, satellite galaxies are still gaining stellar mass at the time of infall and they do so for another 2 Gyr afterwards, although we see evidence of a slowing growth for indirect infallers. How much and for how long they continue to gain stellar mass depends primarily on the gas mass fraction available at infall. Overall, pre- and post-processing have similar impacts on the satellite SHSMR. Finally, we provide a simple prescription to infer the mean mass loss experienced by satellites as a function of cluster-centric distance based on a comparison to central galaxies, convenient for observational weak lensing measurements.