Origin and evolution of ultradiffuse galaxies in different environments

Abstract

We study the formation of ultradiffuse galaxies (UDGs) using the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation TNG50 of the Illustris-TNG suite. We define UDGs as dwarf galaxies in the stellar mass range 7.5 ≤ log(M★/M☉) ≤ 9 that are in the 5 per cent most extended tail of the simulated mass–size relation. This results in a sample of UDGs with half-mass radii rh★ ≳ 2 kpc and surface brightness between 24.5 and 28 mag arcsec-2, similar to definitions of UDGs in observations. The large cosmological volume in TNG50 allows for a comparison of UDGs properties in different environments, from the field to galaxy clusters with virial mass M200 ∼ 2 × 1014 M☉. All UDGs in our sample have dwarf-mass haloes (M200 ∼ 1011 M☉) and show the same environmental trends as normal dwarfs: field UDGs are star-forming and blue while satellite UDGs are typically quiescent and red. The TNG50 simulation predicts UDGs that populate preferentially higher spin haloes and more massive haloes at fixed M★ compared to non-UDG dwarfs. This applies also to most satellite UDGs, which are actually ‘born’ UDGs in the field and infall into groups and clusters without significant changes to their size. We find, however, a small subset of satellite UDGs (≲ 10 per cent) with present-day stellar size a factor ≥1.5 larger than at infall, confirming that tidal effects, particularly in the lower mass dwarfs, are also a viable formation mechanism for some of these dwarfs, although sub-dominant in this simulation.