Detalles de publicación
PP 025026
A physically motivated galaxy size definition across different state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations
(1) Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Calle Via Láctea s/n, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
(2) Universidad de La Laguna, Avda. Astrofísico Fco. Sánchez, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
(3) Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L3 5RF, U
(4) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
(5) New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
(6) Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (CASS), New York University Abu Dhabi
(7) Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
(8) Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany
(9) Departamento de Física Teórica, Módulo 15, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
(10) Centro de Investigación Avanzada en Física Fundamental (CIAFF), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid,
28049 Madrid, Spain
(11) International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western
Australia 6009, Australia
Galaxy sizes are key to distinguishing between different galaxy types and morphologies, reflecting their formation and assembly histories. Several methods define galaxy boundaries, often relying on light concentration or isophotal densities. However, these approaches were often constrained by observational limitations and did not necessarily provide a clear physical boundary for galaxy outskirts. With modern deep imaging surveys, a new physically motivated definition has emerged using the radial position of the star formation threshold as the galaxy size, approximated by the stellar mass density contour at 1 Msun pc^-2 (R_1). We test this definition using three state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulation suites, analyzing stellar surface density profiles across a wide range of stellar masses and redshifts. We measure the galaxy sizes according to this new definition and compare them with the most traditional size metric, the stellar half-mass radius. Our analysis demonstrates that the R_1-M_star relation exhibits consistent behaviour across both low and high-stellar mass galaxies, with remarkably low scatter. This relation is independent of redshift and holds across the three different cosmological hydrodynamical simulation suites, highlighting its robustness to variations in galaxy formation models. Furthermore, we explore the connection between a galaxy's total mass within R1 and its stellar mass, finding very little scatter in this relation. This suggests that R1 could serve as a reliable observational tracer for the galaxy's dynamical mass. The size-stellar mass relation proposed provides a reliable and physically motivated method for defining the outskirts of galaxies. This method remains consistent not only at z=0 but also throughout the evolutionary history of galaxies, offering a robust and meaningful framework for galaxy evolution studies.