The role of dry mergers for the formation and evolution of brightest cluster galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution cosmological simulations to investigate how dry mergers influence the formation and evolution of brightest cluster galaxies, revealing their impact on galaxy scaling relations and structural properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach with well-resolved galaxy models in a cosmological context to study BCG evolution through dry mergers.

Findings

BCGs deviate from the Kormendy relation due to mergers.

Mass-to-light ratio of BCGs increases significantly.

Weak distortion observed in the Faber-Jackson relation.

Abstract

Using a resimulation technique, we perform high-resolution cosmological simulations of dry mergers in a massive galaxy cluster identified in the Millennium Run. Our initial conditions include well resolved compound galaxy models consisting of dark matter halos and stellar bulges that are used to replace the most massive cluster progenitor halos at redshift z=3. By construction, our galaxy models obey the stellar mass-size relation initially. We demonstrate that the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) evolves away from the Kormendy relation as defined by the smaller mass galaxies (i.e., the relation bends). As a result of the comparatively large number of mergers the BCG experiences, its total mass-to-light ratio becomes significantly higher than in typical elliptical galaxies. We also show that the mixing processes between dark matter and stars lead to a small but numerically robust tilt in the fundamental plane and that the BCG lies on the tilted plane. Our model is consistent with the observed steepening of the logarithmic mass-to-light gradient as a function of the stellar mass. Surprisingly, we find only tentative weak distortion in the Faber-Jackson relation that depends on the aperture size, unlike expected based on studies of isolated merger simulations. This may be due to differences in the distribution of galaxy orbits, which is given in our approach directly by the cosmological context while it has to be assumed in isolated merger simulations, and the fact that the BCG is located deep in the cluster potential well.