IQ-Collaboratory 1.1: the Star-Forming Sequence of Simulated Central Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Gaussian mixture modeling approach to analyze the star-forming sequence of central galaxies in simulations and observations, revealing differences in galaxy populations and providing constraints for galaxy formation models.

Contribution

It presents a novel, flexible GMM-based method for identifying the star-forming sequence and sub-populations across simulations and data, enabling detailed comparisons.

Findings

Significant variation in SFS amplitude among simulations.

Identification of distinct sub-populations like star-burst and quiescent galaxies.

Hydrodynamic simulations differ from semi-analytic models in galaxy population fractions.

Abstract

A tightly correlated star formation rate-stellar mass relation of star forming galaxies, or star-forming sequence (SFS), is a key feature in galaxy property-space that is predicted by modern galaxy formation models. We present a flexible data-driven approach for identifying this SFS over a wide range of star formation rates and stellar masses using Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM). Using this method, we present a consistent comparison of the $z=0$ SFSs of central galaxies in the Illustris, EAGLE, and Mufasa hydrodynamic simulations and the Santa Cruz semi-analytic model (SC-SAM), alongside data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find, surprisingly, that the amplitude of the SFS varies by up to ${\sim} 0.7\,\mathrm{dex}$ (factor of ${\sim} 5$) among the simulations with power-law slopes range from $0.7$ to $1.2$. In addition to the SFS, our GMM method also identifies sub-components in the star formation rate-stellar mass relation corresponding to star-burst, transitioning, and quiescent sub-populations. The hydrodynamic simulations are similarly dominated by SFS and quiescent sub-populations unlike the SC-SAM, which predicts substantial fractions of transitioning and star-burst galaxies at stellar masses above and below $10^{10} M_\odot$, respectively. All of the simulations also produce an abundance of low-mass quiescent central galaxies in apparent tension with observations. These results illustrate that, even among models that well reproduce many observables of the galaxy population, the $z=0$ SFS and other sub-populations still show marked differences that can provide strong constraints on galaxy formation models.