Power Spectrum of Intrinsic Alignments of Galaxies in IllustrisTNG

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the intrinsic alignment power spectra of galaxies using the IllustrisTNG300 simulation, revealing how galaxy shape and spin alignments depend on mass, morphology, and environment across different redshifts.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of 3D intrinsic alignment power spectra across a wide scale range and redshifts, including environmental and morphological dependencies.

Findings

Shape-tidal alignment increases with galaxy mass.

Weak redshift dependence of the linear alignment coefficient.

Detectable shape/spin-tidal alignments for stellar mass-limited samples.

Abstract

We present the 3-{\it dimensional} intrinsic alignment power spectra between the projected 2d galaxy shape/spin and the 3d tidal field across $0.1<k/h{\rm Mpc}^{-1}<60$ using cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, Illustris-TNG300, at redshifts ranging from $0.3$ to $2$. The shape-tidal field alignment increases with galaxy mass and the linear alignment coefficient $A_{\rm IA}$, defined with respect to the primordial tidal field, is found to have weak redshift dependence. We also show a promising detection of the shape/spin-tidal field alignments for stellar mass limited samples and a weak or almost null signal for star-forming galaxies for the TNG300 volume, $\sim 0.01~(h^{-1}{\rm Gpc})^3$. We further study the morphology and environmental dependence of the intrinsic alignment power spectra. The shape of massive disk- and spheroid-galaxies tend to align with the tidal field. The spin of low mass disks (and spheroids at low redshifts) tend to be parallel with the tidal field, while the spin of massive spheroids and disks tend to be perpendicular to tidal field. The shape and spin of massive centrals align with the tidal field at both small and large scales. Satellites show a radial alignment within the one-halo term region, and low mass satellites have an intriguing alignment signal in the two-halo term region. We also forecast a feasibility to measure the intrinsic alignment power spectrum for spectroscopic and imaging surveys such as Subaru HSC/PFS and DESI. Our results thus suggest that galaxy intrinsic alignment can be used as a promising tool for constraining the galaxy formation models.