Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE) VII: The (Dis)Assembly of Stellar Halos

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution cosmological simulations to analyze the properties, origins, and composition of stellar halos in Milky Way-like galaxies, providing predictions for upcoming wide-field observational surveys.

Contribution

It offers detailed insights into the mass, metallicity, and assembly history of stellar halos using the FOGGIE simulations, highlighting the in situ and accreted star contributions.

Findings

Stellar halos have masses, metallicity gradients, and surface brightness profiles consistent with observations.

30-40% of halo stars are formed in situ, mostly centrally concentrated.

Most accreted stars originate from 2-4 galaxies, with outer halos often dominated by few contributors.

Abstract

Over the next decade, the astronomical community will be commissioning multiple wide-field observatories well-suited for studying stellar halos in both integrated light and resolved stars. In preparation for this, we use five high-resolution cosmological simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies from the FOGGIE suite to explore the properties and components of stellar halos. These simulations are run with high time (5 Myr) and stellar mass (1000 M$_\odot$) resolution to better model the properties and origins of low density regions like stellar halos. We find that the FOGGIE stellar halos have masses, metallicity gradients, and surface brightness profiles that are consistent with observations. In agreement with other simulations, the FOGGIE stellar halos receive 30-40% of their mass from in situ stars. However, this population is more centrally concentrated in the FOGGIE simulations and therefore does not contribute excess light to the halo outskirts. The remaining stars are accreted from 10-50 other galaxies, with the majority of the accreted mass originating in 2-4 galaxies. While the inner halo ($r<50$ kpc) of each FOGGIE galaxy has a large number of contributors, the halo outskirts of three of the five galaxies are primarily made up of stars from only a few contributors. We predict that upcoming wide-field observatories, like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, will probe stellar halos around Milky Way-like galaxies out to ~100 kpc in integrated light and will be able to distinguish the debris of dwarf galaxies with extended star formation histories from the underlying halo with resolved color-magnitude diagrams.