The MAGPI Survey: Orbital distributions, intrinsic shapes, and mass profiles for MAGPI-like Eagle galaxies using Schwarzschild dynamical models

TL;DR

This study uses Schwarzschild dynamical models on simulated and real MAGPI survey galaxies to evaluate the accuracy of derived intrinsic properties, revealing good overall agreement but notable dark matter estimation issues.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of Schwarzschild models in recovering galaxy properties and assesses their applicability to high-redshift galaxy observations.

Findings

Models recover true galaxy properties qualitatively well.

Median dark matter offset of 48% due to NFW profile limitations.

Good agreement between MAGPI and Eagle galaxy properties.

Abstract

Schwarzschild dynamical models are now regularly employed in large surveys of galaxies in the local and distant Universe to derive information on galaxies' intrinsic properties such as their orbital structure and their (dark matter and stellar) mass distribution. Comparing the internal orbital structures and mass distributions of galaxies in the distant Universe with simulations is key to understanding what physical processes are responsible for shaping galaxy properties. However it is first crucial to understand whether observationally derived properties are directly comparable with intrinsic ones in simulations. To assess this, we build Schwarzschild dynamical models for MUSE-like IFS cubes (constructed to be like those obtained by the MAGPI survey) of 75 galaxies at z ~ 0.3 from the Eagle simulations. We compare the true particle-derived properties with the galaxies' model-derived properties. In general, we find that the models can recover the true galaxy properties qualitatively well, with the exception of the enclosed dark matter, where we find a median offset of 48%, which is due to the assumed NFW profile not being able to reproduce the dark matter distribution in the inner region of the galaxies. We then compare our model-derived properties with Schwarzschild models-derived properties of observed MAGPI galaxies and find good agreement between MAGPI and Eagle: the majority of our galaxies (57%) have non-oblate shapes within 1 effective radius. More triaxial galaxies show higher fractions of hot orbits in their inner regions and tend to be more radially anisotropic.