The assembly of the most rotationally supported disc galaxies in the TNG100 simulations

TL;DR

This study uses the TNG100 simulation to analyze the formation and characteristics of disc-dominated galaxies within the b1bc CDM framework, focusing on their dynamical properties, merger history, and halo conditions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed dynamical decomposition of disc galaxies in TNG100, revealing the conditions that favor disc formation and their evolutionary timeline, which was previously less understood.

Findings

Disc galaxies have higher star formation rates and younger stars.

Halo spin does not significantly influence galaxy morphology.

Disc galaxies form in less massive dark matter haloes and with better angular momentum alignment.

Abstract

Disc dominated galaxies can be difficult to accommodate in a hierarchical formation scenario like $\Lambda$CDM, where mergers are an important growth mechanism. However, observational evidence indicates that these galaxies are common. We seek to characterise the conditions that lead to the formation of disc dominated galaxies within $\Lambda$CDM. We use dynamical decomposition in all galaxies with stellar mass $M_*=[10^{10} \rm - 10^{11}]\; \rm M_\odot$ within the simulation Illustris TNG100. We select a sample of 43 mostly-disc galaxies having less than $\sim 10\%$ of their mass into a bulge component. For comparison, we also study two additional stellar-mass matched samples: 43 intermediate galaxies having $\sim 30\%$ of their mass in the bulge and 43 with purely spheroidal-like morphology. We find that the selection based on stellar dynamics is able to reproduce the expected stellar population trends of different morphologies, with higher star-formation rates and younger stars in disc-dominated galaxies. Halo spin seems to play no role in the morphology of the galaxies. At fixed $M_*$, our mostly-disc and intermediate samples form in dark matter haloes that are $2$-$10$ times less massive than the spheroidal sample, highlighting a higher efficiency in disc galaxies to retain and condensate their baryons. On average, mergers are less prevalent in the build up of discs than in spheroidal galaxies, but there is a large scatter, including the existence of mostly-disc galaxies with $15\%$-$30\%$ of their stars from accreted origin. Discs start forming early on, settling their low vertical velocity dispersion as early as $9$-$10$ Gyr ago, although the dominance of the disc over the spheroid gets established more recently ($3$-$4$ Gyr ago). The most rotationally supported discs form in haloes with the lowest mass in the sample and best aligned distribution of angular momentum in the gas.