From simulations to observations. Methodology and data release of mock TNG50 galaxies at 0.3 < z < 0.7 for WEAVE-StePS

TL;DR

This paper develops a methodology to generate mock galaxy spectra from the TNG50 simulation for the WEAVE-StePS survey, enabling comparison between observations and simulations to study galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for creating and analyzing mock spectroscopic datasets of galaxies at intermediate redshifts from cosmological simulations.

Findings

Mock spectra closely match intrinsic galaxy ages.

Star formation histories are successfully recovered.

Galaxies formed most stars early and rapidly.

Abstract

The new generation of optical spectrographs (i.e., WEAVE, 4MOST, DESI, and WST) offer unprecedented opportunities for statistically studying the star formation histories of galaxies. However, these observations are not easily comparable to predictions from cosmological simulations. Our goal is to build a reference framework for comparing spectroscopic observations with simulations and test tools for deriving stellar population properties of galaxies. We focus on the observational strategy of the Stellar Population at Intermediate Redshift Survey (StePS) with the WEAVE instrument. We generate mock datasets of ~750 galaxies at redshifts z = 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 using the TNG50 simulation, perform radiative transfer with SKIRT, and analyze the spectra with pPXF as if they were real observations. We present the methodology to generate these datasets and provide an initial exploration of stellar population parameters (i.e., mass-weighted ages and metallicities) and star formation histories for three galaxies at z = 0.7 and their descendants at z = 0.5 and 0.3. We find good agreement between the mock spectra and intrinsic ages in TNG50 (average difference $0.2\pm0.3$ Gyr) and successfully recover their star formation histories, especially for galaxies form the bulk of their stars on short timescales and at early epochs. We release these datasets, including multi-wavelength imaging and spectra, to support forthcoming WEAVE observations.