Tracing the evolution of brightest galaxies and diffuse light in galaxy groups

TL;DR

This study uses 100 N-body simulations to explore how gravitational dynamics influence the early development of low-mass galaxy groups, focusing on the growth of diffuse light, galaxy properties, and dynamical indicators.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the evolution of galaxy groups, highlighting the distinct growth of intragroup light and the effectiveness of magnitude gaps as dynamical age proxies.

Findings

Single-BGG groups virialize faster than multi-BGG groups.

IGL is assembled from numerous low-mass galaxies.

Magnitude gap ΔM4-1 is a robust dynamical age indicator.

Abstract

We present a suite of 100 cosmologically motivated, controlled N-body simulations designed to advance the understanding of the role of purely gravitational dynamics in the early formation of low-mass galaxy groups (~ 1-5 x 10^13 M_sun). In this work, we investigate the temporal evolution of key indicators of dynamical relaxation, with particular emphasis on the secular growth of the diffuse intragroup light (IGL), the four major group galaxies, and the mass distributions of their progenitors. We also assess the diagnostic power of several magnitude gaps between top-ranked galaxies as proxies for dynamical age. As in our previous study, we compare outcomes from three group classes defined by the number of brightest group galaxies (BGGs) present at the end of the simulations. The early assembly of galaxy groups is consistent with a stochastic Poisson process at an approximately constant merger rate. Various dynamical diagnostics - including galaxy pairwise separations, velocity dispersions, and the offset of the first-ranked galaxy from the group barycentre - indicate that single-BGG groups evolve more rapidly towards virialisation than double- and especially non-BGG systems. We further find that first-ranked group members and the IGL, follow distinct growth histories, with the IGL assembled from a more numerous and systematically lower-mass population than the central object. This distinction is particularly pronounced in non-BGG systems, where about one third of the IGL originates from small galaxies, each contributing less than 5% to this component. Among the tested magnitude gaps, the difference between the first- and fourth-ranked galaxies, $\Delta M4-1$, proves a more robust indicator of dynamical age for low-mass groups than the conventional $\Delta M2-1$ gap. The $\Delta M5-1$ and $\Delta M6-1$ gaps also perform well and may be preferable in certain contexts.