Living on the edge. A quantitative warning on boundary artifacts in the IllustrisTNG

TL;DR

This paper investigates boundary artifacts caused by periodic boundary conditions in the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulations, revealing their dependence on simulation volume and proximity to box edges, and proposes checks to mitigate their impact.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of boundary artifacts in IllustrisTNG and offers practical recommendations for identifying and mitigating these numerical issues.

Findings

Boundary artifacts are more prevalent in smaller simulation volumes.

Artifacts are spatially correlated with the box edges.

Sanity checks can effectively identify and reduce boundary-related issues.

Abstract

Periodic boundary conditions (PBCs) are a practical necessity in cosmological simulations, but they can also introduce numerical artifacts. We quantified the prevalence of PBC-related artifacts in the IllustrisTNG using dark-matter-deprived galaxies (DMDGs) as tracers. We found that their occurrence scales inversely with simulation volume. We demonstrated that this excess population is spatially correlated with the box edges; the smallest TNG50 box is most affected by these problems. This is a unique and irreplaceable resource for studying galaxy structure. Manual inspection confirmed abrupt, unphysical mass-loss events coincident with boundary crossings. We also highlight the challenge of disentangling numerical artifacts from genuine tidally stripped galaxies in boundary-crossing clusters in TNG100. We conclude by recommending a set of mandatory sanity checks that include positional verification, mass history analysis, and even exclusion of the buffer zone near the edges. These strategies ensure the robustness of the scientific results derived from these invaluable simulations.