Finding the boundary: Using galaxy membership to inform galaxy cluster extent through machine learning

TL;DR

This paper uses machine learning on simulation data to map the transition region between cluster and field galaxies, revealing a broad, scattered boundary rather than a sharp edge, with implications for galaxy evolution studies.

Contribution

It introduces a probabilistic, data-driven method using neural networks to identify and characterize the galaxy cluster boundary in simulations, considering different physical properties.

Findings

The transition region is broad and scattered, not sharp.

Dynamical properties change mainly in cluster cores.

Gas and stellar properties transition at different locations depending on cluster mass.

Abstract

The spatial extent of the environment's impact on galaxies marks a transitional region between cluster and field galaxies. We present a data-driven method to identify this region in galaxy clusters with masses $M_{200\rm ,mean}>10^{13} M_{\odot}$ at $z = 0$. Using resolved galaxy samples from the largest simulation volume of IllustrisTNG (TNG300-1), we examine how galaxy properties vary as a function of distance to the closest cluster. We train neural networks to classify galaxies into cluster and field galaxies based on their intrinsic properties. Using this classifier, we present the first quantitative and probabilistic map of the transition region. It is represented as a broad and intrinsically scattered region near cluster outskirts, rather than a sharp physical boundary. This is the physical detection of a mixed population. In order to determine transition regions of different physical processes by training property-specific models, we categorise galaxy properties based on their underlying physics, i.e. gas, stellar, and dynamical. Changes to the dynamical properties dominate the innermost regions of the clusters of all masses. Stellar properties and gas properties, on the other hand, exhibit transitions at similar locations for low mass clusters, yet gas properties have transitions in the outermost regions for high mass clusters. These results have implications for cluster environmental studies in both simulations and observations, particularly in refining the definition of cluster boundaries while considering environmental preprocessing and how galaxies evolve under the effect of the cluster environment.