Spurious heating of stellar motions by dark matter particles in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation

Abstract

We use two cosmological simulations to study the impact of spurious heating of stellar motions within simulated galaxies by dark matter (DM) particles. The simulations share the same numerical and subgrid parameters, but one used a factor of 7 more DM particles. Many galaxy properties are unaffected by spurious heating, including their masses, star formation histories, and the spatial distribution of their gaseous baryons. The distribution and kinematics of stellar and DM particles, however, are affected. Below a resolution-dependent virial mass, $M_{200}^{\rm spur}$, galaxies have higher characteristic velocities, larger sizes, and more angular momentum in the simulation with lower DM mass resolution; haloes have higher central densities and lower velocity dispersions. Above $M_{200}^{\rm spur}$, galaxies and haloes have similar properties in both runs. The differences arise due to spurious heating, which transfers energy from DM to stellar particles, causing galaxies to heat up and haloes to cool down. The value of $M_{200}^{\rm spur}$ can be derived from an empirical disc heating model, and coincides with the mass below which the predicted {\em spurious} velocity dispersion exceeds the {\em measured} velocity dispersion of simulated galaxies. We predict that galaxies in the $100^3\, {\rm Mpc}^3$ \eagle\, run and IllustrisTNG-100 are robust to spurious collisional effects at their half-mass radii provided $M_{200}^{\rm spur}\approx 10^{11.7}{\rm M_\odot}$; for the $25^3\, {\rm Mpc}^3$ \eagle\, run and IllustrisTNG-50, we predict $M_{200}^{\rm spur}\approx 10^{11}{\rm M_\odot}$. Suppressing spurious heating at smaller/larger radii, or for older/younger stellar populations, requires haloes to be resolved with more/fewer DM particles.