Galaxy morphologies with Illustris Simulation

These results imply that connections among mass, star formation, and galaxy structure arise naturally from models matching global star formation and halo occupation functions when simulated with accurate methods. This raises a question of how to construct experiments on galaxy surveys to better distinguish between models. We predict that at fixed halo mass near 10^12^M_{sun}_, disc-dominated galaxies have higher stellar mass than bulge-dominated ones, a possible consequence of the Illustris feedback model.

While Illustris galaxies at M*~10^11^M_{sun}_ have a reasonable size distribution, those at M*~10^10^M_{sun}_ have half-light radii larger than observed by a factor of 2. Furthermore, at M*~10^10.5^-10^11^M_{sun}_, a relevant fraction of Illustris galaxies have distinct 'ring-like' features, such that the bright pixels have an unusually wide spatial extent.