# Towards precise galaxy evolution:a comparison between spectral indices of $z\sim1$ galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulation and the LEGA-C survey

Wu, Po-Feng and Nelson, Dylan and Wel, Arjen van der and Pillepich, Annalisa and Zibetti, Stefano and Bezanson, Rachel and D'Eugenio, Francesco and Gallazzi, Anna and Pacifici, Camilla and Straatman, Caroline M. S. and Barišić, Ivana and Bell, Eric F. and Maseda, Michael V. and Muzzin, Adam and Sobral, David and Whitaker, Katherine E. (2021) Towards precise galaxy evolution:a comparison between spectral indices of $z\sim1$ galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulation and the LEGA-C survey. The Astronomical Journal, 162 (5). ISSN 0004-6256

Text (2108.10455v2)
2108.10455v2.pdf - Accepted Version
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## Abstract

We present the first comparison of observed stellar continuum spectra of high-redshift galaxies and mock galaxy spectra generated from hydrodynamical simulations. The mock spectra are produced from the IllustrisTNG TNG100 simulation combined with stellar population models and take into account dust attenuation and realistic observational effects (aperture effects and noise). We compare the simulated $D_n4000$ and EW(H$\delta$) of galaxies with $10.5 \leq \log(M_\ast/M_\odot) \leq 11.5$ at $0.6 \leq z \leq 1.0$ to the observed distributions from the LEGA-C survey. TNG100 globally reproduces the observed distributions of spectral indices, implying that the age distribution of galaxies in TNG100 is generally realistic. Yet there are small but significant differences. For old galaxies, TNG100 shows small $D_n4000$ when compared to LEGA-C, while LEGA-C galaxies have larger EW(H$\delta$) at fixed $D_n4000$. There are several possible explanations: 1) LEGA-C galaxies have overall older ages combined with small contributions (a few percent in mass) from younger (\$

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The Astronomical Journal
This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication/published in Astronomical Journal. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ac20d6
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1912
Subjects:
Departments:
ID Code:
161953
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
09 Nov 2021 12:05
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published