MULTIDARK-GALAXIES: Data release and first results

Abstract

We present the public release of the MULTIDARK-GALAXIES: three distinct galaxy catalogues derived from one of the Planck cosmology MULTIDARK simulations (i.e. MDPL2, with a volume of (1 h Gpc) and mass resolution of 1.5 × 109 hM) by applying the semi-analytic models GALACTICUS, SAG, and SAGE to it. We compare the three models and their conformity with observational data for a selection of fundamental properties of galaxies like stellar mass function, star formation rate, cold gas fractions, and metallicities - noting that they sometimes perform differently reflecting model designs and calibrations. We have further selected galaxy subsamples of the catalogues by number densities in stellar mass, cold gas mass, and star formation rate in order to study the clustering statistics of galaxies. We show that despite different treatment of orphan galaxies, i.e. galaxies that lost their dark-matter host halo due to the finite-mass resolution of the N-body simulation or tidal stripping, the clustering signal is comparable, and reproduces the observations in all three models - in particular when selecting samples based upon stellar mass. Our catalogues provide a powerful tool to study galaxy formation within a volume comparable to those probed by ongoing and future photometric and redshift surveys. All model data consisting of a range of galaxy properties - including broad-band SDSS magnitudes - are publicly available. © 2018 The Author(s).