Synthetic galaxy images and spectra from the Illustris simulation

Abstract

We present our methods for generating a catalogue of 7000 synthetic images and 40 000 integrated spectra of redshift z = 0 galaxies from the Illustris simulation. The mock data products are produced by using stellar population synthesis models to assign spectral energy distributions (SED) to each star particle in the galaxies. The resulting synthetic images and integrated SEDs therefore properly reflect the spatial distribution, stellar metallicity distribution, and star formation history of the galaxies. From the synthetic data products, it is possible to produce monochromatic or colour-composite images, perform SED fitting, classify morphology, determine galaxy structural properties, and evaluate the impacts of galaxy viewing angle. The main contribution of this paper is to describe the production, format, and composition of the image catalogue that makes up the Illustris Simulation Observatory. As a demonstration of this resource, we derive galactic stellar mass estimates by applying the SED fitting code fast to the synthetic galaxy products, and compare the derived stellar masses against the true stellar masses from the simulation. We find from this idealized experiment that systematic biases exist in the photometrically derived stellar mass values that can be reduced by using a fixed metallicity in conjunction with a minimum galaxy age restriction.