Simulating the infrared sky with a SPRITZ

Abstract

Aims. Current hydrodynamical and semi-empirical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution have difficulties in reproducing the number densities of infrared-detected galaxies. Therefore, a phenomenological simulation tool that is new and versatile is necessary to reproduce current and predict future observations at infrared (IR) wavelengths. Methods. In this work we generate simulated catalogues starting from the Herschel IR luminosity functions of different galaxy populations to consider different populations of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) in a consistent way. We associated a spectral energy distribution and physical properties, such as stellar mass, star formation rate, and AGN contribution, with each simulated galaxy using a broad set of empirical relations. We compared the resulting simulated galaxies, extracted up to z = 10, with a broad set of observational relations. Results. Spectro-Photometric Realisations of IR-Selected Targets at all-z (SPRITZ) simulations allow us to obtain, in a fully consistent way, simulated observations for a broad set of current and future facilities with photometric capabilities as well as low-resolution IR spectroscopy, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) or the Origin Space Telescope (OST). The derived simulated catalogue contains galaxies and AGN that by construction reproduce the observed IR galaxy number density, but this catalogue also agrees with the observed number counts from UV to far-IR wavelengths, the observed stellar mass function, the star formation rate versus stellar mass plane, and the luminosity function from the radio to X-ray wavelengths. The proposed simulation is therefore ideal to make predictions for current and future facilities, in particular, but not limited to, those operating at IR wavelengths.