2024A&A...686A..86R

The most massive galaxy clusters in the Universe host tens to hundreds of massive satellite galaxies M_⋆ ∼ 10^10 - 12.5^ M_⊙, but it is unclear if these satellites are able to retain their own gaseous atmospheres. We analyze the evolution of ≈90 000 satellites of stellar mass ∼10^9 - 12.5^ M_⊙ around 352 galaxy clusters of mass M_200c ∼ 10^14.3 - 15.4^ M_⊙ at z = 0 from the new TNG-Cluster suite of cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical galaxy cluster simulations. The number of massive satellites per host increases with host mass, and the mass-richness relation broadly agrees with observations. A halo of mass $ M_{\mathrm{200c}}^{\mathrm{host}}\sim 10^{14.5}\,(10^{15})\,M_\odot $ hosts ∼100 (300) satellites today. Only a minority of satellites retain some gas, hot or cold, and this fraction increases with stellar mass. lower-mass satellites ∼10^9 - 10^ M_⊙ are more likely to retain part of their cold interstellar medium, consistent with ram pressure preferentially removing hot extended gas first. At higher stellar masses ∼10^10.5 - 12.5^ M_⊙, the fraction of gas-rich satellites increases to unity, and nearly all satellites retain a sizeable portion of their hot, spatially extended circumgalactic medium (CGM), despite the ejective activity of their supermassive black holes. According to TNG-Cluster, the CGM of these gaseous satellites can be seen in soft X-ray emission (0.5-2.0 keV) that is, ≳10 times brighter than the local background. This X-ray surface brightness excess around satellites extends to ≈30 - 100 kpc, and is strongest for galaxies with higher stellar masses and larger host-centric distances. Approximately 10% of the soft X-ray emission in cluster outskirts ≈0.75 - 1.5 R_200c originates from satellites. The CGM of member galaxies reflects the dynamics of cluster-satellite interactions and contributes to the observationally inferred properties of the intracluster medium.