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Context. Apparent deviations between properties of dwarf galaxies from observations and simulations are known to exist, such as the "Missing Dwarfs" problem, the too-big-to-fail problem, and the cusp-core problem, to name a few. Recent studies have shown that these issues can at least be partially resolved by taking into account the systematic differences between simulations and observations. Aims. This work aims to investigate and address any systematic differences affecting the comparison of simulations with observations. Methods. To this aim, we analyzed a set of 24 realistically simulated Models of Realistic dwarfs In Action (MoRIA) dwarf galaxies in an observationally motivated way. We first constructed "observed" color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of the simulated dwarf galaxies in the typically used V- and I-bands. Then we used the synthetic CMD-fitting method to recover their star-formation histories (SFHs) from their observed CMDs. These solved SFHs were then directly compared to the true SFHs from the simulation star-particle data, mainly in terms of the star-formation rate (SFR) and the age-metallicity relation (AMR). We also applied a dust extinction prescription to the simulation data to produce observed CMDs affected by dust in the star-forming regions. Since future facilities, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the European Extremely Large Telescope, will focus on the (near)-infrared rather than the optical, we also constructed and analyzed CMDs consisting of the I- and H- bands. Results. We find a very good agreement between the recovered and the true SFHs of all the simulated dwarf galaxies in our sample, from the synthetic CMD analysis of their V − I versus I as well as the I − H versus H CMDs. Dust leads to an underestimation of the SFR during the last few hundred million years, with the strength and duration of the effect dependent on the dust content. Overall, our analysis indicates that quantities like SFR and AMR derived from the photometric observations of galaxies are directly comparable to their simulated counterparts, thus eliminating any systematic bias in the comparison of simulations and observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the 'Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy Formation's Edge' (EDGE) project to study the cosmological formation and evolution of the smallest galaxies in the Universe. In this first paper, we explore the effects of resolution and sub-grid physics on a single low-mass halo (⁠|$M_{\rm halo}=10^{9}{\, \rm M}_\odot$|⁠), simulated to redshift z  = 0 at a mass and spatial resolution of |$\sim 20{\, \rm M}_\odot$| and ∼3 pc. We consider different star formation prescriptions, supernova feedback strengths, and on-the-fly radiative transfer (RT). We show that RT changes the mode of galactic self-regulation at this halo mass, suppressing star formation by causing the interstellar and circumgalactic gas to remain predominantly warm (∼104 K) even before cosmic reionization. By contrast, without RT, star formation regulation occurs only through starbursts and their associated vigorous galactic outflows. In spite of this difference, the entire simulation suite (with the exception of models without any feedback) matches observed dwarf galaxy sizes, velocity dispersions, V -band magnitudes, and dynamical mass-to-light-ratios. This is because such structural scaling relations are predominantly set by the host dark matter halo, with the remaining model-to-model variation being smaller than the observational scatter. We find that only the stellar mass–metallicity relation differentiates the galaxy formation models. Explosive feedback ejects more metals from the dwarf, leading to a lower metallicity at a fixed stellar mass. We conclude that the stellar mass–metallicity relation of the very smallest galaxies provides a unique constraint on galaxy formation physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulating dwarf galaxy haloes in a reionizing Universe puts severe constraints on the subgrid model employed in the simulations. Using the same subgrid model that works for simulations without a UV-background (UVB) results in gas-poor galaxies that stop forming stars very early on, except for haloes with high masses. This is in strong disagreement with observed galaxies, which are gas rich and star forming down to a much lower mass range. To resolve this discrepancy, we ran a large suite of isolated dwarf galaxy simulations to explore a wide variety of subgrid models and parameters, including timing and strength of the UVB, strength of the stellar feedback and metallicity-dependent Pop III feedback. We compared these simulations to observed dwarf galaxies by means of the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR), which links the baryonic content of a galaxy to the observationally determined strength of its gravitational potential. We found that the results are robust to changes in the UVB. The strength of the stellar feedback shifts the results on the BTFR, but does not help to form gas-rich galaxies at late redshifts. Only by including Pop III feedback are we able to produce galaxies that lie on the observational BTFR and that have neutral gas and ongoing star formation at redshift zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]