The edge of galaxy formation - I. Formation and evolution of MW-satellite analogues before accretion

The satellites of the Milky Way and Andromeda represent the smallest galaxies we can observe in our Universe. In this series of papers, we aim to shed light on their formation and evolution using cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. In this first paper, we focus on the galaxy properties before accretion, by simulating 27 haloes with masses between 5 × 10⁸ and 10¹⁰M_⊙. Out of this set 19 haloes successfully form stars, while 8 remain dark. The simulated galaxies match quite well present day observed scaling relations between stellar mass, size and metallicity, showing that such relations are in place before accretion. Our galaxies show a large variety of star formation histories, from extended star formation periods to single bursts. As in more massive galaxies, large star formation bursts are connected with major mergers events, which greatly contribute to the overall stellar mass build up. The intrinsic stochasticity of mergers induces a large scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation, up to two orders of magnitude. Despite the bursty star formation history, on these mass scales baryons are very ineffective in modifying the dark matter profiles, and galaxies with a stellar mass below ≈10⁶M_⊙ retain their cuspy central dark matter distribution, very similar to results from pure N-body simulations.