Francisco Mercado (Pomona College): "How Environment Shapes Low-Mass Galaxy Evolution"

We’re on the verge of an observational revolution, with upcoming surveys like Rubin’s LSST and the Roman Space Telescope poised to uncover hundreds, if not thousands, of previously undetectable low-mass galaxies across a wide range of environments. To fully leverage this data, we need a clear theoretical framework for how environment shapes the evolution of these systems. In this talk, I present simulation-based work exploring how environmental processes influence observable properties of low-mass galaxies, including their sizes, star formation timescales, morphological asymmetries, and quenched fractions. Using a combination of large-volume and high-resolution cosmological simulations, I show how these galaxies carry structural and evolutionary imprints of their surroundings. I also highlight recent results comparing simulated satellite populations to observations from SAGA and ELVES, demonstrating how well current simulations reproduce observed trends in satellite star formation activity. To conclude, I will briefly introduce WildFIRE, a new suite of ~300 zoom-in simulations currently in development, designed to systematically study low-mass galaxies across a wide range of environments. Together, these projects offer a clearer view of how low-mass galaxies are shaped by the universe around them.