The impact of radial migration on disk galaxy star formation histories

II. Role of bar strength, disk thickness, and merger history

¹ Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Germany
² Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
³ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK

^★ Corresponding authors: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 27 August 2025
Accepted: 6 January 2026

Abstract

Reconstructing the star formation history (SFH) of disk galaxies is central to understanding their growth and evolution, yet such estimates can be strongly biased by stellar radial migration over cosmic time. Using 186 Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) analogs from the TNG50 cosmological simulation, we compare star formation rates (SFRs) inferred from present-day stellar positions with those based on stellar birth radii to quantify the magnitude, spatial structure, and temporal evolution of migration-induced biases. We find that radial migration systematically produces artificial star formation in regions that had not yet formed stars. Notably, ~80% of galaxies exhibit outer-disk stars older than 10 Gyr, which we find to have formed at radii interior to the outer disk and to have reached their present locations via substantial outward migration. Similar effects appear in ~45% of galaxies at intermediate radii during early epochs, and in 30% of quenched inner disks within the past 4 Gyr. Migration also smooths SFHs, washing out localized bursts and suppressions by dispersing stars across neighboring radii. The strength and imprint of these distortions depend sensitively on galactic structure and evolutionary history: strong bars drive mean SFR overestimates of up to 75% in the inner disk and 150% in the outskirts; thinner, dynamically cold disks suffer average outer-disk biases up to 160%; while thick disks exhibit typical inner-disk biases up to 125%. Merger timing further modulates these patterns. Our results demonstrate that failing to account for stellar migration can lead to severe misinterpretations of when and where stars formed, with direct implications for the chemical and evolutionary histories of the MW and external galaxies.