{
  "abstract": "Satellite populations provide sensitive tests of the galaxy-halo connection, but studies have largely focused on Milky Way (MW)-mass host galaxies or a small number of nearby dwarf galaxy hosts. Here we present a statistical census of bright, star-forming satellite galaxies around sub-MW-mass hosts using the first data release of the Merian Survey. Our sample consists of 357 hosts with stellar mass $10^{9.5}<M_{\\star,\\text{host}}<10^{10.5} \\ \\text{M}_\\odot$ at redshifts $0.07<z<0.09$, all selected to be central galaxies. Merian's medium-band imaging isolates H$α$ and [O \\textsc{iii}] emission lines for galaxies in this redshift range, enabling efficient selection of star-forming satellites down to $M_{\\star,\\text{sat}}\\gtrsim 10^{7.5} \\,\\text{M}_\\odot$. We identify 471 satellite candidates within the projected virial radii of these hosts. After statistically subtracting the contribution from foreground and background galaxies, we find $148\\pm 7$ satellite candidates associated with the host sample. We find that $\\mathord{\\sim} 60\\%$ of hosts have $N_{\\rm sat}< 1$ massive satellites within their virial radii, $\\mathord{\\sim} 22\\%$ have $1\\leq N_{\\rm sat}< 2$, $\\mathord{\\sim} 10\\%$ have $2\\leq N_{\\rm sat}< 3$, and $\\mathord{\\sim} 8\\%$ have $N_{\\rm sat} > 3$. Satellite abundance increases with host stellar mass across the sub-MW regime, extending the observed trend from dwarf to MW-mass galaxies and broadly agreeing with predictions from the TNG50 simulation. The radial distribution of satellites around sub-MW-mass hosts is similar to that around MW-mass hosts and broadly consistent with TNG50. Together, these results extend our empirical view of satellite populations across the previously sparsely sampled transition between dwarf and MW-mass hosts.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.03981",
  "author_total": 12,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Lucas S. Mandacarú Guerra"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jiaxuan Li"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yue Pan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jenny E. Greene"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shany Danieli"
    },
    {
      "name": "Joy Bhattacharyya"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alyson M. Brooks"
    },
    {
      "name": "Song Huang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alexie Leauthaud"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yifei Luo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Annika H. G. Peter"
    },
    {
      "name": "Conghao Zhou"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9mcx4dh2wqm95.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.03981",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9mcx4dh2wqm95",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03981",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220695606",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.03981",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9mcx4dh2wqm95.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:27:01Z",
      "native_id": "2610.03981",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03981"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "The Merian Survey: A Statistical Census of Bright Satellites of Sub-Milky Way-Mass Galaxies",
  "title_text": "The Merian Survey: A Statistical Census of Bright Satellites of Sub-Milky Way-Mass Galaxies",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:27:01Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9mcx4dh2wqm95",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}