  The splashback radius is one popular method to constrain the size of galaxy
clusters. It is typically measured through the logarithmic derivative of the
galaxy number density profile, since doing so is more observationally viable
and computationally inexpensive compared to other methods. However, measuring
the splashback radius through the galaxy number density has consistently
produced smaller values of the splashback radius than those measured with dark
matter density or other processes. Dynamical friction has been posited as one
possible reason that splashback radii measured through galaxy number densities
are reduced, since it decays the orbits of subhaloes within the halo, however,
the effects of dynamical friction cannot be isolated within cosmological
simulations. Here, we present idealized simulations starting with isolated
galaxy clusters drawn from the IllustrisTNG cosmological simulation, where we
isolate dynamical friction. We show that although dynamical friction can reduce
measurements of the splashback radius, it does not have a significant effect on
clusters with $M_\mathrm{200,mean} > 10^{14} \mathrm{M_\odot}$, and thus cannot
completely account for previously measured discrepancies.
