Subhalos In Simulations Research Articles

Dark Matter Halo Properties of the Galactic Dwarf Satellites: Implication for Chemo-dynamical Evolution of the Satellites and a Challenge to Lambda Cold Dark Matter

Elucidating dark matter density profiles in Galactic dwarf satellites is essential to understanding not only the quintessence of dark matter, but also the evolution of the satellites themselves. In this work, we present the current constraints on dark matter densities in Galactic ultrafaint dwarf (UFD) and diffuse galaxies. Applying our constructed nonspherical mass models to the currently available kinematic data of the 25 UFDs and two diffuse satellites, we find that whereas most of the galaxies have huge uncertainties on the inferred dark matter density profiles, Eridanus II, Segue I, and Willman 1 favor cuspy central profiles even when considering effects of a prior bias. We compare our results with the simulated subhalos on the plane between the dark matter density at 150 pc and the pericenter distance. We find that the most observed satellites and the simulated subhalos are similarly distributed on this plane, except for Antlia 2, Crater 2, and Tucana 3, which are less than one-tenth of the density. Despite considerable tidal effects, the subhalos detected by commonly used subhalo finders have difficulty explaining such a huge deviation. We also estimate the dynamical mass-to-light ratios of the satellites and confirm the ratio is linked to stellar mass and metallicity. Tucana 3 deviates largely from these relations, while it follows the mass–metallicity relation. This indicates that Tucana 3 has a cored dark matter halo, despite a significant uncertainty in its ratios.

Probing Galaxy Evolution in Massive Clusters Using ACT and DES: Splashback as a Cosmic Clock

Abstract We measure the projected number density profiles of galaxies and the splashback feature in clusters selected by the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect from the Advanced Atacama Cosmology Telescope (AdvACT) survey using galaxies observed by the Dark Energy Survey (DES). The splashback radius is consistent with CDM-only simulations and is located at 2.4 − 0.4 + 0.3 Mpc h − 1 . We split the galaxies on color and find significant differences in their profile shapes. Red and green-valley galaxies show a splashback-like minimum in their slope profile consistent with theory, while the bluest galaxies show a weak feature at a smaller radius. We develop a mapping of galaxies to subhalos in simulations and assign colors based on infall time onto their hosts. We find that the shift in location of the steepest slope and different profile shapes can be mapped to the average time of infall of galaxies of different colors. The steepest slope traces a discontinuity in the phase space of dark matter halos. By relating spatial profiles to infall time, we can use splashback as a clock to understand galaxy quenching. We find that red galaxies have on average been in clusters over 3.2 Gyr, green galaxies about 2.2 Gyr, while blue galaxies have been accreted most recently and have not reached apocenter. Using the full radial profiles, we fit a simple quenching model and find that the onset of galaxy quenching occurs after a delay of about a gigayear and that galaxies quench rapidly thereafter with an exponential timescale of 0.6 Gyr.

Diversity of Dark Matter Density Profiles in the Galactic Dwarf Spheroidal Satellites

Abstract The core–cusp problem is one of the controversial issues in the standard paradigm of Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) theory. However, under the assumption of conventional spherical symmetry, the strong degeneracy among model parameters makes it unclear whether dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies indeed have cored dark matter density profiles at their centers. In this work, we revisit this problem using nonspherical mass models, which have the advantage of being able to alleviate the degeneracy. Applying our mass models to the currently available kinematic data of the eight classical dSphs, we find that within finite uncertainties, most of these dSphs favor cusped central profiles rather than cored ones. In particular, Draco has a cusped dark matter halo with high probability even considering a prior bias. We also find the diversity of the inner slopes in their dark matter halos. To clarify the origin of this diversity, we investigate the relation between the inner dark matter density slope and stellar-to-halo mass ratio for the sample dSphs and find that this relation is generally in agreement with the predictions from recent ΛCDM and hydrodynamical simulations. We also find that the simulated subhalos have an anticorrelation between the dark matter density at 150 pc and pericenter distance, which is consistent with the observed one. We estimate their astrophysical factors for dark matter indirect searches and circular velocity profiles associated with huge uncertainties. To more precisely estimate their dark matter profiles, wide-field spectroscopic surveys for the dSphs are essential.

Dark and luminous satellites of LMC-mass galaxies in the FIRE simulations

ABSTRACT Within lambda cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM), dwarf galaxies like the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are expected to host numerous dark matter subhaloes, several of which should host faint dwarf companions. Recent Gaia proper motions confirm new members of the LMC system in addition to the previously known SMC, including two classical dwarf galaxies ($M_\ast$$\gt 10^5$ M$_{\odot }$; Carina and Fornax) as well as several ultrafaint dwarfs (Car2, Car3, Hor1, and Hyd1). We use the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations to study the dark and luminous (down to ultrafaint masses, $M_\ast$$\sim$6$\times 10^ {3}$ M$_{\odot }$) substructure population of isolated LMC-mass hosts ($M_{\text{200m}}$ = 1–3$\times 10^ {11}$ M$_{\odot }$) and place the Gaia + DES results in a cosmological context. By comparing number counts of subhaloes in simulations with and without baryons, we find that, within 0.2 $r_{\text{200m}}$, LMC-mass hosts deplete $\sim$30 per cent of their substructure, significantly lower than the $\sim$70 per cent of substructure depleted by Milky Way (MW) mass hosts. For our highest resolution runs ($m_\text{bary}$ = 880 M$_{\odot }$), $\sim 5\!-\!10$ subhaloes form galaxies with $M_\ast$$\ge 10^{4}$ M$_{\odot }$ , in agreement with the seven observationally inferred pre-infall LMC companions. However, we find steeper simulated luminosity functions than observed, hinting at observation incompleteness at the faint end. The predicted DM content for classical satellites in FIRE agrees with observed estimates for Carina and Fornax, supporting the case for an LMC association. We predict that tidal stripping within the LMC potential lowers the inner dark matter density of ultrafaint companions of the LMC. Thus, in addition to their orbital consistency, the low densities of dwarfs Car2, Hyd1, and Hyd2 reinforce their likelihood of Magellanic association.

Universal Dark Halo Scaling Relation for the Dwarf Spheroidal Satellites

Abstract Motivated by a recently found interesting property of the dark halo surface density within a radius, r max , giving the maximum circular velocity, V max , we investigate it for dark halos of the Milky Way’s and Andromeda’s dwarf satellites based on cosmological simulations. We select and analyze the simulated subhalos associated with Milky-Way-sized dark halos and find that the values of their surface densities, Σ V max , are in good agreement with those for the observed dwarf spheroidal satellites even without employing any fitting procedures. Moreover, all subhalos on the small scales of dwarf satellites are expected to obey the universal relation, irrespective of differences in their orbital evolutions, host halo properties, and observed redshifts. Therefore, we find that the universal scaling relation for dark halos on dwarf galaxy mass scales surely exists and provides us with important clues for understanding fundamental properties of dark halos. We also investigate orbital and dynamical evolutions of subhalos to understand the origin of this universal dark halo relation and find that most subhalos evolve generally along the r max ∝ V max sequence, even though these subhalos have undergone different histories of mass assembly and tidal stripping. This sequence, therefore, should be the key feature for understanding the nature of the universality of Σ V max .

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS CHALLENGED ON THE PREDICTION OF MASSIVE SUBHALO ABUNDANCE IN GALAXY CLUSTERS: THE CASE OF ABELL 2142

ABSTRACT In this Letter we compare the abundance of the member galaxies of a rich, nearby (z = 0.09) galaxy cluster, Abell 2142, with that of halos of comparable virial mass extracted from sets of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, both collisionless at different resolutions and with the inclusion of baryonic physics in the form of cooling, star formation, and feedback by active galactic nuclei. We also use two semi-analytical models to account for the presence of orphan galaxies. The photometric and spectroscopic information, taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 database, allows us to estimate the stellar velocity dispersion of member galaxies of Abell 2142. This quantity is used as proxy for the total mass of secure cluster members and is properly compared with that of subhalos in simulations. We find that simulated halos have a statistically significant ( ≳ 7 sigma confidence level) smaller amount of massive (circular velocity above 200 km s − 1 ) subhalos, even before accounting for the possible incompleteness of observations. These results corroborate the findings from a recent strong lensing study of the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416 and suggest that the observed difference is already present at the level of dark matter (DM) subhalos and is not solved by introducing baryonic physics. A deeper understanding of this discrepancy between observations and simulations will provide valuable insights into the impact of the physical properties of DM particles and the effect of baryons on the formation and evolution of cosmological structures.

Sussing merger trees: stability and convergence

Merger trees are routinely used to follow the growth and merging history of dark matter haloes and subhaloes in simulations of cosmic structure formation. Srisawat et al. (2013) compared a wide range of merger-tree-building codes. Here we test the influence of output strategies and mass resolution on tree-building. We find that, somewhat surprisingly, building the tree from more snapshots does not generally produce more complete trees; instead, it tends to short- en them. Significant improvements are seen for patching schemes which attempt to bridge over occasional dropouts in the underlying halo catalogues or schemes which combine the halo-finding and tree-building steps seamlessly. The adopted output strategy does not affec- t the average number of branches (bushiness) of the resultant merger trees. However, mass resolution has an influence on both main branch length and the bushiness. As the resolution increases, a halo with the same mass can be traced back further in time and will encounter more small progenitors during its evolutionary history. Given these results, we recommend that, for simulations intended as precursors for galaxy formation models where of order 100 or more snapshots are analysed, the tree-building routine should be integrated with the halo finder, or at the very least be able to patch over multiple adjacent snapshots.

Bailing out the Milky Way: variation in the properties of massive dwarfs among galaxy-sized systems

Recent kinematical constraints on the internal densities of the Milky Way's dwarf satellites have revealed a discrepancy with the subhalo populations of simulated Galaxy-scale halos in the standard cold dark matter model of hierarchical structure formation. In particular, the Via Lactea II and Aquarius simulations both have large subhalos with internal densities that are larger than the constraints inferred for any Milky Way dwarf satellites. This has been dubbed the ``too big to fail'' problem, with reference to the improbability of large and invisible companions existing in the Galactic environment.In this paper, we argue that both the Milky Way observations and simulated subhalos are consistent with the predictions of the standard model for structure formation. Specifically, we show that there is significant variation in the properties of subhalos among distinct host halos of fixed mass and suggest that this can reasonably account for the deficit of dense satellites in the Milky Way. We exploit well-tested analytic techniques to predict the properties in a large sample of distinct host halos with a variety of masses spanning the range expected of the Galactic halo. Such techniques render the problem of estimating the variance in subhalo properties computationally feasible. The analytic model produces subhalo populations consistent with both Via Lactea II and Aquarius, and our results suggest that natural variation in subhalo properties suffices to explain the discrepancy between Milky Way satellite kinematics and these numerical simulations. At least ∼ 10% of Milky Way-sized halos host subhalo populations for which there is no ``too big to fail'' problem, even when the host halo mass is as large as Mhost = 1012.2 h−1 M⊙. Follow-up studies consisting of high-resolution simulations of a large number of Milky Way-sized hosts are necessary to confirm our predictions. In the absence of such efforts, the ``too big to fail'' problem does not appear to be a significant challenge to the standard model of cold dark matter halos undergoing hierarchical formation.

Resolving subhaloes’ lives with the Hierarchical Bound-Tracing algorithm

We develop a new code, the Hierarchical Bound-Tracing (HBT for short) code, to find and trace dark matter subhaloes in simulations based on the merger hierarchy of dark matter haloes. Application of this code to a recent benchmark test of finding subhaloes demonstrates that HBT stands as one of the best codes to trace the evolutionary history of subhaloes. The success of the code lies in its careful treatment of the complex physical processes associated with the evolution of subhaloes and in its robust unbinding algorithm with an adaptive source subhalo management. We keep a full record of the merger hierarchy of haloes and subhaloes, and allow growth of satellite subhaloes through accretion from its "satellite-of-satellites", hence allowing mergers among satellites. Local accretion of background mass is omitted, while rebinding of stripped mass is allowed. The justification of these treatments is provided by case studies of the lives of individual subhaloes and by the success in finding the complete subhalo catalogue. We compare our result to other popular subhalo finders and show that HBT is able to well resolve subhaloes in high density environment and keep strict physical track of subhaloes' merger history. This code is fully parallelized and freely available upon request to the authors.

Too small to succeed? Lighting up massive dark matter subhaloes of the Milky Way

Abstract Using Constrained Local UniversE Simulations (CLUES) of the formation of the Local Group in a cosmological context, we investigate the recently highlighted problem that the majority of the most massive dark subhaloes of the Milky Way (MW) are too dense to host any of its bright satellites. In particular, we examine the influence of baryonic processes and find that they leave a twofold effect on the relation between the peak of the rotation curve and its position (Vmax and Rmax). Satellites with a large baryon fraction experience adiabatic contraction, thus decreasing Rmax while leaving Vmax more or less unchanged. Subhaloes with smaller baryon fractions undergo a decrease in Vmax possibly due to outflows of material. Furthermore, the situation of finding subhaloes in simulations that lie outside the confidence interval for possible hosts of the bright MW dwarf spheroidals appears to be far more prominent in cosmologies with a high σ8 normalization and depends on the mass of the host. We conclude that the problem cannot be simply solved by including baryonic processes and hence demands further investigations.

THE SURVIVAL OF DARK MATTER HALOS IN THE CLUSTER Cl 0024+16

Theories of structure formation in a cold dark matter dominated universe predict that massive clusters of galaxies assemble from the hierarchical merging of lower mass subhalos. Exploiting strong and weak gravitational lensing signals inferred from panoramic Hubble Space Telescope imaging data, we present a high-resolution reconstruction of the mass distribution in the massive, lensing cluster Cl 0024+16 at z = 0.39. Applying galaxy–galaxy lensing techniques we track the fate of dark matter subhalos as a function of projected cluster-centric radius out to 5 Mpc, well beyond the virial radius. We report the first detection of the statistical lensing signal of dark matter subhalos associated with late-type galaxies in clusters. The mass of a fiducial dark matter halo that hosts an early-type L* galaxy varies from M = 6.3+2.7−2.0 × 1011 M☉ within r < 0.6 Mpc, 1.3+0.8−0.6 × 1012 M☉ within r < 2.9 Mpc, and increases further to M = 3.7+1.4−1.1 × 1012 M☉ in the outskirts. The mass of a typical dark matter subhalo that hosts an L* galaxy increases with projected cluster-centric radius in line with expectations from the tidal stripping hypothesis. The mass of a dark matter subhalo that hosts a late-type L* galaxy is 1.06+0.52−0.41 × 1012 M☉. Early-type galaxies appear to be hosted on average in more massive dark matter subhalos compared to late-type galaxies. Early-type galaxies also trace the overall mass distribution of the cluster whereas late-type galaxies are biased tracers. We interpret our findings as evidence for the active assembly of mass via tidal stripping in galaxy clusters. The mass function of dark matter subhalos as a function of projected cluster-centric radius is compared with an equivalent mass function derived from clusters in the Millennium Run simulation populated with galaxies using semianalytic models. The shape of the observationally determined mass functions based on an I-band-selected sample of cluster members and lensing data are in agreement with the shapes of the subhalo mass functions derived from the Millennium Run simulation. However, simulated subhalos appear to be more efficiently stripped than lensing observations suggest. This is likely an artifact of comparison with a dark matter only simulation. Future simulations that simultaneously follow the detailed evolution of the baryonic component during cluster assembly will be needed for a more detailed comparison.