No Arabic abstract
The location of dark-matter free, tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) in the baryonic Tully Fisher (bTF) diagram has been used to test cosmological scenarios, leading to various and controversial results. Using new high-resolution 3D spectroscopic data, we re-investigate the morpho-kinematics of these galaxies to verify whether or not they can be used for such a purpose. We find that the three observed TDGs are kinematically not virialized and show complex morphologies and kinematics, leading to considerable uncertainties about their intrinsic rotation velocities and their locations on the bTF. Only one TDG can be identify as a (perturbed) rotation disk that it is indeed a sub-component of NGC5291N and that lies at $<$1$sigma$ from the local bTF relation. It results that the presently studied TDGs are young, dynamically forming objects, which are not enough virialized to robustly challenge cosmological scenarios.
Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the tiniest observed galaxies and are currently associated with the largest fractions of dark matter, which is revealed by their too large velocity dispersions. However, most of them are found near their orbital pericenters. This leads to a very low probability, P = 2 $10^{-7}$, that they could be long-lived satellites such as sub-halos predicted by cosmological simulations. Their proximity to their pericenters suggests instead that they are affected by tidal shocks, which provide sufficient kinematic energy to explain their high velocity dispersions. Dependency of the dark matter properties to their distance to the Milky Way appears to favor tidally shocked and out of equilibrium dSphs instead of self-equilibrium systems dominated by dark matter.
We use cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of the APOSTLE project along with high-quality rotation curve observations to examine the fraction of baryons in {Lambda}CDM haloes that collect into galaxies. This galaxy formation efficiency correlates strongly and with little scatter with halo mass, dropping steadily towards dwarf galaxies. The baryonic mass of a galaxy may thus be used to place a lower limit on total halo mass and, consequently, on its asymptotic maximum circular velocity. A number of observed dwarfs seem to violate this constraint, having baryonic masses up to ten times higher than expected from their rotation speeds, or, alternatively, rotating at only half the speed expected for their mass. Taking the data at face value, either these systems have formed galaxies with extraordinary efficiency - highly unlikely given their shallow potential wells - or their dark matter content is much lower than expected from {Lambda}CDM haloes. This missing dark matter is reminiscent of the inner mass deficit of galaxies with slowly-rising rotation curves, but cannot be explained away by star formation-induced cores in the dark mass profile, since the anomalous deficit applies to regions larger than the luminous galaxies themselves. We argue that explaining the structure of these galaxies would require either substantial modification of the standard Lambda cold dark matter paradigm or else significant revision to the uncertainties in their inferred mass profiles, which should be much larger than reported. Systematic errors in inclination may provide a simple resolution to what would otherwise be a rather intractable problem for the current paradigm.
In the standard Lambda-CDM paradigm, dwarf galaxies are expected to be dark-matter-rich, as baryonic feedback is thought to quickly drive gas out of their shallow potential wells and quench star formation at early epochs. Recent observations of local dwarfs with extremely low dark matter content appear to contradict this picture, potentially bringing the validity of the standard model into question. We use NewHorizon, a high-resolution cosmological simulation, to demonstrate that sustained stripping of dark matter, in tidal interactions between a massive galaxy and a dwarf satellite, naturally produces dwarfs that are dark-matter-deficient, even though their initial dark matter fractions are normal. The process of dark matter stripping is responsible for the large scatter in the halo-to-stellar mass relation in the dwarf regime. The degree of stripping is driven by the closeness of the orbit of the dwarf around its massive companion and, in extreme cases, produces dwarfs with halo-to-stellar mass ratios as low as unity, consistent with the findings of recent observational studies. ~30 per cent of dwarfs show some deviation from normal dark matter fractions due to dark matter stripping, with 10 per cent showing high levels of dark matter deficiency (Mhalo/M*<10). Given their close orbits, a significant fraction of dark-matter-deficient dwarfs merge with their massive companions (e.g. ~70 per cent merge over timescales of ~3.5 Gyrs), with the dark-matter-deficient population being constantly replenished by new interactions between dwarfs and massive companions. The creation of these galaxies is, therefore, a natural by-product of galaxy evolution and their existence is not in tension with the standard paradigm.
Using high resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulations, we conduct a comprehensive study of how tidal stripping removes dark matter and stars from galaxies. We find that dark matter is always stripped far more significantly than the stars -- galaxies that lose $sim$80$%$ of their dark matter, typically lose only 10$%$ of their stars. This is because the dark matter halo is initially much more extended than the stars. As such, we find the stellar-to-halo size-ratio (measured using r$_{rm{eff}}$/r$_{rm{vir}}$) is a key parameter controlling the relative amounts of dark matter and stellar stripping. We use simple fitting formulae to measure the relation between the fraction of bound dark matter and fraction of bound stars. We measure a negligible dependence on cluster mass or galaxy mass. Therefore these formulae have general applicability in cosmological simulations, and are ideal to improve stellar stripping recipes in semi-analytical models, and/or to estimate the impact that tidal stripping would have on galaxies when only their halo mass evolution is known.
Simulations of the clustering of cold dark matter yield dark-matter halos that have central density cusps, but observations of totally dark-matter dominated dwarf spheroidal galaxies imply that they do not have cuspy central density profiles. We use analytic calculations and numerical modelling to argue that whenever stars form, central density cusps are likely to be erased. Gas that accumulates in the potential well of an initially cuspy dark-matter halo settles into a disc. Eventually the surface density of the gas exceeds the threshold for fragmentation into self-gravitating clouds. The clouds are massive enough to transfer energy to the dark-matter particles via dynamical friction on a short time-scale. The halos central cusp is heated to form a core with central logarithmic density slope gamma=0 before stellar feedback makes its impact. Since star formation is an inefficient process, the clouds are disrupted by feedback when only a small fraction of their mass has been converted to stars, and the dark matter dominates the final mass distribution.