No Arabic abstract
In this paper we identify and study the properties of low mass dwarf satellites of a nearby Local Group analogue - the NGC-3175 galaxy group with the goal of investigating the nature of the lowest mass galaxies and the `Missing Satellites problem. Deep imaging of nearby groups such as NGC-3175 are one of the only ways to probe these low mass galaxies which are important for problems in cosmology, dark matter and galaxy formation. We discover 553 candidate dwarf galaxies in the group, the vast majority of which have never been studied before. We obtained R and B band imaging, with the ESO 2.2m, around the central $sim$500kpc region of NGC-3175, allowing us to detect galaxies down to $sim$23 mag (M$_{B} sim$-7.7 mag) in the B band. In the absence of spectroscopic information, dwarf members and likely background galaxies are separated using colour, morphology and surface brightness criteria. We compare the observed size, surface brightness and mass scaling relations to literature data. The luminosity function with a faint end slope of $alpha$ = -1.31, is steeper than that observed in the Local Group. In comparison with simulations, we find that our observations are between a pure $Lambda$CDM model and one involving baryonic effects, removing the apparent problem of finding too few satellites as seen around the Milky Way.
Motivated by the stellar fossil record of Local Group (LG) dwarf galaxies, we show that the star-forming ancestors of the faintest ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs; ${rm M}_{rm V}$ $sim -2$ or ${rm M}_{star}$ $sim 10^{2}$ at $z=0$) had ultra-violet (UV) luminosities of ${rm M}_{rm UV}$ $sim -3$ to $-6$ during reionization ($zsim6-10$). The existence of such faint galaxies has substantial implications for early epochs of galaxy formation and reionization. If the faint-end slopes of the UV luminosity functions (UVLFs) during reionization are steep ($alphalesssim-2$) to ${rm M}_{rm UV}$ $sim -3$, then: (i) the ancestors of UFDs produced $>50$% of UV flux from galaxies; (ii) galaxies can maintain reionization with escape fractions that are $>$2 times lower than currently-adopted values; (iii) direct HST and JWST observations may detect only $sim10-50$% of the UV light from galaxies; (iv) the cosmic star formation history increases by $gtrsim4-6$ at $zgtrsim6$. Significant flux from UFDs, and resultant tensions with LG dwarf galaxy counts, are reduced if the high-redshift UVLF turns over. Independent of the UVLF shape, the existence of a large population of UFDs requires a non-zero luminosity function to ${rm M}_{rm UV}$ $sim -3$ during reionization.
We present a semi-analytic model of satellite galaxies, SatGen, which can generate large samples of satellite populations for a host halo of desired mass, redshift, and assembly history. The model combines dark-matter halo merger trees, empirical relations for the galaxy-halo connection, and analytic prescriptions for tidal effects, dynamical friction, and ram pressure stripping. SatGen emulates cosmological zoom-in hydro-simulations in certain aspects. Satellites can reside in cored or cuspy DM subhaloes, depending on the halo response to baryonic physics that can be formulated from hydro-simulations and physical modeling. The subhalo profile and the stellar mass and size of a satellite evolves depending on its tidal mass loss and initial structure. The host galaxy can include a baryonic disc and a stellar bulge, each described by a density profile that allows analytic orbit integration. SatGen complements simulations by propagating the effect of halo response found in simulated field galaxies to satellites (not properly resolved in simulations) and outperforms simulations by sampling the halo-to-halo variance of satellite statistics and overcoming artificial disruption due to insufficient resolution. As a first application, we use the model to study satellites of Milky Way sized hosts, making it emulate simulations of bursty star formation and of smooth star formation, respectively, and to experiment with a disc potential in the host halo. Our model reproduces the observed satellite statistics reasonably well. Different physical recipes make a difference in satellite abundance and spatial distribution at the 25% level, not large enough to be distinguished by current observations given the halo-to-halo variance. The MW disc depletes satellites by 20% and has a subtle effect of diversifying the internal structure of satellites, important for alleviating certain small-scale problems.
While many tensions between Local Group (LG) satellite galaxies and LCDM cosmology have been alleviated through recent cosmological simulations, the spatial distribution of satellites remains an important test of physical models and physical versus numerical disruption in simulations. Using the FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in baryonic simulations, we examine the radial distributions of satellites with Mstar > 10^5 Msun around 8 isolated Milky Way- (MW) mass host galaxies and 4 hosts in LG-like pairs. We demonstrate that these simulations resolve the survival and physical destruction of satellites with Mstar >~ 10^5 Msun. The simulations broadly agree with LG observations, spanning the radial profiles around the MW and M31. This agreement does not depend strongly on satellite mass, even at distances <~ 100 kpc. Host-to-host variation dominates the scatter in satellite counts within 300 kpc of the hosts, while time variation dominates scatter within 50 kpc. More massive host galaxies within our sample have fewer satellites at small distances, likely because of enhanced tidal destruction of satellites via the baryonic disks of host galaxies. Furthermore, we quantify and provide fits to the tidal depletion of subhalos in baryonic relative to dark matter-only simulations as a function of distance. Our simulated profiles imply observational incompleteness in the LG even at Mstar >~ 10^5 Msun: we predict 2-10 such satellites to be discovered around the MW and possibly 6-9 around M31. To provide cosmological context, we compare our results with the radial profiles of satellites around MW analogs in the SAGA survey, finding that our simulations are broadly consistent with most SAGA systems.
In the last years, a new generation of large-scale imaging surveys have probed wide field regions around some nearby galaxies at unprecedented low surface brightness regime (~28.0-29.0 mag arcsec^-2). This offers a chance of discovering very faint dwarf satellites by means of visual inspection of these public deep images. We report the first results of a systematic survey of faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the vicinity of the bright late-type spiral NGC 253 galaxy by means of a visual inspection of the images taken by the Dark Energy Survey. Three new dwarf galaxies have been discovered in the vicinity of the brightest member of the Sculptor filament, the late-type spiral NGC 253. Assuming they are companions of NGC 253, their total absolute V-magnitudes fall in the -7 to -9 mag range, which is typical for dwarf satellites in the local Universe. The central surface brightness tend to be extremely low for all the discovered dwarfs and fall roughly in the range of 25-26 mag arcsec^-2 in g-band. Using known data on distances and velocities of galaxies, we estimate the total virial mass of the NGC 253 group to be 8 x 10^11 Mo, which gives the virial radius R_200 = 186 kpc and the turn-around radius of 706 kpc. We also discuss the possible existence of a spatially flattened and velocity-correlated satellite system around NGC 253. This large-scale structure is orientated almost edge-on to line of sight. The possible plane of satellites is only 31 kpc thick with the minor-to-major axis ratio of 0.14. Four out of five galaxies with measured velocities follow a common velocity trend similar to those observed in the planes of satellites around the Andromeda and Centaurus A galaxies. However, the small number of galaxies with known velocities prevents to reach a definitive conclusion about the formation scenario of the structure and its possible relation to the surrounding cosmic web.
Recent estimates of the Cepheid distance modulus of NGC 6822 differ by 0.18 mag. To investigate this we present new multi-epoch JHKs photometry of classical Cepheids in the central region of NGC 6822 and show that there is a zero-point difference from earlier work. These data together with optical and mid-infrared observations from the literature are used to derive estimates of the distance modulus of NGC 6822. A best value of 23.40 mag is adopted, based on an LMC distance modulus of 18.50 mag. The standard error of this quantity is ~0.05 mag. We show that to derive consistent moduli from Cepheid observations at different wavelengths, it is necessary that the fiducial LMC period-luminosity relations at these wavelengths should refer to the same subsample of stars. Such a set is provided. A distance modulus based on RR Lyrae variables agrees with the Cepheid result.