No Arabic abstract
We perform a set of non-radiative hydro-dynamical (NHD) simulations of a rich cluster sized dark matter halo from the Phoenix project with 3 different numerical resolutions, to investigate the effect of hydrodynamics alone on the subhalo population in the halo. Compared to dark matter only (DMO) simulations of the same halo, subhaloes are less abundant for relatively massive subhaloes ($M_{sub} > 2.5 times 10^9h^{-1}M_{odot}$, or $V_{max} > 70 kms^{-1}$) but more abundant for less massive subhaloes in the NHD simulations. This results in different shapes in the subhalo mass/$V_{max}$ function in two different sets of simulations. At given subhalo mass, the subhaloes less massive than $10^{10} h^{-1}M_{odot}$ have larger $V_{max}$ in the NHD than DMO simulations, while $V_{max}$ is similar for the subhaloes more massive than the mass value. This is mainly because the progenitors of present day low mass subhaloes have larger concentration parameters in the NHD than DMO simulations. The survival number fraction of the accreted low mass progenitors of the main halo at redshift 2 is about 50 percent higher in the NHD than DMO simulations.
We present a new method for embedding a stellar disc in a cosmological dark matter halo and provide a worked example from a {Lambda}CDM zoom-in simulation. The disc is inserted into the halo at a redshift z = 3 as a zero-mass rigid body. Its mass and size are then increased adiabatically while its position, velocity, and orientation are determined from rigid-body dynamics. At z = 1, the rigid disc is replaced by an N-body disc whose particles sample a three-integral distribution function (DF). The simulation then proceeds to z = 0 with live disc and halo particles. By comparison, other methods assume one or more of the following: the centre of the rigid disc during the growth phase is pinned to the minimum of the halo potential, the orientation of the rigid disc is fixed, or the live N-body disc is constructed from a two rather than three-integral DF. In general, the presence of a disc makes the halo rounder, more centrally concentrated, and smoother, especially in the innermost regions. We find that methods in which the disc is pinned to the minimum of the halo potential tend to overestimate the amount of adiabatic contraction. Additionally, the effect of the disc on the subhalo distribution appears to be rather insensitive to the disc insertion method. The live disc in our simulation develops a bar that is consistent with the bars seen in late-type spiral galaxies. In addition, particles from the disc are launched or kicked up to high galactic latitudes.
Recent cosmological hydrodynamical simulations suggest that baryonic processes, and in particular supernova feedback after bursts of star formation, can alter the structure of dark matter haloes and transform primordial cusps into shallower cores. To assess whether this mechanism offers a solution to the cusp-core controversy, simulated haloes must be compared to real dark matter haloes inferred from galaxy rotation curves. For this purpose, two new dark matter density profiles were recently derived from simulations of galaxies in complementary mass ranges: the DC14 halo ($10^{10} < M_{text{halo}}/M_{odot} < 8 times 10^{11}$) and the coreNFW halo ($10^{7} < M_{text{halo}}/M_{odot} < 10^{9}$). Both models have individually been found to give good fits to observed rotation curves. For the DC14 model, however, the agreement of the predicted halo properties with cosmological scaling relations was confirmed by one study, but strongly refuted by another. A next question is whether the two models converge to the same solution in the mass range where both should be appropriate. To investigate this, we tested the DC14 and cNFW halo models on the rotation curves of a selection of galaxies with halo masses in the range $4 times 10^{9}$ - $7 times 10^{10}$ $M_{odot}$. We further applied the DC14 model to a set of rotation curves at higher halo masses, up to $9 times 10^{11}$ $M_{odot}$, to verify the agreement with the cosmological scaling relations. We find that both models are generally able to reproduce the observed rotation curves, in line with earlier results, and the predicted dark matter haloes are consistent with the cosmological $c-M_{text{halo}}$ and $M_{*}-M_{text{halo}}$ relations. The DC14 and cNFW models are also in fairly good agreement with each other, even though DC14 tends to predict slightly less extended cores and somewhat more concentrated haloes than cNFW.
We simulate the tidal disruption of a collisionless N-body globular star cluster in a total of 300 different orbits selected to have galactocentric radii between 10 and 30 kpc in four dark matter halos: (a) a spherical halo with no subhalos, (b) a spherical halo with subhalos, (c) a realistic halo with no subhalos, and (d) a realistic halo with subhalos. This allows us to isolate and study how the halos (lack of) dynamical symmetry and substructures affect the dispersal of tidal debris. The realistic halos are constructed from the snapshot of the Via Lactea II simulation at redshift zero. We find that the overall halos lack of dynamical symmetry disperses tidal debris to make the streams fluffier, consistent with previous studies of tidal debris of dwarf galaxies in larger orbits than ours in this study. On the other hand, subhalos in realistic potentials can locally enhance the densities along streams, making streams denser than their counterparts in smooth potentials. We show that many long and thin streams can survive in a realistic and lumpy halo for a Hubble time. This suggests that upcoming stellar surveys will likely uncover more thin streams which may contain density gaps that have been shown to be promising probes for dark matter substructures.
I present a simple phenomenological model for the observed linear scaling of the stellar mass in old globular clusters (GCs) with $z=0$ halo mass in which the stellar mass in GCs scales linearly with progenitor halo mass at $z=6$ above a minimum halo mass for GC formation. This model reproduces the observed $M_{rm GCs}-M_{rm halo}$ relation at $z=0$ and results in a prediction for the minimum halo mass at $z=6$ required for hosting one GC: $M_{rm min}(z=6)=1.07 times 10^9,M_{odot}$. Translated to $z=0$, the mean threshold mass is $M_{rm halo}(z=0) approx 2times 10^{10},M_{odot}$. I explore the observability of GCs in the reionization era and their contribution to cosmic reionization, both of which depend sensitively on the (unknown) ratio of GC birth mass to present-day stellar mass, $xi$. Based on current detections of $z gtrsim 6$ objects with $M_{1500} < -17$, values of $xi > 10$ are strongly disfavored; this, in turn, has potentially important implications for GC formation scenarios. Even for low values of $xi$, some observed high-$z$ galaxies may actually be GCs, complicating estimates of reionization-era galaxy ultraviolet luminosity functions and constraints on dark matter models. GCs are likely important reionization sources if $5 lesssim xi lesssim 10$. I also explore predictions for the fraction of accreted versus in situ GCs in the local Universe and for descendants of systems at the halo mass threshold of GC formation (dwarf galaxies). An appealing feature of the model presented here is the ability to make predictions for GC properties based solely on dark matter halo merger trees.
Surveying dark matter deficient galaxies (those with dark matter mass to stellar mass ratio $M_{rm dm}/M_{rm star}<1$) in the Illustris simulation of structure formation in the flat-$Lambda$CDM cosmogony, we find $M_{rm star} approx 2 times 10^8, M_sun$ galaxies that have properties similar to those ascribed by citet{vanDokkumetal2018a} to the ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF2. The Illustris simulation also contains more luminous dark matter deficient galaxies. Illustris galaxy subhalo 476171 is a particularly interesting outlier, a massive and very compact galaxy with $M_{rm star} approx 9 times 10^{10}, M_sun$ and $M_{rm dm}/M_{rm star} approx 0.1$ and a half-stellar-mass radius of $approx 2$ kpc. If the Illustris simulation and the $Lambda$CDM model are accurate, there are a significant number of dark matter deficient galaxies, including massive luminous compact ones. It will be interesting to observationally discover these galaxies, and to also more clearly understand how they formed, as they are likely to provide new insight into and constraints on models of structure formation and the nature of dark matter.