Creating a galaxy lacking dark matter in a dark matter dominated universe


Abstract in English

We use hydrodynamical cosmological simulations to show that it is possible to create, via tidal interactions, galaxies lacking dark matter in a dark matter dominated universe. We select dwarf galaxies from the NIHAO project, obtained in the standard Cold Dark Matter model and use them as initial conditions for simulations of satellite-central interactions. After just one pericentric passage on an orbit with a strong radial component, NIHAO dwarf galaxies can lose up to 80 per~cent of their dark matter content, but, most interestingly, their central ($approx 8$~kpc) dark matter to stellar ratio changes from a value of ${sim}25$, as expected from numerical simulations and abundance matching techniques, to roughly unity as reported for NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1054-DF4. The stellar velocity dispersion drops from ${sim}30$ ${rm km,s^{-1}}$ before infall to values as low as $6pm 2$~ ${rm km,s^{-1}}$. These, and the half light radius around 3 kpc, are in good agreement with observations from van Dokkum and collaborators. Our study shows that it is possible to create a galaxy without dark matter starting from typical dwarf galaxies formed in a dark matter dominated universe, provided they live in a dense environment.

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