No Arabic abstract
We study properties of dark matter halos at high redshifts z=2-10 for a vast range of masses with the emphasis on dwarf halos with masses 10^7-10^9 Msun/h. We find that the density profiles of relaxed dwarf halos are well fitted by the NFW profile and do not have cores. We compute the halo mass function and the halo spin parameter distribution and find that the former is very well reproduced by the Sheth & Tormen model while the latter is well fitted by a lognormal distribution with lambda_0 = 0.042 and sigma_lambda = 0.63. We estimate the distribution of concentrations for halos in mass range that covers six orders of magnitude from 10^7 Msun/h to 10^13} Msun/h, and find that the data are well reproduced by the model of Bullock et al. The extrapolation of our results to z = 0 predicts that present-day isolated dwarf halos should have a very large median concentration of ~ 35. We measure the subhalo circular velocity functions for halos with masses that range from 4.6 x 10^9 Msun/h to 10^13 Msun/h and find that they are similar when normalized to the circular velocity of the parent halo. Dwarf halos studied in this paper are many orders of magnitude smaller than well-studied cluster- and Milky Way-sized halos. Yet, in all respects the dwarfs are just down-scal
We investigate the effect of dark energy on the density profiles of dark matter haloes with a suite of cosmological N-body simulations and use our results to test analytic models. We consider constant equation of state models, and allow both w>-1 and w<-1. Using five simulations with w ranging from -1.5 to -0.5, and with more than ~1600 well-resolved haloes each, we show that the halo concentration model of Bullock et al. (2001) accurately predicts the median concentrations of haloes over the range of w, halo masses, and redshifts that we are capable of probing. We find that the Bullock et al. (2001) model works best when halo masses and concentrations are defined relative to an outer radius set by a cosmology-dependent virial overdensity. For a fixed power spectrum normalization and fixed-mass haloes, larger values of w lead to higher concentrations and higher halo central densities, both because collapse occurs earlier and because haloes have higher virial densities. While precise predictions of halo densities are quite sensitive to various uncertainties, we make broad comparisons to galaxy rotation curve data. At fixed power spectrum normalization (fixed sigma_8), w>-1 quintessence models seem to exacerbate the central density problem relative to the standard w=-1 model. Meanwhile w<-1 models help to reduce the apparent discrepancy. We confirm that the Jenkins et al. (2001) halo mass function provides an excellent approximation to the abundance of haloes in our simulations and extend its region of validity to include models with w<-1.
I discuss the dynamical interaction of galactic disks with the surrounding dark matter halos. In particular it is demonstrated that if the self-gravitating shearing sheet, a model of a patch of a galactic disk, is embedded in a live dark halo, this has a strong effect on the dynamics of density waves in the sheet. I describe how the density waves and the halo interact via halo particles either on orbits in resonance with the wave or on non-resonant orbits. Contrary to expectation the presence of the halo leads to a very considerable enhancement of the amplitudes of the density waves in the shearing sheet. This effect appears to be the equivalent of the recently reported enhanced growth of bars in numerically simulated stellar disks embedded in live dark halos. Finally I discuss the counterparts of the perturbations of the disk in the dark halo.
We investigate a hypothesis regarding the origin of the scalelength in halos formed in cosmological N-body simulations. This hypothesis can be viewed as an extension of an earlier idea put forth by Merritt and Aguilar. Our findings suggest that a phenomenon related to the radial orbit instability is present in such halos and is responsible for density profile shapes. This instability sets a scalelength at which the velocity dispersion distribution changes rapidly from isotropic to radially anisotropic. This scalelength is reflected in the density distribution as the radius at which the density profile changes slope. We have tested the idea that radially dependent velocity dispersion anisotropy leads to a break in density profile shape by manipulating the input of a semi-analytic model to imitate the velocity structure imposed by the radial orbit instability. Without such manipulation, halos formed are approximated by single power-law density profiles and isotropic velocity distributions. Halos formed with altered inputs display density distributions featuring scalelengths and anisotropy profiles similar to those seen in cosmological N-body simulations.
This papers explores the self similar solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson system and their relation to the gravitational collapse of dynamically cold systems. Analytic solutions are derived for power law potential in one dimension, and extensions of these solutions in three dimensions are proposed. Next the self similarity of the collapse of cold dynamical systems is investigated numerically. The fold system in phase space is consistent with analytic self similar solutions, the solutions present all the proper self-similar scalings. An additional point is the appearance of an $x^{-(1/2)}$ law at the center of the system for initial conditions with power law index larger than $-(1/2)$. It is found that the first appearance of the $x^{-(1/2)}$ law corresponds to the formation of a singularity very close to the center. Finally the general properties of self similar multi dimensional solutions near equilibrium are investigated. Smooth and continuous self similar solutions have power law behavior at equilibrium. However cold initial conditions result in discontinuous phase space solutions, and the smoothed phase space density looses its auto similar properties. This problem is easily solved by observing that the probability distribution of the phase space density $P$ is identical except for scaling parameters to the probability distribution of the smoothed phase space density $P_S$. As a consequence $P_S$ inherit the self similar properties of $P$. This particular property is at the origin of the universal power law observed in numerical simulation for ${rho}/{sigma^3}$. The self similar properties of $P_S$ implies that other quantities should have also an universal power law behavior with predictable exponents. This hypothesis is tested using a numerical model of the phase space density of cold dark matter halos, an excellent agreement is obtained.
We investigate unbound dark matter particles in halos by tracing particle trajectories in a simulation run to the far future (a = 100). We find that the traditional sum of kinetic and potential energies is a very poor predictor of which dark matter particles will eventually become unbound from halos. We also study the mass fraction of unbound particles, which increases strongly towards the edges of halos, and decreases significantly at higher redshifts. We discuss implications for dark matter detection experiments, precision calibrations of the halo mass function, the use of baryon fractions to constrain dark energy, and searches for intergalactic supernovae.