No Arabic abstract
Galactic halos are of great importance for our understanding of both the dark matter nature and primordial non-Gaussianity in the perturbation spectrum, a powerful discriminant of the physical mechanisms that generated the cosmological fluctuations observed today. In this paper we analyze {it Planck} data towards the galaxy M104 (Sombrero) and find an asymmetry in the microwave temperature which extends up to about $1 degr$ from the galactic center. This frequency-independent asymmetry is consistent with that induced by the Doppler effect due to the galactic rotation and we find a probability of less than about $0.2%$ that it is due to a random fluctuation of the microwave background. In addition, {it Planck} data indicate the relatively complex dynamics of the M104 galactic halo, and this appears to be in agreement with previous studies. In view of our previous analysis of the dark halos of nearby galaxies, this finding confirms the efficiency of the method used in revealing and mapping the dark halos around relatively nearby edge-on galaxies.
Without the interference of a number of events, galaxies may suffer in crowded environments (e.g., stripping, harassment, strangulation); isolated elliptical galaxies provide a control sample for the study of galaxy formation. We present the study of a sample of isolated ellipticals using imaging from a variety of telescopes, focusing on their globular cluster systems as tracers of their stellar halos. Our main findings are: (a) GC color bimodality is common even in the most isolated systems; (b) the specific frequency of GCs is fairly constant with galaxy mass, without showing an increase towards high-mass systems like in the case of cluster ellipticals; (c) on the other hand, the red fraction of GCs follows the same inverted V shape trend with mass as seen in cluster ellipticals; and (d) the stellar halos show low Sersic indices which are consistent with a major merger origin.
We consider a dark matter halo (DMH) of a spherical galaxy as a Bose-Einstein condensate of the ultra-light axions interacting with the baryonic matter. In the mean-field limit, we have derived the integro-differential equation of the Hartree-Fock type for the spherically symmetrical wave function of the DMH component. This equation includes two independent dimensionless parameters: (i) b{eta}- the ratio of baryon and axion total mases and (ii) {xi}- the ratio of characteristic baryon and axion spatial parameters. We extended our dissipation algorithm for studying numerically the ground state of the axion halo in the gravitational field produced by the baryonic component. We calculated the characteristic size, Xc, of DMH as a function of b{eta} and {xi} and obtained an analytical approximation for Xc.
We employ isolated N-body simulations to study the response of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) halos in the presence of the baryonic potentials. Dark matter self-interactions lead to kinematic thermalization in the inner halo, resulting in a tight correlation between the dark matter and baryon distributions. A deep baryonic potential shortens the phase of SIDM core expansion and triggers core contraction. This effect can be further enhanced by a large self-scattering cross section. We find the final SIDM density profile is sensitive to the baryonic concentration and the strength of dark matter self-interactions. Assuming a spherical initial halo, we also study evolution of the SIDM halo shape together with the density profile. The halo shape at later epochs deviates from spherical symmetry due to the influence of the non-spherical disc potential, and its significance depends on the baryonic contribution to the total gravitational potential, relative to the dark matter one. In addition, we construct a multi-component model for the Milky Way, including an SIDM halo, a stellar disc and a bulge, and show it is consistent with observations from stellar kinematics and streams.
Deep optical/near-IR surface photometry of galaxies outside the Local Group have revealed faint and very red halos around objects as diverse as disk galaxies and starbursting dwarf galaxies. The colours of these structures are too extreme to be reconciled with stellar populations similar to those seen in the stellar halos of the Milky Way or M31, and alternative explanations like dust reddening, high metallicities or nebular emission are also disfavoured. A stellar population obeying an extremely bottom-heavy initial mass function (IMF), is on the other hand consistent with all available data. Because of its high mass-to-light ratio, such a population would effectively behave as baryonic dark matter and could account for some of the baryons still missing in the low-redshift Universe. Here, we give an overview of current red halo detections, alternative explanations for the origin of the red colours and ongoing searches for red halos around types of galaxies for which this phenomenon has not yet been reported. A number of potential tests of the bottom-heavy IMF hypothesis are also discussed.
We study the distribution of cold dark matter (CDM) in cosmological simulations from the FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) project, for $M_{ast}sim10^{4-11},M_{odot}$ galaxies in $M_{rm h}sim10^{9-12},M_{odot}$ halos. FIRE incorporates explicit stellar feedback in the multi-phase ISM, with energetics from stellar population models. We find that stellar feedback, without fine-tuned parameters, greatly alleviates small-scale problems in CDM. Feedback causes bursts of star formation and outflows, altering the DM distribution. As a result, the inner slope of the DM halo profile ($alpha$) shows a strong mass dependence: profiles are shallow at $M_{rm h}sim10^{10}-10^{11},M_{odot}$ and steepen at higher/lower masses. The resulting core sizes and slopes are consistent with observations. This is broadly consistent with previous work using simpler feedback schemes, but we find steeper mass dependence of $alpha$, and relatively late growth of cores. Because the star formation efficiency $M_{ast}/M_{rm h}$ is strongly halo mass dependent, a rapid change in $alpha$ occurs around $M_{rm h}sim 10^{10},M_{odot}$ ($M_{ast}sim10^{6}-10^{7},M_{odot}$), as sufficient feedback energy becomes available to perturb the DM. Large cores are not established during the period of rapid growth of halos because of ongoing DM mass accumulation. Instead, cores require several bursts of star formation after the rapid buildup has completed. Stellar feedback dramatically reduces circular velocities in the inner kpc of massive dwarfs; this could be sufficient to explain the Too Big To Fail problem without invoking non-standard DM. Finally, feedback and baryonic contraction in Milky Way-mass halos produce DM profiles slightly shallower than the Navarro-Frenk-White profile, consistent with the normalization of the observed Tully-Fisher relation.