ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

Cold Dark Matter Substructure and Galactic Disks I: Morphological Signatures of Hierarchical Satellite Accretion

115   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Stelios Kazantzidis
 تاريخ النشر 2008
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

(Abridged) We conduct a series of high-resolution, dissipationless N-body simulations to investigate the cumulative effect of substructure mergers onto thin disk galaxies in the context of the LCDM paradigm of structure formation. Our simulation campaign is based on a hybrid approach. Substructure properties are culled directly from cosmological simulations of galaxy-sized cold dark matter (CDM) halos. In contrast to what can be inferred from statistics of the present-day substructure populations, accretions of massive subhalos onto the central regions of host halos, where the galactic disk resides, since z~1 should be common occurrences. One host halo merger history is subsequently used to seed controlled numerical experiments of repeated satellite impacts on an initially-thin Milky Way-type disk galaxy. We show that these accretion events produce several distinctive observational signatures in the stellar disk including: a ring-like feature in the outskirts; a significant flare; a central bar; and faint filamentary structures that (spuriously) resemble tidal streams. The final distribution of disk stars exhibits a complex vertical structure that is well-described by a standard ``thin-thick disk decomposition. We conclude that satellite-disk encounters of the kind expected in LCDM models can induce morphological features in galactic disks that are similar to those being discovered in the Milky Way, M31, and in other disk galaxies. These results highlight the significant role of CDM substructure in setting the structure of disk galaxies and driving galaxy evolution. Upcoming galactic structure surveys and astrometric satellites may be able to distinguish between competing cosmological models by testing whether the detailed structure of galactic disks is as excited as predicted by the CDM paradigm.



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

(Abridged) We perform dissipationless N-body simulations to elucidate the dynamical response of thin disks to bombardment by cold dark matter (CDM) substructure. Our method combines (1) cosmological simulations of the formation of Milky Way (MW)-size d CDM halos to derive the properties of substructure and (2) controlled numerical experiments of consecutive subhalo impacts onto an initially-thin, fully-formed MW type disk galaxy. The present study is the first to account for the evolution of satellite populations over cosmic time in such an investigation of disk structure. We find that accretions of massive subhalos onto the central regions of host halos, where the galactic disks reside, since z~1 should be common. One host halo accretion history is used to initialize the controlled simulations of satellite-disk encounters. We show that these accretion events severely perturb the thin galactic disk and produce a wealth of distinctive dynamical signatures on its structure and kinematics. These include (1) considerable thickening and heating at all radii, with the disk thickness and velocity ellipsoid nearly doubling at the solar radius; (2) prominent flaring associated with an increase in disk thickness greater than a factor of 4 in the disk outskirts; (3) surface density excesses at large radii, beyond ~5 disk scale lengths, resembling those of observed antitruncated disks; (4) lopsidedness at levels similar to those measured in observational samples of disk galaxies; and (5) substantial tilting. The interaction with the most massive subhalo drives the disk response while subsequent bombardment is much less efficient at disturbing the disk. We conclude that substructure-disk encounters of the kind expected in the LCDM paradigm play a significant role in setting the structure of disk galaxies and driving galaxy evolution.
We perform a set of high-resolution, dissipationless N-body simulations to investigate the influence of cold dark matter (CDM) substructure on the dynamical evolution of thin galactic disks. Our method combines cosmological simulations of galaxy-size d CDM halos to derive the properties of substructure populations and controlled numerical experiments of consecutive subhalo impacts onto initially-thin, fully-formed disk galaxies. We demonstrate that close encounters between massive subhalos and galactic disks since z~1 should be common occurrences in LCDM models. In contrast, extremely few satellites in present-day CDM halos are likely to have a significant impact on the disk structure. One typical host halo merger history is used to seed controlled N-body experiments of subhalo-disk encounters. As a result of these accretion events, the disk thickens considerably at all radii with the disk scale height increasing in excess of a factor of 2 in the solar neighborhood. We show that interactions with the subhalo population produce a wealth of distinctive morphological signatures in the disk stars including: conspicuous flares; bars; low-lived, ring-like features in the outskirts; and low-density, filamentary structures above the disk plane. We compare a resulting dynamically-cold, ring-like feature in our simulations to the Monoceros ring stellar structure in the MW. The comparison shows quantitative agreement in both spatial distribution and kinematics, suggesting that such observed complex stellar components may arise naturally as disk stars are excited by encounters with subhalos. These findings highlight the significant role of CDM substructure in setting the structure of disk galaxies and driving galaxy evolution.
249 - Marc Kamionkowski 2008
We study the effects of substructure in the Galactic halo on direct detection of dark matter, on searches for energetic neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Sun and Earth, and on the enhancement in the WIMP annihilation rate in the halo. Our centr al result is a probability distribution function (PDF) P(rho) for the local dark-matter density. This distribution must be taken into account when using null dark-matter searches to constrain the properties of dark-matter candidates. We take two approaches to calculating the PDF. The first is an analytic model that capitalizes on the scale-invariant nature of the structure--formation hierarchy in order to address early stages in the hierarchy (very small scales; high densities). Our second approach uses simulation-inspired results to describe the PDF that arises from lower-density larger-scale substructures which formed in more recent stages in the merger hierarchy. The distributions are skew positive, and they peak at densities lower than the mean density. The local dark-matter density may be as small as 1/10th the canonical value of ~ 0.4 GeV/cm^3, but it is probably no less than 0.2 GeV/cm^3.
The presence of dark matter substructure will boost the signatures of dark matter annihilation. We review recent progress on estimates of this subhalo boost factor---a ratio of the luminosity from annihilation in the subhalos to that originating the smooth component---based on both numerical $N$-body simulations and semi-analytic modelings. Since subhalos of all the scales, ranging from the Earth mass (as expected, e.g., the supersymmetric neutralino, a prime candidate for cold dark matter) to galaxies or larger, give substantial contribution to the annihilation rate, it is essential to understand subhalo properties over a large dynamic range of more than twenty orders of magnitude in masses. Even though numerical simulations give the most accurate assessment in resolved regimes, extrapolating the subhalo properties down in sub-grid scales comes with great uncertainties---a straightforward extrapolation yields a very large amount of the subhalo boost factor of $gtrsim$100 for galaxy-size halos. Physically motivated theoretical models based on analytic prescriptions such as the extended Press-Schechter formalism and tidal stripping modeling, which are well tested against the simulation results, predict a more modest boost of order unity for the galaxy-size halos. Giving an accurate assessment of the boost factor is essential for indirect dark matter searches and thus, having models calibrated at large ranges of host masses and redshifts, is strongly urged upon.
In the cold dark matter model of structure formation, galaxies are assembled hierarchically from mergers and the accretion of subclumps. This process is expected to leave residual substructure in the Galactic dark halo, including partially disrupted clumps and their associated tidal debris. We develop a model for such halo substructure and study its implications for dark matter (WIMP and axion) detection experiments. We combine the Press-Schechter model for the distribution of halo subclump masses with N-body simulations of the evolution and disruption of individual clumps as they orbit through the evolving Galaxy to derive the probability that the Earth is passing through a subclump or stream of a given density. Our results suggest that it is likely that the local complement of dark matter particles includes a 1-5% contribution from a single clump. The implications for dark matter detection experiments are significant, since the disrupted clump is composed of a `cold flow of high-velocity particles. We describe the distinctive features due to halo clumps that would be seen in the energy and angular spectra of detection experiments. The annual modulation of these features would have a different signature and phase from that for a smooth halo and, in principle, would allow one to discern the direction of motion of the clump relative to the Galactic center.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا