182 research outputs found
The Effect of Baryons on Halo Shapes
Observational evidence indicates a mismatch between the shapes of
collisionless dark matter (DM) halos and those of observed systems. Using
hydrodynamical cosmological simulations we investigate the effect of baryonic
dissipation on halo shapes. We show that dissipational simulations produce
significantly rounder halos than those formed in equivalent dissipationless
simulations. Gas cooling causes an average increase in halo principal axis
ratios of ~ 0.2-0.4 in the inner regions and a systematic shift that persists
out to the virial radius, alleviating any tension between theory and
observations. Although the magnitude of the effect may be overestimated due to
overcooling, cluster formation simulations designed to reproduce the observed
fraction of cold baryons still produce substantially rounder halos. Subhalos
also exhibit a trend of increased axis ratios in dissipational simulations.
Moreover, we demonstrate that subhalos are generally rounder than corresponding
field halos even in dissipationless simulations. Lastly, we analyze a series of
binary, equal-mass merger simulations of disk galaxies. Collisionless mergers
reveal a strong correlation between DM halo shape and stellar remnant
morphology. In dissipational mergers, the combination of strong gas inflows and
star formation leads to an increase of the DM axis ratios in the remnant. All
of these results highlight the vital role of baryonic processes in comparing
theory with observations and warn against over-interpreting discrepancies with
collisionless simulations on small scales.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the XXIst IAP
Colloquium "Mass Profiles and Shapes of Cosmological Structures", Paris 4-9
July 2005, France, (Eds.) G. Mamon, F. Combes, C. Deffayet, B. Fort, EAS
Publications Serie
Cold Dark Matter Substructure and Galactic Disks
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-sized 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.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the IAU
Symposium No. 254 "The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context", Copenhagen 9-13
June 2008, Denmark, (Eds.) J. Andersen, J. Bland-Hawthorn & B. Nordstrom,
Cambridge University Pres
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