On the formation of dwarf galaxies and stellar halos

Using analytic arguments and a suite of very high resolution (10^3 Msun per particle) cosmological hydro-dynamical simulations, we argue that high redshift, z ~ 10, M ~ 10^8 Msun halos, form the smallest `baryonic building block' (BBB) for galaxy formation. These halos are just massive enough to efficiently form stars through atomic line cooling and to hold onto their gas in the presence of supernovae winds and reionisation. These combined effects, in particular that of the supernovae feedback, create a sharp transition: over the mass range 3-10x10^7 Msun, the BBBs drop two orders ofmagnitude in stellar mass. Below ~2x10^7 Msun, galaxies will be dark with almost no stars and no gas. Above this scale is the smallest unit of galaxy formation: the BBB. A small fraction (~100) of these gas rich BBBs fall in to a galaxy the size of the Milky Way. Ten percent of these survive to become the observed LG dwarf galaxies at the present epoch. Those in-falling halos on benign orbits which keep them far away from the Milky Way or Andromeda manage to retain their gas and slowly form stars - these become the smallest dwarf irregular galax ies; those on more severe orbits lose their gas faster than they can form stars and become the dwarf spheroidals. The remaining 90% of the BBBs will be accreted. We show that this gives a metallicity and total stellar mass consistent with the Milky Way old stellar halo (abridged).Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, one figure added to match accepted version. Some typos fixed. MNRAS in pres

On the formation of dwarf galaxies and stellar haloes

Using analytic arguments and a suite of very high resolution (∼103 M⊙ per particle) cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, we argue that high-redshift, z∼ 10, M∼ 108 M⊙ haloes, form the smallest ‘baryonic building block' (BBB) for galaxy formation. These haloes are just massive enough to efficiently form stars through atomic line cooling and to hold on to their gas in the presence of supernova (SN) winds and reionization. These combined effects, in particular that of the SN feedback, create a sharp transition: over the mass range 3-10 × 107 M⊙, the BBBs drop two orders of magnitude in stellar mass. Below ∼2 × 107 M⊙, galaxies will be dark with almost no stars and no gas. Above this scale is the smallest unit of galaxy formation: the BBB. We show that the BBBs have stellar distributions which are spheroidal, of low rotational velocity, old and metal poor: they resemble the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) of the Local Group (LG). Unlike the LG dSphs, however, they contain significant gas fractions. We connect these high-redshift BBBs to the smallest dwarf galaxies observed at z= 0 using linear theory. A small fraction (∼100) of these gas-rich BBBs at high redshift fall in to a galaxy the size of the Milky Way (MW). We suggest that 10 per cent of these survive to become the observed LG dwarf galaxies at the present epoch. This is consistent with recent numerical estimates. Those infalling haloes on benign orbits which keep them far away from the MW or Andromeda manage to retain their gas and slowly form stars - these become the smallest dwarf irregular galaxies; those on more severe orbits lose their gas faster than they can form stars and become the dwarf spheroidals. The remaining 90 per cent of the BBBs will be accreted. We show that this gives a metallicity and total stellar mass consistent with the MW old stellar hal

Quantifying the Rarity of the Local Super-Volume

We investigate the extent to which the number of clusters of mass exceeding 1015M⊙h−1 within the local super-volume (⁠<135Mpch−1⁠) is compatible with the standard ΛCDM cosmological model. Depending on the mass estimator used, we find that the observed number N of such massive structures can vary between 0 and 5. Adopting N = 5 yields ΛCDM likelihoods as low as 2.4 × 10−3 (with σ8 = 0.81) or 3.8 × 10−5 (with σ8 = 0.74). However, at the other extreme (N = 0), the likelihood is of order unity. Thus, while potentially very powerful, this method is currently limited by systematic uncertainties in cluster mass estimates. This motivates efforts to reduce these systematics with additional observations and improved modelling

Quantifying the Rarity of the Local Super-Volume

We investigate the extent to which the number of clusters of mass exceeding 1015M⊙h−1 within the local super-volume (⁠<135Mpch−1⁠) is compatible with the standard ΛCDM cosmological model. Depending on the mass estimator used, we find that the observed number N of such massive structures can vary between 0 and 5. Adopting N = 5 yields ΛCDM likelihoods as low as 2.4 × 10−3 (with σ8 = 0.81) or 3.8 × 10−5 (with σ8 = 0.74). However, at the other extreme (N = 0), the likelihood is of order unity. Thus, while potentially very powerful, this method is currently limited by systematic uncertainties in cluster mass estimates. This motivates efforts to reduce these systematics with additional observations and improved modelling

Dynamical friction in constant density cores: a failure of the Chandrasekhar formula

Using analytic calculations and N-body simulations we show that in constant density (harmonic) cores, sinking satellites undergo an initial phase of very rapid (super-Chandrasekhar) dynamical friction, after which they experience no dynamical friction at all. For density profiles with a central power law profile, ρ∝r−α, the infalling satellite heats the background and causes α to decrease. For α < 0.5 initially, the satellite generates a small central constant density core and stalls as in the α= 0 case. We discuss some astrophysical applications of our results to decaying satellite orbits, galactic bars and mergers of supermassive black hole binaries. In a companion paper we show that a central constant density core can provide a natural solution to the timing problem for Fornax's globular cluster

EDGE: The origin of scatter in ultra-faint dwarf stellar masses and surface brightnesses

We demonstrate how the least luminous galaxies in the Universe, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, are sensitive to their dynamical mass at the time of cosmic reionization. We select a low-mass ($\sim \text{1.5} \times 10^{9} \, \text{M}_{\odot}$) dark matter halo from a cosmological volume, and perform zoom hydrodynamical simulations with multiple alternative histories using "genetically modified" initial conditions. Earlier forming ultra-faints have higher stellar mass today, due to a longer period of star formation before their quenching by reionization. Our histories all converge to the same final dynamical mass, demonstrating the existence of extended scatter ($\geq$ 1 dex) in stellar masses at fixed halo mass due to the diversity of possible histories. One of our variants builds less than 2 % of its final dynamical mass before reionization, rapidly quenching in-situ star formation. The bulk of its final stellar mass is later grown by dry mergers, depositing stars in the galaxy's outskirts and hence expanding its effective radius. This mechanism constitutes a new formation scenario for highly diffuse ($\text{r}_{1 /2} \sim 820 \, \text{pc}$, $\sim 32 \, \text{mag arcsec}^2$), metal-poor ($\big[ \mathrm{Fe}\, / \mathrm{H} \big]= -2.9$), ultra-faint ($\mathcal{M}_V= -5.7$) dwarf galaxies within the reach of next-generation low surface brightness surveys.Comment: Minor edits to match the published ApJL version. Results unchange

EDGE -- Dark matter or astrophysics? Clear prospects to break dark matter heating degeneracies with HI rotation in faint dwarf galaxies

Low-mass dwarf galaxies are expected to showcase pristine `cuspy' inner dark matter density profiles compared to their stellar sizes, as they form too few stars to significantly drive dark matter heating through supernovae-driven outflows. Here, we study such simulated faint systems ($10^4 \leq M_{\star} \leq 2\times 10^6 \, M_\mathrm{\odot}$) drawn from high-resolution (3 pc) cosmological simulations from the `Engineering Dwarf Galaxies at the Edge of galaxy formation' (EDGE) project. We confirm that these objects have steep and rising inner dark matter density profiles at $z=0$, little affected by galaxy formation effects. But five dwarf galaxies from the suite showcase a detectable HI reservoir ($M_{\mathrm{HI}}\approx 10^{5}-10^{6} \, M_\mathrm{\odot}$), analogous to the observed population of faint, HI-bearing dwarf galaxies. These reservoirs exhibit episodes of ordered rotation, opening windows for rotation curve analysis. Within actively star-forming dwarfs, stellar feedback easily disrupts the tenuous HI discs ($v_{\phi} \approx 10\, \mathrm{km} \, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$), making rotation short-lived ($\ll 150 \, \mathrm{Myr}$) and more challenging to interpret for dark matter inferences. Contrastingly, we highlight a long-lived ($\geq 500 \, \mathrm{Myr}$) and easy-to-interpret HI rotation curve extending to $\approx 2\, r_{1/2, \text{3D}}$ in a quiescent dwarf, that has not formed new stars since $z=4$. This stable gas disc is supported by an oblate dark matter halo shape that drives high angular momentum gas flows. Our results strongly motivate further searches for HI rotation curves in the observed population of HI-bearing low-mass dwarfs, that provide a key regime to disentangle the respective roles of dark matter microphysics and galaxy formation effects in driving dark matter heating.Comment: Main text 10 pages, submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome

EDGE: The shape of dark matter haloes in the faintest galaxies

Collisionless Dark Matter Only (DMO) structure formation simulations predict that Dark Matter (DM) haloes are prolate in their centres and triaxial towards their outskirts. The addition of gas condensation transforms the central DM shape to be rounder and more oblate. It is not clear, however, whether such shape transformations occur in `ultra-faint' dwarfs, which have extremely low baryon fractions. We present the first study of the shape and velocity anisotropy of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that have gas mass fractions of $f_{\rm gas}(r<R_{\rm half}) < 0.06$. These dwarfs are drawn from the Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy formation's Edge (EDGE) project, using high resolution simulations that allow us to resolve DM halo shapes within the half light radius ($\sim 100\,$pc). We show that gas-poor ultra-faints ($M_{\rm 200c} \leqslant 1.5\times10^9\,$M$_\odot$; $f_{\rm gas} < 10^{-5}$) retain their pristine prolate DM halo shape even when gas, star formation and feedback are included. This could provide a new and robust test of DM models. By contrast, gas-rich ultra-faints ($M_{\rm 200c} > 3\times10^9\,$M$_\odot$; $f_{\rm gas} > 10^{-4}$) become rounder and more oblate within $\sim 10$ half light radii. Finally, we find that most of our simulated dwarfs have significant radial velocity anisotropy that rises to $\tilde{\beta} > 0.5$ at $R \gtrsim 3 R_{\rm half}$. The one exception is a dwarf that forms a rotating gas/stellar disc because of a planar, major merger. Such strong anisotropy should be taken into account when building mass models of gas-poor ultra-faints.Comment: 16 pages and 11 figures (excluding appendices), accepted by MNRA

Linearization of homogeneous, nearly-isotropic cosmological models

Homogeneous, nearly-isotropic Bianchi cosmological models are considered. Their time evolution is expressed as a complete set of non-interacting linear modes on top of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background model. This connects the extensive literature on Bianchi models with the more commonly-adopted perturbation approach to general relativistic cosmological evolution. Expressions for the relevant metric perturbations in familiar coordinate systems can be extracted straightforwardly. Amongst other possibilities, this allows for future analysis of anisotropic matter sources in a more general geometry than usually attempted. We discuss the geometric mechanisms by which maximal symmetry is broken in the context of these models, shedding light on the origin of different Bianchi types. When all relevant length-scales are super-horizon, the simplest Bianchi I models emerge (in which anisotropic quantities appear parallel transported). Finally we highlight the existence of arbitrarily long near-isotropic epochs in models of general Bianchi type (including those without an exact isotropic limit).Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to CQ