HALO EXPANSION IN COSMOLOGICAL HYDRO SIMULATIONS: TOWARD A BARYONIC SOLUTION OF THE CUSP/CORE PROBLEM IN MASSIVE SPIRALS

By A. Macciò, G. Stinson, C. Brook, James Wadsley, Hugh M. P. Couchman, S. Shen, B. K. Gibson, Thomas R. Quinn. 2011

186 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A clear prediction of the cold dark matter (CDM) model is the existence of cuspy dark matter halo density profiles on all mass scales. This is not in agreement with the observed rotation curves of spiral galaxies, challenging on small scales the otherwise successful CDM paradigm. In this work we employ high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to study the effects of dissipative processes on the inner distribution of dark matter in Milky Way like objects (M ≈ 1012 M☉). Our simulations include supernova feedback, and the effects of the radiation pressure of massive stars before they explode as supernovae. The increased stellar feedback results in the expansion of the dark matter halo instead of contraction with respect to N-body simulations. Baryons are able to erase the dark matter cuspy distribution, creating a flat, cored, dark matter density profile in the central several kiloparsecs of a massive Milky-Way-like halo. The profile is well fit by a Burkert profile, with fitting parameters consistent with the observations. In addition, we obtain flat rotation curves as well as extended, exponential stellar disk profiles. While the stellar disk we obtain is still partially too thick to resemble the Milky Way thin disk, this pilot study shows that there is enough energy available in the baryonic component to alter the dark matter distribution even in massive disk galaxies, providing a possible solution to the long-standing problem of cusps versus cores.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3ee33051c5a5fdaef2dd79cde3ba0565db79d2e8

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Citations in the corpus

The impact of baryonic physics on the structure of dark matter haloes: the view from the FIRE cosmological simulations (2015, methodology): “Initial problems with the SIDM have motivated more complex models such as velocity-dependent SIDM (Yoshida et al. 2000; Loeb & Weiner 2011; Macciò et al. 2012a).”
The ATLAS3D project XV: benchmark for early-type galaxies scaling relations from 260 dynamical models: mass-to-light ratio, dark matter, fundamental plane and mass plane (2012, background): “However, recent simulations suggest that baryonic effects produce flatter haloes than these predictions for a broad range of galaxy masses (Duffy et al. 2010; Governato et al. 2010; Inoue & Saitoh 2011; Laporte et al. 2012; Macciò et al. 2012; Martizzi et al. 2012; Pontzen & Governato 2012).”
Making Galaxies in a Cosmological Context: The Need for Early Stellar Feedback (2012, methodology): “Stinson et al. (2012) showed that the outflows that redistribute the gas also populate the circumgalactic medium with an amount of oxygen that closely matches observations of OVI in the CGM. Macciò et al. (2012) showed that these outflows can also change the inner regions of dark matter density pro”
WHY BARYONS MATTER: THE KINEMATICS OF DWARF SPHEROIDAL SATELLITES (2012, background): “The bursty SFHs in the most massive halos lead to DM core creation prior to infall (see also Read & Gilmore 2005; Macciò et al. 2012b; Pontzen & Governato 2012; Teyssier et al. 2012b; Peñarrubia et al. 2012; Garrison-Kimmel et al. 2013).1 Many subhalos lose most of their gas after infall and are…”
BARYONS MATTER: WHY LUMINOUS SATELLITE GALAXIES HAVE REDUCED CENTRAL MASSES (2012, methodology): “…centers of galaxies (Navarro et al. 1996; Read & Gilmore 2005; Mashchenko et al. 2006, 2008; Governato et al. 2010; Pasetto et al. 2010; de Souza et al. 2011; Cloet-Osselaer et al. 2012; Macciò et al. 2012; Pontzen & Governato 2012; Governato et al. 2012; Teyssier et al. 2012; Ogiya & Mori 2012).”
The local dark matter density (2014, background): “Such processes may even be important for galaxies as massive as the Milky Way (Dutton et al., 2010; Macciò et al., 2012).”
Galaxy Masses: A Review (2013, background): “Only recently have these effects been demonstrated in fully cosmological simulations of galaxy formation (Johansson et al. 2009; Abadi et al. 2010; Duffy et al. 2010; Macciò et al. 2012; Martizzi et al. 2012; Governato et al. 2012).”
Galaxies on FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments): stellar feedback explains cosmologically inefficient star formation (2013, background): “…generally found it necessary to include simplified prescriptions for “turning off cooling” in the SNe-heated gas and/or include some adjustable parameters representing “pre-SNe” feedback (see Governato et al. 2010; Macciò et al. 2012; Teyssier et al. 2013; Stinson et al. 2013; Agertz et al. 2013).”
FIRE-2 simulations: physics versus numerics in galaxy formation (2017, background): “By “turning off cooling” for some adjusted duration, as in Stinson et al. (2006); Governato et al. (2010); Macciò et al. (2012); Teyssier et al. (2013); Stinson et al. (2013); Crain et al. (2015), or directly putting in winds “by hand” as in Springel & Hernquist (2003a); Davé et al. (2006);…”
MaGICC discs: matching observed galaxy relationships over a wide stellar mass range (2012, background): “This flattening of the central dark matter profile when baryons are included has also been found in cosmological simulations of dwarf galaxies (Governato et al. 2010) and massive disc galaxies (Macciò et al. 2012).”
A BARYONIC SOLUTION TO THE MISSING SATELLITES PROBLEM (2012, background): “…Read & Gilmore 2005; Mashchenko et al. 2006, 2008; Governato et al. 2010; Pasetto et al. 2010; de Souza et al. 2011; Cloet-Osselaer et al. 2012; Macciò et al. 2012; Pontzen & Governato 2012; Governato et al. 2012; Teyssier et al. 2012) the profile depending on the mass of the halo in…”
Subhaloes in self-interacting galactic dark matter haloes (2012, background): “Recent hydrodynamical simulations seem to be successful in producing cores if strong feedback mechanisms are invoked (e.g. Macciò et al. 2012; Pontzen & Governato 2011).”
The current status of galaxy formation (2012, background): “The combined feedback helps expand the halo expansion, thereby limiting dynamical friction and bulge formation (Macciò et al., 2012).”
The formation of disc galaxies in high-resolution moving-mesh cosmological simulations (2013, background): “Several studies have argued that baryonic effects can induce through this process dark matter cores in dwarf galaxies (Governato et al. 2010; Pontzen & Governato 2012; Governato et al. 2012), or even in large Milky Way size haloes or galaxy clusters (Macciò et al. 2012; Martizzi et al. 2012).”