Simulating observations of dark matter dominated galaxies: towards the optimal halo profile

By W. J. Blok, A. Bosma, S. University, UK., O. Marseille, France., U. Maryland, Usa. 2002

193 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Low surface brightness galaxies are dominated by dark matter, and their rotation curves thus reflect their dark matter distribution. Recent high-resolution rotation curves suggest that their dark matter mass-density distributions are dominated by a constant-density core. This seems inconsistent with the predictions of cold dark matter (CDM) models which produce haloes with compact density cusps and steep mass-density profiles. However, the observationally determined mass profiles may be affected by non-circular motions, asymmetries and offsets between optical and dynamical centres, all of which tend to lower the observed slopes. Here we determine the impact of each of these effects on a variety of halo models, and we compare the results with observed mass-density profiles. Our simulations suggest that no single systematic effect can reconcile the data with the cuspy CDM haloes. The data are best described by a model with a soft core with an inner power-law mass-density slope a = --0.2 ′ 0.2. However, no single universal halo profile provides a completely adequate description of the data.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Global and Planetary Change, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6e57bc42850db0a9ceb70dd7294374c5229e7f47

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Citations in the corpus

DARK AND LUMINOUS MATTER IN THINGS DWARF GALAXIES (2010, background): “…a particular value of V200 is determined by the following empirical c−V200 relation from the WMAP5 observations in McGaugh et al. (2007; see also de Blok et al. 2003), logV200 = 2C− log[g(c)]− log( h 2 ), (13) where g(c) = c2 ln(1 + c)− c/(1 + c) , (14) h = H0/100kms −1 Mpc−1 and C = 1.61 for the…”
The dependence of dark matter profiles on the stellar-to-halo mass ratio: a prediction for cusps versus cores (2013, methodology): “Simulated DM haloes modeled with an Einasto (Einasto 1965) profile have a inner slope of−0.7 (Graham et al. 2006): this value is closer to what observed in real galaxies (Swaters et al. 2003), yet not sufficient to solve the discrepancy (de Blok et al. 2003).”
Galaxy Rotation Curves without Nonbaryonic Dark Matter (2005, background): “…low surface brightness galaxies has been studied in the context of cold dark matter, with the common conclusion that the rotation curves of LSB and dwarf galaxies rise more slowly than those of HSB galaxies (or elliptical galaxies; de Blok & McGaugh 1996; de Blok et al. 2003; Bailin et al. 2005).”
The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. IV. The Mass Density Profile of Early-Type Galaxies out to 100 Effective Radii (2007, result): “…devoted to comparing those predictions to observations with debated results in the case e.g. of low surface brightness galaxies (Salucci 2001; de Blok et al. 2003; Swaters et al. 2003; Gentile et al. 2004; Simon et al. 2005) or at galaxy cluster scales (e.g. Sand et al. 2004; Gavazzi 2005;…”
The Mass Discrepancy-Acceleration Relation: Disk Mass and the Dark Matter Distribution (2004, background): “Also shown in Figure 8 are the limits placed by the data for low surface brightness galaxies from de Blok et al. (2003) and Swaters et al. (2003).”
Empirical Models for Dark Matter Halos. II. Inner Profile Slopes, Dynamical Profiles, and ρ/σ3 (2006, background): “However, on their own, these do not explain the observed difference in slope (de Blok et al. 2003; Gentile et al. 2006).”
The Core-Cusp Problem (2009, background): “Using further modeling, de Blok et al. (2003) find that a halo model with a mildly cuspy slopeα = −0.2±0.2 gives the best description of the data in the presence of realistic observational effects.”
Small scale problems of the $\Lambda$CDM model: a short review (2016, unknown): “Another possibility took seriously the failure of the CDM model, claiming the problems were with the simulations [161,227,228].”
High-Resolution Measurements of the Halos of Four Dark Matter-Dominated Galaxies: Deviations from a Universal Density Profile (2004, background): “Despite our disagreement on the value of the mean slope, we agree with other recent studies that found that dark matter density profiles span a wide range of slopes (e.g., de Blok et al. 2003; Swaters et al. 2003).”
HIGH-RESOLUTION MASS MODELS OF DWARF GALAXIES FROM LITTLE THINGS (2015, background): “The measurement of the value of c in nearby galaxies provides an observational constraint on the central cusps predicted from ΛCDM simulations (McGaugh et al. 2007; see also de Blok et al. 2003).”
GHASP: an Hα kinematic survey of spiral and irregular galaxies – V. Dark matter distribution in 36 nearby spiral galaxies (2007, result): “…that γ is closer to 0.0 than to -1.0 and that mass models give better results with an isothermal (or pseudo-isothermal) sphere halo rather than a NFW profile (e.g. Blais-Ouellette et al. 2001, de Blok & Bosma 2002, Swaters et al. 2003, de Blok et al. 2003, de Blok 2005, Kassin et al. 2006a).”
A KINEMATIC STUDY OF THE ANDROMEDA DWARF SPHEROIDAL SYSTEM (2013, background): “…predicted by cosmological simulations (Navarro et al. 1997), or constant density cores, similar to what is observed in low surface brightness galaxies (Blais-Ouellette et al. 2001; de Blok & Bosma 2002; de Blok et al. 2003; de Blok 2005; Swaters et al. 2003; Kassin et al. 2006; Spano et al. 2008).”
HIGH-RESOLUTION DARK MATTER DENSITY PROFILES OF THINGS DWARF GALAXIES: CORRECTING FOR NONCIRCULAR MOTIONS (2008, background): “However, de Blok et al. (2003) show that rotation curves observed by independent observers on different telescopes agree within the given errors and that pointing offsets are unlikely to exceed ∼0.”