Co-orbiting satellite galaxy structures are still in conflict with the distribution of primordial dwarf galaxies

By M. Pawlowski, B. Famaey, H. Jerjen, D. Merritt, Pavel Kroupa, Joerg Dabringhausen, F. Lughausen, D. Forbes, Gerhard Hensler, F. Hammer and 4 more. 2014

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Both major galaxies in the Local Group host planar distributions of co-orbiting satellite galaxies, the Vast Polar Structure (VPOS) of the Milky Way and the Great Plane of Andromeda (GPoA). The $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model did not predict these features. However, according to three recent studies the properties of the GPoA and the flattening of the VPOS are common features among sub-halo based $\Lambda$CDM satellite systems, and the GPoA can be naturally explained by satellites being acquired along cold gas streams. We point out some methodological issues in these studies: either the selection of model satellites is different from that of the observed ones, or an incomplete set of observational constraints has been considered, or the observed satellite distribution is inconsistent with basic assumptions. Once these issues have been addressed, the conclusions are different: features like the VPOS and GPoA are very rare (each with probability $\lesssim 10^{-3}$, and combined probability $< 10^{-5}$) if satellites are selected from a $\Lambda$CDM simulation combined with semi-analytic modelling, and accretion along cold streams is no natural explanation of the GPoA. The origin of planar dwarf galaxy structures remains unexplained in the standard paradigm of galaxy formation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c3a5912bd0bd8f0405d1082b8030c5ceab8aab38

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Citations in the corpus

Galaxies as simple dynamical systems: observational data disfavor dark matter and stochastic star formation (2014, background): “In particular [9] re-analyse all recently made claims in the literature concerning the theoretical three-dimensional distribution of primordial satellite galaxies within MW-type host dark matter halos confirming this theoretical spheroidal and highly non-disk-like distribution (see [89] for similar ”
Small scale problems of the $\Lambda$CDM model: a short review (2016, background): “The problem of satellites planes, namely the alignment on thin planes of satellite galaxies of the MW and M31, a feature that proved difficult to explain in simulations of the ΛCDM paradigm [44]; e.”
One Law to Rule Them All: The Radial Acceleration Relation of Galaxies (2016, background): “…ΛCDM model is known to face severe problems with both the rotation curves of disk galaxies (e.g., Moore et al. 1999; de Blok et al. 2001; McGaugh et al. 2007; Kuzio de Naray et al. 2009) and the dynamics of dSphs (e.g., Boylan-Kolchin et al. 2011; Walker & Peñarrubia 2011; Pawlowski et al. 2014).”