Bulgeless dwarf galaxies and dark matter cores from supernova-driven outflows

By Fabio Governato, C. Brook, Lucio Mayer, A. Brooks, G. Rhee, James Wadsley, P. Jonsson, B. Willman, G. Stinson, Thomas R. Quinn and 1 more. Nature, 2009

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For almost two decades the properties of ‘dwarf’ galaxies have challenged the cold dark matter (CDM) model of galaxy formation. Most observed dwarf galaxies consist of a rotating stellar disk embedded in a massive dark-matter halo with a near-constant-density core. Models based on the dominance of CDM, however, invariably form galaxies with dense spheroidal stellar bulges and steep central dark-matter profiles, because low-angular-momentum baryons and dark matter sink to the centres of galaxies through accretion and repeated mergers. Processes that decrease the central density of CDM halos have been identified, but have not yet reconciled theory with observations of present-day dwarfs. This failure is potentially catastrophic for the CDM model, possibly requiring a different dark-matter particle candidate. Here we report hydrodynamical simulations (in a framework assuming the presence of CDM and a cosmological constant) in which the inhomogeneous interstellar medium is resolved. Strong outflows from supernovae remove low-angular-momentum gas, which inhibits the formation of bulges and decreases the dark-matter density to less than half of what it would otherwise be within the central kiloparsec. The analogues of dwarf galaxies—bulgeless and with shallow central dark-matter profiles—arise naturally in these simulations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c5d58db795580fdc3d5ecd4a26806656f55b979b

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The birth of a galaxy – II. The role of radiation pressure (2012, background): “For example, Governato et al. (2010) found that a bulgeless disc galaxy forms instead of a bulge-dominated galaxy when the star formation density threshold was increased by a factor of 1000 to 100 cm−3.”
Constraining self-interacting dark matter with the Milky Way’s dwarf spheroidals (2012, background): “Current hydrodynamical simulations have shown that such a mechanism is able to create large cores in intermediate-mass galaxies (Governato et al. 2010, 2012), and, once tidal stripping is taken into account, it might solve the too big to fail problem as well (Brooks & Zolotov 2012).”
Hierarchical formation of bulgeless galaxies: why outflows have low angular momentum (2010, background): “We recently simulated dwarf galaxies which match a wide range of observed dwarf galaxy properties, including the absence of a bulge and cored DM distribution that causes a linearly rising rotation curve with no inner “peak” (Governato et al. 2010; G10 hereafter).”
Vertical disc heating in Milky Way-sized galaxies in a cosmological context (2015, background): “However, full hydrodynamical cosmological simulations are now able to produce thin stellar discs with small bulges (Governato et al. 2010; Agertz et al. 2011; Guedes et al. 2011; Martig et al. 2012; Aumer et al. 2013; Stinson et al. 2013a; Marinacci et al. 2 We note that stars that migrate via…”
The current status of galaxy formation (2012, background): “Strong SN feedback can eject enough baryons from the innermost region to create a core (Governato et al., 2010; Pontzen & Governato, 2012), but this requires high early SN feedback or a series of implausibly short bursts of star formation.”
Moving mesh cosmology: numerical techniques and global statistics (2011, methodology): “…some considerable progress over the last few years on the latter issue (e.g. Robertson et al. 2004; Governato et al. 2007; Scannapieco et al. 2008; Governato et al. 2010; Agertz, Teyssier & Moore 2011; Guedes et al. 2011), one of the outstanding problems is to produce a statistical sample of…”
THE DENSITY PROFILES OF MASSIVE, RELAXED GALAXY CLUSTERS. I. THE TOTAL DENSITY OVER THREE DECADES IN RADIUS (2012, background): “…et al. 2004; RomanoDı́az et al. 2008; Jardel & Sellwood 2009; Johansson et al. 2009; Del Popolo 2012), feedback from supernovae in lowmass galaxies (Governato et al. 2010; Pontzen & Governato 2012; Brooks & Zolotov 2012), and active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback in clusters of galaxies…”
The ATLAS3D project – XX. Mass–size and mass–σ distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function (2012, background): “The halo slope is allowed to vary in a range which includes both the flat inner haloes predicted by halo expansion models (e.g. Governato et al. 2010), and the steep ones predicted by adiabatic halo contraction (e.g. Gnedin et al. 2004).”
Cosmological Simulations with Self-Interacting Dark Matter I: Constant Density Cores and Substructure (2012, result): “In principle, the expulsion of gas from galaxies can result in lower dark matter densities compared to dissipationless simulations, and thus bring CDM models in line with observations (Governato et al. 2010; Oh et al. 2011; Pontzen & Governato 2011; Brook et al. 2012; Governato et al. 2012).”
Dwarf galaxies in CDM and SIDM with baryons: observational probes of the nature of dark matter (2014, background): “It has been argued that these characteristics are intimately connected to ‘bursty’ star formation rates (see e.g. Governato et al. 2010).”
The haloes of bright satellite galaxies in a warm dark matter universe (2011, result): “Recent simulations (Read & Gilmore 2005; Mashchenko et al. 2008; Governato et al. 2010) suggest that these processes could be important although it remains to be seen if they are enough to reconcile the CDM model with the dynamics of the Milky Way satellites.”
NIHAO - XI. Formation of ultra-diffuse galaxies by outflows (2016, background): “…works extensively showed that feedback driven gas outflows are able to cause expansion not only of the central DM distribution in galaxies (e.g. Governato et al. 2010; Di Cintio et al. 2014a,b; Oñorbe et al. 2015; Tollet et al. 2016; Chan et al. 2015; Read et al. 2016), but also of the…”
TOWARD A COMPLETE ACCOUNTING OF ENERGY AND MOMENTUM FROM STELLAR FEEDBACK IN GALAXY FORMATION SIMULATIONS (2012, background): “50 − 100pc, while reaching z = 0, are becoming increasingly common (Agertz et al. 2009b; Governato et al. 2010; Guedes et al. 2011).”
MaGICC discs: matching observed galaxy relationships over a wide stellar mass range (2012, background): “A contrasting model invoking energy ‘feedback’ from supernovae (SNe) to regulate star formation has successfully simulated dwarf and Milky Way mass galaxies that share many properties of observed galaxies (Governato et al. 2010; Guedes et al. 2011; Piontek & Steinmetz 2011).”
THE BARYONIC TULLY–FISHER RELATION OF GAS-RICH GALAXIES AS A TEST OF ΛCDM AND MOND (2011, methodology): “Most recently, detailed numerical simulations have produced model galaxies consistent with the BTFR (Governato et al. 2010; Piontek & Steinmetz 2011).”
Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, result): “…the same “blast wave” feedback model can impulsively heat the dark matter, removing the central cusp generically predicted in dark matter simulations, and thereby producing rotation curves in better agreement with observations (Governato et al. 2010, Oh et al. 2011, Pontzen & Governato 2012).”
A METHOD FOR MEASURING (SLOPES OF) THE MASS PROFILES OF DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2011, background): “…of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB30HA 3 Hubble Fellow volving baryons might alter the original structure of a dark matter halo (e.g., Blumenthal et al. 1986; Navarro et al. 1996; El-Zant et al. 2001; Gnedin et al. 2004; Tonini et al. 2006; Governato et al. 2010; Pontzen & Governato 2011).”
The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments (2014, background): “…of the low-density IGM, but several groups have now independently succeeded in producing disc galaxies with more realistic sizes and masses (e.g. Governato et al. 2004, 2010; Okamoto et al. 2005; Agertz et al. 2011; Guedes et al. 2011; McCarthy et al. 2012; Brook et al. 2012; Stinson et al.…”