Uncovering the dark matter distribution by combining stellar kinematics and integrated HI spectra: Method validation

Abstract

We determined the dark matter (DM) distribution in galaxies by jointly modelling stellar kinematics from integral field unit (IFU) observations and the gaseous kinematics encoded in a single integrated HI spectrum. The stellar kinematics are described by a triaxial orbit-superposition Schwarzschild model, while the HI gas is described by an idealised disc model; both are governed by the same gravitational potential. The potential comprises the stellar mass, a generalised Navarro-Frenk-White (gNFW) DM halo, and a central black hole. We validated the method on 58 simulated galaxies generated from the TNG50 cosmological simulation. For each galaxy, we created two versions of mock data with azimuthal angles viewed side-on and end-on, thus yielding 116 mock observations in total. Our model recovers the total mass, stellar mass, and DM mass profiles within the data range; the median DM mass of the 58 simulated galaxies is recovered with a relative systematic bias smaller than 20% across all radii from 2--20 kpc. The statistical uncertainties on the DM masses within 5 kpc remain similar to those found with the model constrained by IFU data only. In contrast, the relative uncertainty on the DM mass in the outer regions decreases when the HI spectrum is included; at 20 kpc, it drops markedly, from about 85% to roughly 30%. The DM density slope defined explicitly in the gNFW model is systematically underestimated and thus does not yield a reliable quantity from observations using our approach. Instead, we introduce density slopes evaluated between 2 and 20 kpc, which are statistically well recovered for both the total mass and the DM mass. We demonstrate the reliability of this method in uncovering the DM distribution and emphasise its promise for application to large samples of observed galaxies.