arXiv subjects

Raphaël Errani

Publications and source records attributed to Raphaël Errani.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

The Pristine survey XVIII: C-19: Tidal debris of a dark matter-dominated globular cluster?

The recently discovered C-19 stellar stream is a collection of kinematically associated metal-poor stars in the halo of the Milky Way lacking an obvious progenitor. The stream spans an arc of ~15 degrees in the sky, and orbit-fitting suggests an apocentric distance of ~20 kpc and a pericentre of ~10 kpc. The narrow metallicity dispersion of stars with available spectra, together with light element abundance variations, suggests a globular cluster (GC) origin. The observed metallicity ([Fe/H] ~ -3.4), however, is much lower than that of any known GC. In addition, the width and velocity dispersion of the stream are similar to those expected from disrupting dwarf galaxies, and substantially larger than the tidal debris of GCs able to disrupt on C-19's orbit. We propose here an unconventional model where the C-19 progenitor is a dark matter-dominated stellar system with GC-like abundance patterns. We use N-body simulations to show that the tidal disruption of a ~100 pc King-model stellar component embedded in a ~20 km/s cuspy cold dark matter halo yields debris consistent with C-19's observed width and velocity dispersion. The stellar component of the progenitor is fully disrupted, and is spread over two distinct streams; one corresponding to C-19 and another possibly hiding behind the Galactic plane. If such companion stream were found, it would suggest that dark matter-dominated dwarfs may also develop GC-like enrichment patterns, a finding that would inform our theoretical understanding of the formation of multiple populations in GCs and dwarf galaxies alike.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Revisiting a disky origin for the faint branch of the Sagittarius stellar stream

We investigate ways to produce the bifurcation observed in the stellar stream of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr). Our method consists in running $N$-body simulations of Sgr falling into the Milky Way for the last 3~Gyr, with added test particles on disk orbits that span a wide range of initial positions, energies, and angular momenta. We find that particles that end up in the faint branch are predominantly high angular momentum particles that can all originate from a single plane within the progenitor, nearly perpendicular both to the orbital plane of the progenitor and to the Milky Way stellar disk. Their original configuration at the start of the simulation corresponds to spiral features already present 3~Gyr ago, which could be, e.g., the result of a disk-like component being tidally perturbed, or the tidal tails of a satellite being disrupted within Sgr. We then run a simulation including the self-gravity of this disky component. Despite the remaining ambiguity of its origin, this disk component of the Sgr dwarf with spiral over-densities provides a first step towards a working model to reproduce the observed faint branch of the bifurcated Sgr stream.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

The Pristine survey -- XVII. The C-19 stream is dynamically hot and more extended than previously thought

The C-19 stream is the most metal poor stellar system ever discovered, with a mean metallicity $[Fe/H] = -3.38\pm0.06$. Its low metallicity dispersion ($σ_{\rm [Fe/H]}$ $<$ 0.18 at the 95\% confidence level) as well as variations in sodium abundances strongly suggest a globular cluster origin. In this work, we use VLT/UVES spectra of seven C-19 stars to derive more precise velocity measurements for member stars, and to identify two new members with radial velocities and metallicities consistent with the stream's properties. One of these new member stars is located 30 $°$ away from the previously identified body of C-19, implying that the stream is significantly more extended than previously known and that more members likely await discovery. In the main part of C-19, we measure a radial velocity dispersion $σ_v$ = 6.2$^{+2.0}_{-1.4}$ km s$^{-1}$ from nine members, and a stream width of 0.56$°\pm0.08°$, equivalent to $\sim$158 pc at a heliocentric distance of 18 kpc. These confirm that C-19 is comparatively hotter, dynamically, than other known globular cluster streams and shares the properties of faint dwarf galaxy streams. On the other hand, the variations in the Na abundances of the three newly observed bright member stars, the variations in Mg and Al for two of them, and the normal Ba abundance of the one star where it can be measured provide further evidence for a globular cluster origin. The tension between the dynamical and chemical properties of C-19 suggests that its progenitor experienced a complex birth environment or disruption history.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Structure and kinematics of tidally limited satellite galaxies in LCDM

We use N-body simulations to model the tidal evolution of dark matter-dominated dwarf spheroidal galaxies embedded in cuspy Navarro-Frenk-White subhalos. Tides gradually peel off stars and dark matter from a subhalo, trimming it down according to their initial binding energy. This process strips preferentially particles with long orbital times, and comes to an end when the remaining bound particles have crossing times shorter than a fraction of the orbital time at pericentre. The properties of the final stellar remnant thus depend on the energy distribution of stars in the progenitor subhalo, which in turn depends on the initial density profile and radial segregation of the initial stellar component. The stellar component may actually be completely dispersed if its energy distribution does not extend all the way to the subhalo potential minimum, although a bound dark remnant may remain. These results imply that 'tidally-limited' galaxies, defined as systems whose stellar components have undergone substantial tidal mass loss, neither converge to a unique structure nor follow a single tidal track, as claimed in earlier work. On the other hand, tidally limited dwarfs do have characteristic sizes and velocity dispersions that trace directly the characteristic radius ($r_{max}$) and circular velocity ($V_{max}$) of the subhalo remnant. This result places strong upper limits on the size of satellites whose unusually low velocity dispersions are often ascribed to tidal effects. In particular, the large size of kinematically-cold 'feeble giant' satellites like Crater 2 or Antlia 2 cannot be explained as due to tidal effects alone in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter scenario.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

The asymptotic tidal remnants of cold dark matter subhalos

We use N-body simulations to study the evolution of cuspy cold dark matter (CDM) halos in the gravitational potential of a massive host. Tidal mass losses reshape CDM halos, leaving behind bound remnants whose characteristic densities are set by the mean density of the host at the pericentre of their respective orbit. The evolution to the final bound remnant state is essentially complete after ~5 orbits for nearly circular orbits, while reaching the same remnant requires ~25 and ~40 orbits for eccentric orbits with 1:5 and 1:20 pericentre-to-apocentre ratios, respectively. The density profile of tidal remnants is fully specified by the fraction of mass lost, and approaches an exponentially-truncated Navarro-Frenk-White profile in the case of heavy mass loss. Resolving tidal remnants requires excellent numerical resolution; poorly resolved subhalos have systematically lower characteristic densities and are more easily disrupted. Even simulations with excellent spatial and time resolution fail when the final remnant is resolved with fewer than 3000 particles. We derive a simple empirical model that describes the evolution of the mass and the density profile of the tidal remnant applicable to a wide range of orbital eccentricities and pericentric distances. Applied to the Milky Way, our results suggest that $10^8$ - $10^{10}$ solar mass halos accreted ~10 Gyrs ago on 1:10 orbits with pericentric distance ~10 kpc should have been stripped to 0.1 - 1 per cent of their original mass. This implies that estimates of the survival and structure of such halos (the possible hosts of ultra-faint Milky Way satellites) based on direct cosmological simulations may be subject to substantial revision.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Can tides disrupt cold dark matter subhaloes?

The clumpiness of dark matter on sub-kpc scales is highly sensitive to the tidal evolution and survival of subhaloes. In agreement with previous studies, we show that N-body realisations of cold dark matter subhaloes with centrally-divergent density cusps form artificial constant-density cores on the scale of the resolution limit of the simulation. These density cores drive the artificial tidal disruption of subhaloes. We run controlled simulations of the tidal evolution of a single subhalo where we repeatedly reconstruct the density cusp, preventing artificial disruption. This allows us to follow the evolution of the subhalo for arbitrarily large fractions of tidally stripped mass. Based on this numerical evidence in combination with simple dynamical arguments, we argue that cuspy dark matter subhaloes cannot be completely disrupted by smooth tidal fields. Modelling stars as collisionless tracers of the underlying potential, we furthermore study the tidal evolution of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Using a model of the Tucana III dwarf as an example, we show that tides can strip dwarf galaxies down to sub-solar luminosities. The remnant 'micro-galaxies' would appear as co-moving groups of metal-poor, low-mass stars of similar age, embedded in sub-kpc dark matter subhaloes.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

The Formation of Ultra Diffuse Galaxies in Cored Dark Matter Halos Through Tidal Stripping and Heating

We propose that the Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy (UDG) population represents a set of satellite galaxies born in $\sim10^{10}-10^{11}$ M$_\odot$ halos, similar to field dwarfs, which suffer a dramatic reduction in surface brightness due to tidal stripping and heating. This scenario is observationally motivated by the radial alignment of UDGs in Coma as well as the significant dependence of UDG abundance on cluster mass. As a test of this formation scenario, we apply a semi-analytic model describing the change in stellar mass and half-light radius of dwarf satellites, occupying either cored or cuspy halos, to cluster subhalos in the Illustris-dark simulation. Key to this model are results from simulations which indicate that galaxies in cored dark-matter halos expand significantly in response to tidal stripping and heating, whereas galaxies in cuspy halos experience limited size evolution. Our analysis indicates that a population of tidally-stripped dwarf galaxies, residing in cored halos (like those hosting low-surface brightness field dwarfs), is able to reproduce the observed sizes and stellar masses of UDGs in clusters remarkably well.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Systematics in virial mass estimators for pressure-supported systems

Mass estimators are a key tool to infer the dark matter content in pressure-supported systems like dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). We construct an estimator for enclosed masses based on the virial theorem which is insensitive to anisotropy in the velocity dispersion and tailored to yield masses with minimum uncertainty introduced by our ignorance on (i) the shape of the inner halo profile, and (ii) how deeply the stellar component is embedded within the halo: $M(<1.8\,R_\mathrm{h}) \approx 3.5 \times 1.8\,R_\mathrm{h} \langle σ_\mathrm{los}^2 \rangle G^{-1}$, where by $R_\mathrm{h}$ we denote the projected half-light radius and by $\langle σ_\mathrm{los}^2 \rangle$ the luminosity-averaged squared line-of-sight velocity dispersion. Tests against controlled simulations show that this estimator provides unbiased enclosed masses with an accuracy of $\sim 10$ per cent. This confirms the robustness of similar previously proposed mass estimators. Application to published kinematic data of Milky Way dSphs reveals a tight correlation between enclosed mass and luminosity. Using $N$-body models we show that tidal stripping has little effect on this relation. Comparison against cuspy and cored dark matter haloes extracted from controlled re-simulations of the Aquarius A2 merger tree shows that the high mass densities of ultrafaint galaxies are not compatible with large dark matter cores, and that the (total) halo masses of the classical Milky Way dSphs span a remarkably narrow range ($8 \lesssim \mathrm{log_{10}}\,(M/\mathrm{M_\odot}) \lesssim 10$) at present, showing no clear trend with either galaxy size or luminosity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

The effect of a disc on the population of cuspy and cored dark matter substructures in Milky Way-like galaxies

We use high-resolution $N$-body simulations to study the effect of a galactic disc on the dynamical evolution of dark matter substructures with orbits and structural parameters extracted from the Aquarius A-2 merger tree (Springel et al. 2008). Satellites are modelled as equilibrium $N$-body realizations of generalized Hernquist profiles with $2\times10^6$ particles and injected in the analytical evolving host potential at $z_\mathrm{infall}$, defined by the peak of their mass evolution. We select all substructures with $M_{200}(z_\mathrm{infall})\geq 10^8\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ and first pericentric distances $r_p<r_{200}$. Motivated by observations of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies, we also explore satellite models with cored dark matter profiles with a fixed core size $r_c=0.8\,a_s$ where $a_s$ is the Hernquist scale radius. We find that models with cuspy satellites have twice as many surviving substructures at $z=0$ than their cored counterparts, and four times as many if we only consider those on orbits with $r_p\lesssim0.1\,r_{200}$. For a given profile, adding an evolving disc potential reduces the number of surviving substructures further by a factor of $\lesssim2$ for satellites on orbits that penetrate the disc ($r_p\lesssim 20\,\mathrm{kpc}$). For large $r_p$, where tidal forces and the effect of the disc become negligible, the number of satellites per pericentre bin converges to similar values for all four models.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Constraining the distribution of dark matter in dwarf spheroidal galaxies with stellar tidal streams

We use high-resolution N-body simulations to follow the formation and evolution of tidal streams associated to dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). The dSph models are embedded in dark matter (DM) haloes with either a centrally-divergent 'cusp', or an homogeneous-density 'core'. In agreement with previous studies, we find that as tides strip the galaxy the evolution of the half-light radius and the averaged velocity dispersion follows well-defined tracks that are mainly controlled by the amount of mass lost. Crucially, the evolutionary tracks behave differently depending on the shape of the DM profile: at a fixed remnant mass, dSphs embedded in cored haloes have larger sizes and higher velocity dispersions than their cuspy counterparts. The divergent evolution is particularly pronounced in galaxies whose stellar component is strongly segregated within their DM halo and becomes more disparate as the remnant mass decreases. Our analysis indicates that the DM profile plays an important role in defining the internal dynamics of tidal streams. We find that stellar streams associated to cored DM models have velocity dispersions that lie systematically above their cuspy counterparts. Our results suggest that the dynamics of streams with known dSph progenitors may provide strong constraints on the distribution of DM on the smallest galactic scales.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2010

Modell zur Entstehung eines Rings aus Dunkler Materie in der Milchstraßenebene

Both the distribution of hydrogen and the rotation curve of the Milky Way indicate the existence of a ring of Cold Dark Matter in the galactic plane with a radius of 14 kiloparsecs around the galactic centre. Using a semianalytical model, the formation of such a structure by the accretion of dwarf galaxies is simulated. The formation of the ring can be explained by the infall of a single dwarf galaxy, as well as by the infall of several dwarf galaxies under the condition that the eccentricity of the orbits is not larger than 0.2 and the inclination of the orbits is small. Also exclusion limits for the mass of dwarf galaxies, which contributed to the formation of the ring, are determined. ----- Die Verteilung von Wasserstoffgas sowie die Rotationskurve der Milchstraße deuten auf die Existenz eines Rings aus kalter Dunkler Materie innerhalb der Milchstraßenebene in einem Abstand von rund 14 Kiloparsec um das galaktische Zentrum. Es wird mit Hilfe eines semianalytischen Modells die Entstehung eines solchen Rings durch den Einfall von Zwerggalaxien in die Milchstraße simuliert. Die Entstehung des Rings kann sowohl durch einen Einzeleinfall als auch durch den Einfall mehrerer Zwerggalaxien erklärt werden, solange die numerische Exzentrizität der Orbits nicht 0.2 übersteigt und die Inklination der Orbits klein ist. Auch ein die Mindestmasse einer an der Ringentstehung beteiligten Zwerggalaxie beschreibender Zusammenhang ist ermittelt worden.

astro-ph↗