TY - JOUR
T1 - Creating a galaxy lacking dark matter in a dark matter-dominated universe
AU - Macciò, Andrea V.
AU - Prats, Daniel Huterer
AU - Dixon, Keri L.
AU - Buck, Tobias
AU - Waterval, Stefan
AU - Arora, Nikhil
AU - Courteau, Stéphane
AU - Kang, Xi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - We use hydrodynamical cosmological simulations to show that it is possible to create, via tidal interactions, galaxies lacking dark matter (DM) in a DM-dominated universe. We select dwarf galaxies from the NIHAO project, obtained in the standard cold dark matter model and use them as initial conditions for simulations of satellite-central interactions. After just one pericentric passage on an orbit with a strong radial component, NIHAO dwarf galaxies can lose up to 80 per cent of their DM content, but, most interestingly, their central (≈8 kpc) DM-to-stellar mass ratio changes from a value of ∼25, as expected from numerical simulations and abundance matching techniques, to roughly unity as reported for NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1054-DF4. The stellar velocity dispersion drops from ∼30 kms-1 before infall to values as low as 6 ± 2 kms-1. These, and the half-light radius around 3 kpc, are in good agreement with observations from van Dokkum and collaborators. Our study shows that it is possible to create a galaxy without DM starting from typical dwarf galaxies formed in a DM-dominated universe, provided they live in a dense environment.
AB - We use hydrodynamical cosmological simulations to show that it is possible to create, via tidal interactions, galaxies lacking dark matter (DM) in a DM-dominated universe. We select dwarf galaxies from the NIHAO project, obtained in the standard cold dark matter model and use them as initial conditions for simulations of satellite-central interactions. After just one pericentric passage on an orbit with a strong radial component, NIHAO dwarf galaxies can lose up to 80 per cent of their DM content, but, most interestingly, their central (≈8 kpc) DM-to-stellar mass ratio changes from a value of ∼25, as expected from numerical simulations and abundance matching techniques, to roughly unity as reported for NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1054-DF4. The stellar velocity dispersion drops from ∼30 kms-1 before infall to values as low as 6 ± 2 kms-1. These, and the half-light radius around 3 kpc, are in good agreement with observations from van Dokkum and collaborators. Our study shows that it is possible to create a galaxy without DM starting from typical dwarf galaxies formed in a DM-dominated universe, provided they live in a dense environment.
KW - cosmology: Theory
KW - dark matter
KW - galaxies: Formation
KW - galaxies: Kinematics and dynamics
KW - methods: Numerical
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U2 - 10.1093/mnras/staa3716
DO - 10.1093/mnras/staa3716
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100437347
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 501
SP - 693
EP - 700
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 1
ER -