HOW TO MAKE AN ULTRA-FAINT DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY: TIDAL STIRRING OF DISKY DWARFS WITH SHALLOW DARK MATTER DENSITY PROFILES
- Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, 00-716 Warsaw (Poland)
- Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zuerich, CH-8057 Zuerich (Switzerland)
In recent years the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has unraveled a new population of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) whose origin remains a puzzle in the vicinity of the Milky Way (MW). Using a suite of collisionless N-body simulations, we investigate the formation of UFDs in the context of the tidal stirring model for the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group (LG). Our simulations are designed to reproduce the tidal interactions between MW-sized host galaxies and rotationally supported dwarfs embedded in 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} dark matter (DM) halos. We explore a variety of inner density slopes {rho}{proportional_to}r{sup -{alpha}} for the dwarf DM halos, ranging from core-like ({alpha} = 0.2) to cuspy ({alpha} = 1), and different dwarf orbital configurations. Our experiments demonstrate that UFDs can be produced via tidal stirring of disky dwarfs on relatively tight orbits, consistent with a redshift of accretion by the host galaxy of z {approx} 1, and with intermediate values for the halo inner density slopes ({rho}{proportional_to}r{sup -0.6}). The inferred slopes are in excellent agreement with those resulting from both the modeling of the rotation curves of dwarf galaxies and recent cosmological simulations of dwarf galaxy formation. Comparing the properties of observed UFDs with those of their simulated counterparts, we find remarkable similarities in terms of basic observational parameters. We conclude that tidal stirring of rotationally supported dwarfs represents a viable mechanism for the formation of UFDs in the LG environment.
- OSTI ID:
- 22047815
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 751, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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