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Title: Forecasts for Galaxy Formation and Dark Matter Constraints from Dwarf Galaxy Surveys

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA (United States); Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  4. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
  5. Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  6. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

The abundance of faint dwarf galaxies is determined by the underlying population of low-mass dark matter (DM) halos and the efficiency of galaxy formation in these systems. Here, we quantify potential galaxy formation and DM constraints from future dwarf satellite galaxy surveys. We generate satellite populations using a suite of Milky Way (MW)–mass cosmological zoom-in simulations and an empirical galaxy–halo connection model, and assess sensitivity to galaxy formation and DM signals when marginalizing over galaxy–halo connection uncertainties. We find that a survey of all satellites around one MW-mass host can constrain a galaxy formation cutoff at peak virial masses of M50 = 108 M at the 1σ level; however, a tail toward low M50 prevents a 2σ measurement. In this scenario, combining hosts with differing bright satellite abundances significantly reduces uncertainties on M50 at the 1σ level, but the 2σ tail toward low M50 persists. We project that observations of one (two) complete satellite populations can constrain warm DM models with mWDM ≈ 10 keV (20 keV). Subhalo mass function (SHMF) suppression can be constrained to ≈70%, 60%, and 50% that in cold dark matter (CDM) at peak virial masses of 108, 109, and 1010M, respectively; SHMF enhancement constraints are weaker (≈20, 4, and 2 times that in CDM, respectively) due to galaxy–halo connection degeneracies. These results motivate searches for faint dwarf galaxies beyond the MW and indicate that ongoing missions like Euclid and upcoming facilities including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will probe new galaxy formation and DM physics.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; 21-ATP21-0135; PHY-2239205; PHY-2210452
OSTI ID:
2352290
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2396963
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 967, Issue 1; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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