English

Self-Similar Spherical Collapse with Tidal Torque

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2010-12-23 v2

Abstract

N-body simulations have revealed a wealth of information about dark matter halos however their results are largely empirical. Using analytic means, we attempt to shed light on simulation results by generalizing the self-similar secondary infall model to include tidal torque. In this first of two papers, we describe our halo formation model and compare our results to empirical mass profiles inspired by N-body simulations. Each halo is determined by four parameters. One parameter sets the mass scale and the other three define how particles within a mass shell are torqued throughout evolution. We choose torque parameters motivated by tidal torque theory and N-body simulations and analytically calculate the structure of the halo in different radial regimes. We find that angular momentum plays an important role in determining the density profile at small radii. For cosmological initial conditions, the density profile on small scales is set by the time rate of change of the angular momentum of particles as well as the halo mass. On intermediate scales, however, ρr2\rho\propto r^{-2}, while ρr3\rho\propto r^{-3} close to the virial radius.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1008.0639,
  title  = {Self-Similar Spherical Collapse with Tidal Torque},
  author = {Phillip Zukin and Edmund Bertschinger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.0639},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

18 pages, 7 figures, Accepted by PRD

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:56:36.844Z