English

The Density Profile of Dynamical Halos

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2026-02-02 v1

Abstract

Among the most fundamental properties of a dark matter halo is its density profile. Motivated by the recent proposal by Garc\'ia et al. [R. Garc\'ia et. al., MNRAS 521, 2464 (2023)] to define a dynamical halo as the collection of orbiting particles in a gravitationally bound structure, we characterize the mean and scatter of the orbiting profile of dynamical halos as a function of their orbiting mass. We demonstrate that the orbiting profile of individual halos at fixed mass depends on a single dynamical variable -- the halo radius rhr_{\rm h} -- which characterizes the spatial extent of the profile. The scatter in halo radius at fixed orbiting mass is 16%\approx 16\%. Only a small fraction of this scatter arises due to differences in halo formation time, with late-forming halos being more compact (smaller halo radii). Accounting for this additional correlation results in an 11%\approx 11\% scatter in halo radius at fixed mass and halo formation time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.00410,
  title  = {The Density Profile of Dynamical Halos},
  author = {Tristen Shields and Edgar M. Salazar and Eduardo Rozo and Aakanksha Adya and Calvin Osinga and Ze'ev Vladimir},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.00410},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:40:51.257Z