English

The velocity anisotropy - density slope relation

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

One can solve the Jeans equation analytically for equilibrated dark matter structures, once given two pieces of input from numerical simulations. These inputs are 1) a connection between phase-space density and radius, and 2) a connection between velocity anisotropy and density slope, the \alpha-\beta relation. The first (phase-space density v.s. radius) has already been analysed through several different simulations, however the second (\alpha-\beta relation) has not been quantified yet. We perform a large set of numerical experiments in order to quantify the slope and zero-point of the \alpha-\beta relation. We find strong indication that the relation is indeed an attractor. When combined with the assumption of phase-space being a power-law in radius, this allows us to conclude that equilibrated dark matter structures indeed have zero central velocity anisotropy \beta_0 = 0, central density slope of \alpha_0 = -0.8, and outer anisotropy of \beta_\infty = 0.5.

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0510656,
  title  = {The velocity anisotropy - density slope relation},
  author = {Steen H. Hansen and Joachim Stadel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0510656},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

15 pages, 7 figures