Related papers: Tidal Debris as a Dark Matter Probe
We use numerical simulations to examine the substructure within galactic and cluster mass halos that form within a hierarchical universe. Clusters are easily reproduced with a steep mass spectrum of thousands of substructure clumps that…
In hierarchical structure formation, dark matter halos that merge with larger halos can persist as subhalos. These subhalos are likely hosts of visible galaxies. While the dense halo environment rapidly strips subhalos of their dark mass,…
We analyze self-consistent N-body simulations of the Milky Way disk and the ongoing disruption of the Sagittarius dwarf satellite to study the effect of Sagittarius tidal debris on dark matter detection experiments. In agreement with…
Tidal interactions between massive galaxies and their satellites are fundamental processes in a Universe with L-Cold Dark Matter cosmology, redistributing material into faint features that preserve records of past galactic interactions.…
The cold dark matter picture predicts an abundance of substructure within the Galactic halo. However, most substructures host no stars and can only be detected indirectly. Stellar streams present a promising probe of this dark substructure.…
The Milky Way's satellites provide unique information about the density of the Galactic halo at large radii. The inclusion of even a few rather inaccurate proper motions resolves an ambiguity in older mass estimates in favour of higher…
Dark matter sub-halos that pass near or through a thin tidal star stream locally increase its velocity dispersion. Subsequent orbital evolution further increases the velocity dispersion and stream width, lowering the surface density of a…
We use N-body simulations to model the tidal disruption of a star cluster in a Milky-Way-sized dark matter halo, which results in a narrow stream comparable to (but slightly wider than) Pal-5 or GD-1. The mean Galactic dark matter halo is…
Tidal streams are highly sensitive to perturbations from passing dark matter (DM) subhalos and thus provide a means of measuring their abundance. In a recent paper, we analyzed the distribution of stars along the GD-1 stream with a…
Tidal debris from infalling satellites can leave observable structure in the phase-space distribution of the Galactic halo. Such substructure can be manifest in the spatial and/or velocity distributions of the stars in the halo. This paper…
The distribution of dark matter (DM) subhalos in our Galaxy remains disputed, leading to varying $\gamma$-ray and $\nu$ flux predictions from their annihilation or decay. In this work, we study how, in the inner Galaxy, subhalo tidal…
The launching of up to four astrometric missions in the next decade will enable us to make measurements of stars in tidal streamers from Galactic satellites of sufficient accuracy to place strong constraints on the mass distribution in the…
The relics of disrupted satellite galaxies around the Milky Way and Andromeda have been found, but direct evidence of a satellite galaxy in the early stages of being disrupted has remained elusive. We have discovered a dwarf satellite…
We point out that the usual self-similarity in cold dark matter models is broken by encounters with individual normal galactic stars on sub-pc scale. Tidal heating and stripping must have redefined the density and velocity structures of the…
Satellite galaxies endure powerful environmental tidal forces that drive mass stripping of their outer regions. Consequently, satellites located in central regions of galaxy clusters or groups, where the tidal field is strongest, are…
Dark matter halos grow by hierarchical clustering as they merge together to produce ever larger structures. During these merger processes, the smaller halo can potentially survive as a subhalo of the larger halo, so a galaxy-scale halo…
We propose a novel method utilizing stellar kinematic data to detect low-mass substructure in the Milky Way's dark matter halo. By probing characteristic wakes that a passing dark matter subhalo leaves in the phase space distribution of…
Using high resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulations, we conduct a comprehensive study of how tidal stripping removes dark matter and stars from galaxies. We find that dark matter is always stripped far more significantly than the…
A fully analytical formulation is developed to make dynamical friction modeling more realistic. The rate for a satellite to decay its orbit in a host galaxy halo is often severely overestimated when applying ChandraSekhar's formula without…
We develop an explicit model for the formation of the stellar halo from tidally disrupted, accreted dwarf satellites in the cold dark matter (CDM) framework, focusing on predictions testable with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and…