Related papers: On mini-halo encounters with stars
Scenarios such as the QCD axion with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry broken after inflation predict an enhanced matter power spectrum on sub-parsec scales. These theories lead to the formation of dense dark matter structures known as minihalos,…
A special purpose N-body simulation has been built to understand the tidal heating of the smallest dark matter substructures ($10^{-6}\msun$ and 0.01pc) from the grainy potential of the Milky Way due to individual stars in the disk and the…
In the cold dark matter scenario, the smallest dark matter halos may be earth mass or smaller. These microhalos would be the densest dark matter objects in the Universe, making their accurate characterization important for astrophysical…
We investigate the energy release due to the large-scale structure formation and the subsequent transfer of energy from larger to smaller scales. We calculate the power spectra for the large-scale velocity field and show that the coupling…
Galaxy flybys, interactions where two independent halos inter-penetrate but detach at a later time and do not merge, occur frequently at lower redshifts. These interactions can significantly impact the evolution of individual galaxies -…
We present direct $N$-body simulations of tidally filling 30,000 ${\rm M}_\odot$ star clusters orbiting between 10 kpc and 100 kpc in galaxies with a range of dark matter substructure properties. The time-dependent tidal force is determined…
Scenarios such as the QCD axion with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry broken after inflation predict an enhanced matter power spectrum on sub-parsec scales. These theories lead to the formation of dense dark matter structures known as minihalos,…
Using realistic cosmological simulations of Milky Way sized haloes, we study their dynamical state and the accuracy of inferring their mass profiles with steady-state models of dynamical tracers. We use a new method that describes the…
[abridged] Energy relaxation around a massive black hole (MBH) is key to establishing the dynamical state of galactic nuclei, and the nature of close stellar interactions with the MBH. The standard description of relaxation as diffusion…
Narrow stellar streams in the Milky Way halo are uniquely sensitive to dark-matter subhalos, but many of these subhalos may be tidally disrupted. I calculate the interaction between stellar and dark-matter streams using analytical and…
In a standard cold dark matter (CDM) cosmology, microhalos at the CDM cutoff scale are the first and smallest objects expected to form in the universe. Here we present results of high resolution simulations of three representative roughly…
Within the standard hierarchical structure formation scenario, Milky Way-mass dark matter haloes have hundreds of dark matter subhaloes with mass $\gtrsim 10^8 \, {\rm M_{\odot}}$. Over the lifetime of a galactic disc a fraction of these…
The timescale for galaxies within merging dark matter halos to merge with each other is an important ingredient in galaxy formation models. Accurate estimates of merging timescales are required for predictions of astrophysical quantities…
This work considers the idea of massive black holes being the constituents of the Galactic dark matter halo. It constrains the maximum black hole mass to $\mbh \sil 5 \times 10^4 \msun$ by examining their influence on the population of…
A variety of observational campaigns seek to test dark-matter models by measuring dark-matter subhaloes at low masses. Despite their predicted lack of stars, these subhaloes may be detectable through gravitational lensing or via their…
Self-interacting dark matter may have striking astrophysical signatures, such as observable offsets between galaxies and dark matter in merging galaxy clusters. Numerical N-body simulations used to predict such observables typically treat…
The interaction properties of cold dark matter (CDM) particle candidates, such as those of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), generically lead to the structuring of dark matter on scales much smaller than typical galaxies,…
We investigate encounters between giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and star clusters. We propose a single expression for the energy gain of a cluster due to an encounter with a GMC, valid for all encounter distances and GMC properties. This…
We develop a statistical method to measure the interaction cross-section of Dark Matter, exploiting the continuous minor merger events in which small substructures fall into galaxy clusters. We find that by taking the ratio of the distances…
If QCD axion dark matter formed post-inflation, axion miniclusters emerged from isocurvature fluctuations and later merged hierarchically into minihalos. These minihalos, potentially disrupted by stellar encounters in the Milky Way, affect…