Inferring dark matter subhalo properties from simulated subhalo-stream encounters

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hilmi, Tariq, Erkal, Denis, Koposov, Sergey E., Li, Ting S., Lilleengen, Sophia, Ji, Alexander P., Lewis, Geraint F., Shipp, Nora, Pace, Andrew B., Zucker, Daniel B., Limberg, Guilherme, Usman, Sam A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914740542898176
author Hilmi, Tariq
Erkal, Denis
Koposov, Sergey E.
Li, Ting S.
Lilleengen, Sophia
Ji, Alexander P.
Lewis, Geraint F.
Shipp, Nora
Pace, Andrew B.
Zucker, Daniel B.
Limberg, Guilherme
Usman, Sam A.
author_facet Hilmi, Tariq
Erkal, Denis
Koposov, Sergey E.
Li, Ting S.
Lilleengen, Sophia
Ji, Alexander P.
Lewis, Geraint F.
Shipp, Nora
Pace, Andrew B.
Zucker, Daniel B.
Limberg, Guilherme
Usman, Sam A.
contents In the cold dark matter paradigm, our Galaxy is predicted to contain >10000 dark matter subhaloes in the $10^5-10^8M_\odot$ range which should be completely devoid of stars. Stellar streams are sensitive to the presence of these subhaloes, which can create small-scale features in streams if they pass closely enough. Modelling these encounters can therefore, potentially recover the subhalo's properties. In this work, we demonstrate this for streams generated in numerical simulations, modelled on eccentric orbits in a realistic Milky Way potential, which includes the Large Magellanic Cloud and the subhalo itself. We focus on a mock model of the ATLAS-Aliqa Uma stream and inject a $10^7 M_\odot$ subhalo, creating a similar discontinuous morphology to current observations. We then explore how well subhalo properties are recovered using mock stream observations, consisting of no observational errors, as well as assuming realistic observational setups. These setups include present day style observations, and what will be possible with 4MOST and Gaia DR5 in the future. We show that we can recover all parameters describing the impact even with uncertainties matching existing data, including subhalo positions, velocities, mass and scale radius. Modelling the subhalo on an orbit instead of assuming an impulse approximation, we greatly reduce the degeneracy between subhalo mass and velocity seen in previous works. However, we find a slight bias in the subhalo mass (~0.1 dex). This demonstrates that we should be able to reliably extract the properties of subhaloes with stellar streams in the near future.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_02953
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Inferring dark matter subhalo properties from simulated subhalo-stream encounters
Hilmi, Tariq
Erkal, Denis
Koposov, Sergey E.
Li, Ting S.
Lilleengen, Sophia
Ji, Alexander P.
Lewis, Geraint F.
Shipp, Nora
Pace, Andrew B.
Zucker, Daniel B.
Limberg, Guilherme
Usman, Sam A.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
In the cold dark matter paradigm, our Galaxy is predicted to contain >10000 dark matter subhaloes in the $10^5-10^8M_\odot$ range which should be completely devoid of stars. Stellar streams are sensitive to the presence of these subhaloes, which can create small-scale features in streams if they pass closely enough. Modelling these encounters can therefore, potentially recover the subhalo's properties. In this work, we demonstrate this for streams generated in numerical simulations, modelled on eccentric orbits in a realistic Milky Way potential, which includes the Large Magellanic Cloud and the subhalo itself. We focus on a mock model of the ATLAS-Aliqa Uma stream and inject a $10^7 M_\odot$ subhalo, creating a similar discontinuous morphology to current observations. We then explore how well subhalo properties are recovered using mock stream observations, consisting of no observational errors, as well as assuming realistic observational setups. These setups include present day style observations, and what will be possible with 4MOST and Gaia DR5 in the future. We show that we can recover all parameters describing the impact even with uncertainties matching existing data, including subhalo positions, velocities, mass and scale radius. Modelling the subhalo on an orbit instead of assuming an impulse approximation, we greatly reduce the degeneracy between subhalo mass and velocity seen in previous works. However, we find a slight bias in the subhalo mass (~0.1 dex). This demonstrates that we should be able to reliably extract the properties of subhaloes with stellar streams in the near future.
title Inferring dark matter subhalo properties from simulated subhalo-stream encounters
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02953