Forecasting the Population of Globular Cluster Streams in Milky Way-type Galaxies

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Autori principali: Pearson, Sarah, Bonaca, Ana, Chen, Yingtian, Gnedin, Oleg Y.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Pearson, Sarah
Bonaca, Ana
Chen, Yingtian
Gnedin, Oleg Y.
author_facet Pearson, Sarah
Bonaca, Ana
Chen, Yingtian
Gnedin, Oleg Y.
contents Thin stellar streams originating from globular clusters are among the most sensitive tracers of low-mass dark-matter subhalos. Joint analysis of the entire population of stellar streams will place the most robust constraints on the dark-matter subhalo mass function, and therefore the nature of dark matter. Here we use a hierarchical model of globular cluster formation to forecast the total number, masses and radial distribution of dissolved globular cluster in Milky Way-like galaxies. Furthermore, we generate mock stellar streams from these progenitors' orbital histories taking into account the clusters' formation and accretion time, mass, and metallicity. Out of $\sim$10,000 clusters more massive than $10^4$ M$_{\odot}$, $\sim$9000 dissolved in the central bulge and are fully phase-mixed at the present, while the remaining $\sim$1000 survive as coherent stellar streams. This suggests that the current census of $\sim$80 globular cluster streams in the Milky Way is severely incomplete. Beyond 15 kpc from the Galactic center we are missing hundreds of streams, of which the vast majority are from accreted GCs. Deep Rubin photometry $(g\lesssim27.5)$ would be able to detect these streams, even the most distant ones beyond $> 75$ kpc. We also find that M31 will have an abundance of streams at galactocentric radii of 30-100 kpc. We conclude that future surveys will find a multitude of stellar streams from globular clusters which can be used for dark matter subhalo searches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_15851
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Forecasting the Population of Globular Cluster Streams in Milky Way-type Galaxies
Pearson, Sarah
Bonaca, Ana
Chen, Yingtian
Gnedin, Oleg Y.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Thin stellar streams originating from globular clusters are among the most sensitive tracers of low-mass dark-matter subhalos. Joint analysis of the entire population of stellar streams will place the most robust constraints on the dark-matter subhalo mass function, and therefore the nature of dark matter. Here we use a hierarchical model of globular cluster formation to forecast the total number, masses and radial distribution of dissolved globular cluster in Milky Way-like galaxies. Furthermore, we generate mock stellar streams from these progenitors' orbital histories taking into account the clusters' formation and accretion time, mass, and metallicity. Out of $\sim$10,000 clusters more massive than $10^4$ M$_{\odot}$, $\sim$9000 dissolved in the central bulge and are fully phase-mixed at the present, while the remaining $\sim$1000 survive as coherent stellar streams. This suggests that the current census of $\sim$80 globular cluster streams in the Milky Way is severely incomplete. Beyond 15 kpc from the Galactic center we are missing hundreds of streams, of which the vast majority are from accreted GCs. Deep Rubin photometry $(g\lesssim27.5)$ would be able to detect these streams, even the most distant ones beyond $> 75$ kpc. We also find that M31 will have an abundance of streams at galactocentric radii of 30-100 kpc. We conclude that future surveys will find a multitude of stellar streams from globular clusters which can be used for dark matter subhalo searches.
title Forecasting the Population of Globular Cluster Streams in Milky Way-type Galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15851