Candidate Dark Galaxy-2: Validation and Analysis of an Almost Dark Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Dayi, Liu, Qing, Eadie, Gwendolyn, Abraham, Roberto, Marleau, Francine, Harris, William, van Dokkum, Pieter, Romanowsky, Aaron, Danieli, Shany, Brown, Patrick, Stringer, Alex
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Li, Dayi
Liu, Qing
Eadie, Gwendolyn
Abraham, Roberto
Marleau, Francine
Harris, William
van Dokkum, Pieter
Romanowsky, Aaron
Danieli, Shany
Brown, Patrick
Stringer, Alex
author_facet Li, Dayi
Liu, Qing
Eadie, Gwendolyn
Abraham, Roberto
Marleau, Francine
Harris, William
van Dokkum, Pieter
Romanowsky, Aaron
Danieli, Shany
Brown, Patrick
Stringer, Alex
contents Candidate Dark Galaxy-2 (CDG-2) is a potential dark galaxy consisting of four globular clusters (GCs) in the Perseus cluster, first identified in Li et al. (2025) through a sophisticated statistical method. The method searched for over-densities of GCs from a \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} (\textit{HST}) survey targeting Perseus. Using the same \textit{HST} images and the new imaging data from the \textit{Euclid} survey, we report the detection of extremely faint but significant diffuse emission around the four GCs of CDG-2. We thus have exceptionally strong evidence that CDG-2 is a galaxy. This is the first galaxy detected purely through its GC population. Under the conservative assumption that the four GCs make up the entire GC population, preliminary analysis shows that CDG-2 has a total luminosity of $L_{V, \mathrm{gal}}= 6.2\pm{3.0} \times 10^6 L_{\odot}$ and a minimum GC luminosity of $L_{V, \mathrm{GC}}= 1.03\pm{0.2}\times 10^6 L_{\odot}$. Our results indicate that CDG-2 is one of the faintest galaxies having associated GCs, while at least $\sim 16.6\%$ of its light is contained in its GC population. This ratio is likely to be much higher ($\sim 33\%$) if CDG-2 has a canonical GC luminosity function (GCLF). In addition, if the previously observed GC-to-halo mass relations apply to CDG-2, it would have a minimum dark matter halo mass fraction of $99.94\%$ to $99.98\%$. If it has a canonical GCLF, then the dark matter halo mass fraction is $\gtrsim 99.99\%$. Therefore, CDG-2 may be the most GC dominated galaxy and potentially one of the most dark matter dominated galaxies ever discovered.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15644
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Candidate Dark Galaxy-2: Validation and Analysis of an Almost Dark Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster
Li, Dayi
Liu, Qing
Eadie, Gwendolyn
Abraham, Roberto
Marleau, Francine
Harris, William
van Dokkum, Pieter
Romanowsky, Aaron
Danieli, Shany
Brown, Patrick
Stringer, Alex
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Applications
Candidate Dark Galaxy-2 (CDG-2) is a potential dark galaxy consisting of four globular clusters (GCs) in the Perseus cluster, first identified in Li et al. (2025) through a sophisticated statistical method. The method searched for over-densities of GCs from a \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} (\textit{HST}) survey targeting Perseus. Using the same \textit{HST} images and the new imaging data from the \textit{Euclid} survey, we report the detection of extremely faint but significant diffuse emission around the four GCs of CDG-2. We thus have exceptionally strong evidence that CDG-2 is a galaxy. This is the first galaxy detected purely through its GC population. Under the conservative assumption that the four GCs make up the entire GC population, preliminary analysis shows that CDG-2 has a total luminosity of $L_{V, \mathrm{gal}}= 6.2\pm{3.0} \times 10^6 L_{\odot}$ and a minimum GC luminosity of $L_{V, \mathrm{GC}}= 1.03\pm{0.2}\times 10^6 L_{\odot}$. Our results indicate that CDG-2 is one of the faintest galaxies having associated GCs, while at least $\sim 16.6\%$ of its light is contained in its GC population. This ratio is likely to be much higher ($\sim 33\%$) if CDG-2 has a canonical GC luminosity function (GCLF). In addition, if the previously observed GC-to-halo mass relations apply to CDG-2, it would have a minimum dark matter halo mass fraction of $99.94\%$ to $99.98\%$. If it has a canonical GCLF, then the dark matter halo mass fraction is $\gtrsim 99.99\%$. Therefore, CDG-2 may be the most GC dominated galaxy and potentially one of the most dark matter dominated galaxies ever discovered.
title Candidate Dark Galaxy-2: Validation and Analysis of an Almost Dark Galaxy in the Perseus Cluster
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15644