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Main Authors: Engelhardt, Anna, Munshi, Ferah, Peter, Annika H. G., Nadler, Ethan O., Cruz, Akaxia, Brooks, Alyson M., Zeng, Zhichao Carton, Quinn, Thomas R., Keith, Blake
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.23264
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author Engelhardt, Anna
Munshi, Ferah
Peter, Annika H. G.
Nadler, Ethan O.
Cruz, Akaxia
Brooks, Alyson M.
Zeng, Zhichao Carton
Quinn, Thomas R.
Keith, Blake
author_facet Engelhardt, Anna
Munshi, Ferah
Peter, Annika H. G.
Nadler, Ethan O.
Cruz, Akaxia
Brooks, Alyson M.
Zeng, Zhichao Carton
Quinn, Thomas R.
Keith, Blake
contents Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) with a sufficiently large cross section has been shown to naturally produce constant dark matter (DM) cores, as well as core-collapse, at the centers of dwarf halos on cosmic timescales, potentially reducing tensions with observation. Here, we present halos from a new dark matter only (DMO) cosmological (SIDM) simulation: Ms.Marvel DMO with a velocity-dependent self-interaction cross section with $σ/m_\text{max} = 50$ cm$^2$/g at $v_\text{max} = 35$ km/s. We compare these to the CDM suite of Storm simulations including both DMO and dark matter + hydrodynamics runs, in order to test core-formation (and core-collapse) across different dark matter models. We show that Ms.Marvel DMO can reproduce core slopes consistent with observations of isolated dwarf galaxies and more massive ($\text{M}_{vir} \gtrsim 10^{10} M_{\odot}$) CDM dwarf halos that include stellar feedback from the matched CDM run (Storm CDM+baryons). We identify nine Ms.Marvel SIDM DMO halos in the core-collapse phase of gravothermal evolution with halo masses below $2\times 10^9 M_{\odot}$. We find that using core slope to measure the core-collapse timescales of Ms.Marvel DMO halos agrees well with predicted collapse times estimated with the parametric model for SIDM halos introduced by Yang et al.(2023). Additionally, compared to central density, core slope is less sensitive to both the radius of measurement and halo merger history. These results indicate that the slope of the inner DM density profile more cleanly differentiates core-collapsed versus core-forming halos than central density amplitude.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_23264
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MARVELously Dark: the gravothermal evolution of dwarf halos in velocity-dependent SIDM
Engelhardt, Anna
Munshi, Ferah
Peter, Annika H. G.
Nadler, Ethan O.
Cruz, Akaxia
Brooks, Alyson M.
Zeng, Zhichao Carton
Quinn, Thomas R.
Keith, Blake
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) with a sufficiently large cross section has been shown to naturally produce constant dark matter (DM) cores, as well as core-collapse, at the centers of dwarf halos on cosmic timescales, potentially reducing tensions with observation. Here, we present halos from a new dark matter only (DMO) cosmological (SIDM) simulation: Ms.Marvel DMO with a velocity-dependent self-interaction cross section with $σ/m_\text{max} = 50$ cm$^2$/g at $v_\text{max} = 35$ km/s. We compare these to the CDM suite of Storm simulations including both DMO and dark matter + hydrodynamics runs, in order to test core-formation (and core-collapse) across different dark matter models. We show that Ms.Marvel DMO can reproduce core slopes consistent with observations of isolated dwarf galaxies and more massive ($\text{M}_{vir} \gtrsim 10^{10} M_{\odot}$) CDM dwarf halos that include stellar feedback from the matched CDM run (Storm CDM+baryons). We identify nine Ms.Marvel SIDM DMO halos in the core-collapse phase of gravothermal evolution with halo masses below $2\times 10^9 M_{\odot}$. We find that using core slope to measure the core-collapse timescales of Ms.Marvel DMO halos agrees well with predicted collapse times estimated with the parametric model for SIDM halos introduced by Yang et al.(2023). Additionally, compared to central density, core slope is less sensitive to both the radius of measurement and halo merger history. These results indicate that the slope of the inner DM density profile more cleanly differentiates core-collapsed versus core-forming halos than central density amplitude.
title MARVELously Dark: the gravothermal evolution of dwarf halos in velocity-dependent SIDM
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.23264