It's Not Just Star Formation: A trend of low dark matter densities in the Andromeda dwarf galaxy system
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866911734859563008 |
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| author | Pickett, Connor S. Collins, Michelle L. M. Read, Justin I. Rich, R. Michael Charles, Emily J. E. Tollerud, Erik Martin, Nicolas Chapman, Scott McConnachie, Alan Savino, Alessandro Weisz, Daniel R. |
| author_facet | Pickett, Connor S. Collins, Michelle L. M. Read, Justin I. Rich, R. Michael Charles, Emily J. E. Tollerud, Erik Martin, Nicolas Chapman, Scott McConnachie, Alan Savino, Alessandro Weisz, Daniel R. |
| contents | Dynamical mass modeling of Andromeda (M31) dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies has revealed a growing trend of lower central dark matter (DM) densities than predicted by pure DM structure formation in Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmology simulations and lower than most Milky Way (MW) satellites. So far, however, only four of the 35 confirmed M31 dSphs have been successfully mass modeled. In this second paper of a series, we aim to better understand growing Local Group (LG) dSph patterns by mass modeling seven more M31 dSphs: Andromeda I, III, V, VII, IX, XXXI, and XXXII. We update the kinematics of each dwarf and estimate their central dark matter densities at 150 pc using the dynamical Jeans modeling tool, GravSphere. We also update their DM halo mass, $M_{\rm{200}}$, via abundance matching. We find Andromeda III and V to have central DM densities in line with $Λ$CDM expectations, resembling dSphs around the Milky Way. The remaining five dwarfs have anomalously low central densities, continuing a growing trend seen for M31 satellites. We investigate each dwarf's star formation history and find that star formation-induced `DM heating' is disfavored as the sole explanation of these lower central densities. We consider the effect of tides and halo concentration scatter on these systems and predict that they should be on more plunging orbits than their denser counterparts. If this prediction is misaligned with the data, it could necessitate new physics beyond the Standard Cosmological Model. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_00221 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | It's Not Just Star Formation: A trend of low dark matter densities in the Andromeda dwarf galaxy system Pickett, Connor S. Collins, Michelle L. M. Read, Justin I. Rich, R. Michael Charles, Emily J. E. Tollerud, Erik Martin, Nicolas Chapman, Scott McConnachie, Alan Savino, Alessandro Weisz, Daniel R. Astrophysics of Galaxies Dynamical mass modeling of Andromeda (M31) dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies has revealed a growing trend of lower central dark matter (DM) densities than predicted by pure DM structure formation in Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmology simulations and lower than most Milky Way (MW) satellites. So far, however, only four of the 35 confirmed M31 dSphs have been successfully mass modeled. In this second paper of a series, we aim to better understand growing Local Group (LG) dSph patterns by mass modeling seven more M31 dSphs: Andromeda I, III, V, VII, IX, XXXI, and XXXII. We update the kinematics of each dwarf and estimate their central dark matter densities at 150 pc using the dynamical Jeans modeling tool, GravSphere. We also update their DM halo mass, $M_{\rm{200}}$, via abundance matching. We find Andromeda III and V to have central DM densities in line with $Λ$CDM expectations, resembling dSphs around the Milky Way. The remaining five dwarfs have anomalously low central densities, continuing a growing trend seen for M31 satellites. We investigate each dwarf's star formation history and find that star formation-induced `DM heating' is disfavored as the sole explanation of these lower central densities. We consider the effect of tides and halo concentration scatter on these systems and predict that they should be on more plunging orbits than their denser counterparts. If this prediction is misaligned with the data, it could necessitate new physics beyond the Standard Cosmological Model. |
| title | It's Not Just Star Formation: A trend of low dark matter densities in the Andromeda dwarf galaxy system |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00221 |