The stellar mass-halo mass relation of isolated field dwarfs: a critical test of $\Lambda$CDM at the edge of galaxy formation

Abstract

We fit the rotation curves of isolated dwarf galaxies to directly measure the stellar mass-halo mass relation ($M_{\ast }-M_{200}$) over the mass range $5\times 10^5<M_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }<10^8$. By accounting for cusp-core transformations due to stellar feedback, we find a monotonic relation with little scatter. Such monotonicity implies that abundance matching should yield a similar $M_{\ast }-M_{200}$ if the cosmological model is correct. Using the 'field galaxy' stellar mass function from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the halo mass function from the $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter Bolshoi simulation, we find remarkable agreement between the two. This holds down to $M_{200}\sim 5\times 10^9$M${}_{\odot }$, and to $M_{200}\sim 5\times 10^8$M${}_{\odot }$ if we assume a power law extrapolation of the SDSS stellar mass function below $M_{\ast }\sim 10^7$M${}_{\odot }$. However, if instead of SDSS we use the stellar mass function of nearby galaxy groups, then the agreement is poor. This occurs because the group stellar mass function is shallower than that of the field below $M_{\ast }\sim 10^9$M${}_{\odot }$, recovering the familiar 'missing satellites' and 'too big to fail' problems. Our result demonstrates that both problems are confined to group environments and must, therefore, owe to 'galaxy formation physics' rather than exotic cosmology. Finally, we repeat our analysis for a $\Lambda$ Warm Dark Matter cosmology, finding that it fails at 68% confidence for a thermal relic mass of $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}<1.25$keV, and $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}<2$keV if we use the power law extrapolation of SDSS. We conclude by making a number of predictions for future surveys based on these results.

22 pages; 2 Tables; 10 Figures. This is the version accepted for publication in MNRAS. Key changes: (i) added substantially more information on the surveys used to measure the stellar mass functions; (ii) added tests of the robustness of our results. Results and conclusions unchanged from previously. Minor typos corrected from previous version

References in corpus (13)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Escape fraction of ionizing photons during reionization: effects due to supernova feedback and runaway OB stars
• A mass-dependent density profile for dark matter haloes including the influence of galaxy formation
• Too Big to Fail in the Local Group
• Discreteness effects in simulations of Hot/Warm dark matter
• Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars XI: The Tidal Tails of the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal and the Discovery of Magellanic Cloud Stars in the Carina Foreground
• CFHTLenS: Cosmological constraints from a combination of cosmic shear two-point and three-point correlations
• N-body simulations of gravitational dynamics
• The Local Group dwarf Leo T: HI on the brink of star formation
• Cosmic Reionization On Computers II. Reionization History and Its Back Reaction on Early Galaxies
• M31 Satellite Masses Compared to LCDM Subhaloes
• The effect of feedback and reionization on star formation in low-mass dwarf galaxy haloes
• The inclination of the dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II

Cited by in corpus (109)

• The Global Dynamical Atlas of the Milky Way mergers: Constraints from Gaia EDR3 based orbits of globular clusters, stellar streams and satellite galaxies
• Ultra-faint dwarfs in a Milky Way context: Introducing the Mint Condition DC Justice League Simulations
• FIRE-3: Updated Stellar Evolution Models, Yields, & Microphysics and Fitting Functions for Applications in Galaxy Simulations
• LITTLE THINGS in 3D: robust determination of the circular velocity of dwarf irregular galaxies
• Weighing the stellar constituents of the Galactic halo with APOGEE red giant stars
• Robust HI kinematics of gas-rich ultra-diffuse galaxies: hints of a weak-feedback formation scenario
• LyC escape from SPHINX galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
• The specific angular momentum of disc galaxies and its connection with galaxy morphology, bar structure and disc gravitational instability
• What Causes The Formation of Disks and End of Bursty Star Formation?
• Dark matters on the scale of galaxies
• Quantifying scatter in galaxy formation at the lowest masses
• Fourteen candidate RR Lyrae star streams in the inner Galaxy
• EDGE: From quiescent to gas-rich to star-forming low-mass dwarf galaxies
• Mining for Dark Matter Substructure: Inferring subhalo population properties from strong lenses with machine learning
• Two can play at that game: constraining the role of supernova and AGN feedback in dwarf galaxies with cosmological zoom-in simulations
• EDGE: The origin of scatter in ultra-faint dwarf stellar masses and surface brightnesses
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) I. Overview and the diverse environments of Lyman limit systems at z<1
• Dark-matter-deficient dwarf galaxies form via tidal stripping of dark matter in interactions with massive companions
• The Edge of the Galaxy
• Evidence of a dwarf galaxy stream populating the inner Milky Way Halo
• Impact of Lyman alpha pressure on metal-poor dwarf galaxies
• EDGE: Two routes to dark matter core formation in ultra-faint dwarfs
• The cumulative star-formation histories of dwarf galaxies with TNG50. I: Environment-driven diversity and connection to quenching
• Introducing SPHINX-MHD: The Impact of Primordial Magnetic Fields on the First Galaxies, Reionization, and the Global 21cm Signal
• From lenticulars to blue compact dwarfs: the stellar mass fraction is regulated by disc gravitational instability
• New Constraints on the Mass of Fermionic Dark Matter from Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Luminosity Functions and Host-to-Host Scatter of Dwarf Satellite Systems in the Local Volume
• Dwarf galaxies in the MATLAS survey: Hubble Space Telescope observations of the globular cluster system in the ultra-diffuse galaxy MATLAS-2019
• Andromeda XXI -- a dwarf galaxy in a low density dark matter halo
• The impact of gas disc flaring on rotation curve decomposition and revisiting baryonic and dark-matter relations for nearby galaxies
• To beta or not to beta: can higher-order Jeans analysis break the mass-anisotropy degeneracy in simulated dwarfs?
• Caught in the cosmic web: Environmental effect on halo concentrations, shape, and spin
• Origin and evolution of ultra-diffuse galaxies in different environments
• On the Power Spectrum of Dark Matter Substructure in Strong Gravitational Lenses
• GRUMPY: a simple framework for realistic forward-modelling of dwarf galaxies
• The Magellanic Inter-Cloud Project (MAGIC) III: First spectroscopic evidence of a dwarf stripping a dwarf
• INFERNO: Galactic winds in dwarf galaxies with star-by-star simulations including runaway stars
• A universal relation between the properties of supermassive black holes, galaxies, and dark matter halos
• The FRB20190520B Sightline Intersects Foreground Galaxy Clusters
• Systematically Measuring Ultra Diffuse Galaxies in HI: Results from the Pilot Survey
• Clearing the hurdle: The mass of globular cluster systems as a function of host galaxy mass
• The Complexity of the Cetus Stream Unveiled from the Fusion of STREAMFINDER and StarGO
• The emergence of dark matter-deficient ultra-diffuse galaxies driven by scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation and feedback from globular clusters
• Probing Dark Matter Self-interaction with Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxies
• Differentiable Strong Lensing: Uniting Gravity and Neural Nets through Differentiable Probabilistic Programming
• Dark matter halo cores and the tidal survival of Milky Way satellites
• Massive disc galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations are too dark matter-dominated
• Quantifying the Line-of-Sight Halo Contribution to the Dark Matter Convergence Power Spectrum from Strong Gravitational Lenses
• Phase-space correlation in stellar streams of the Milky Way halo: The clash of Kshir and GD-1
• EDGE: What shapes the relationship between HI and stellar observables in faint dwarf galaxies?
• The Pandora project. I: the impact of radiation and cosmic rays on baryonic and dark matter properties of dwarf galaxies
• Extracting the Subhalo Mass Function from Strong Lens Images with Image Segmentation
• Constraints on dark matter-neutrino scattering from the Milky-Way satellites and subhalo modeling for dark acoustic oscillations
• How cosmological merger histories shape the diversity of stellar haloes
• Assessing the Fornax globular cluster timing problem in different models of dark matter
• The Turn-Down of the Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation and Changing Baryon Fractions at Low Galaxy Masses
• The Power of Halometry
• Kinematics of the Tucana Dwarf Galaxy: An Unusually Dense Dwarf in the Local Group
• The effect of tides on the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• Photometric Mass Estimation and the Stellar Mass-Halo Mass Relation for Low Mass Galaxies
• Dark Matter Density Profiles in Dwarf Galaxies: Linking Jeans Modeling Systematics and Observation
• DUSTiER (DUST in the Epoch of Reionization): dusty galaxies in cosmological radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of the Epoch of Reionization with RAMSES-CUDATON
• Clumpiness of Observed and Simulated Cold Circumgalactic Gas
• Dark acoustic oscillations: Imprints on the matter power spectrum and the halo mass function
• Action-based models for dwarf spheroidal galaxies and globular clusters
• EDGE: The emergence of dwarf galaxy scaling relations from cosmological radiation-hydrodynamics simulations
• Search for dark matter annihilation in the dwarf irregular galaxy WLM with H.E.S.S
• The present-day gas content of simulated field dwarf galaxies
• The baryon cycle of Seven Dwarfs with superbubble feedback
• Real and counterfeit cores: how feedback expands halos and disrupts tracers of inner gravitational potential in dwarf galaxies
• HSTPROMO Internal Proper Motion Kinematics of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies: I. Velocity Anisotropy and Dark Matter Cusp Slope of Draco
• EDGE: Dark matter core creation depends on the timing of star formation
• EDGE: The shape of dark matter haloes in the faintest galaxies
• The Merian Survey: Design, Construction, and Characterization of a Filter Set Optimized to Find Dwarf Galaxies and Measure their Dark Matter Halo Properties with Weak Lensing
• The Luminosity Functions and Redshift Evolution of Satellites of Low-Mass Galaxies in the COSMOS Survey
• Degeneracies between baryons and dark matter: the challenge of constraining the nature of dark matter with JWST
• Ironing the folds: The phase space chevrons of a GSE-like merger as a dark matter subhalo detector
• The spatial distribution of globular clusters in dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the timing problem
• A universal relationship between stellar masses and binding energies of galaxies
• Subhalo effective density slope measurements from HST strong lensing data with neural likelihood-ratio estimation
• Dancing in the void: hydrodynamical N-body simulations of the extremely metal poor galaxy DDO 68
• The Archetypal Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy, Dragonfly 44, is not a Dark Milky Way
• A Recipe for Unbiased Background Modeling in Deep Wide-Field Astronomical Images
• EDGE: the puzzling ellipticity of Eridanus II's star cluster and its implications for dark matter at the heart of an ultra-faint dwarf
• Where are the extremely metal-poor stars in the Milky Way and Andromeda? Expectations from TNG50
• Disk galaxies are self-similar: the universality of the HI-to-Halo mass ratio for isolated disks
• An off-centred bulge or a satellite? Hydrodynamical $N$-body simulations of the disc galaxy NGC 5474
• Inferring subhalo effective density slopes from strong lensing observations with neural likelihood-ratio estimation
• The feasibility of constraining DM interactions with high-redshift observations by JWST
• Andromeda XXV -- a dwarf galaxy with a low central dark matter density
• Diverse dark matter profiles in FIRE dwarfs: black holes, cosmic rays and the cusp-core enigma
• Scatter in the satellite galaxy SHMR: fitting functions, scaling relations & physical processes from the IllustrisTNG simulation
• Predictions for Detecting a Turndown in the Baryonic Tully Fisher Relation
• Can tides explain the low dark matter density in Fornax?
• Ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Coma cluster: Probing their origin and AGN occupation fraction
• No need for dark matter: resolved kinematics of the ultra-diffuse galaxy AGC 114905
• Constraining cosmology with the velocity function of low-mass galaxies
• Evolution of dwarf galaxy observable parameters
• Discovery of a damped Ly$\alpha$ absorber originating in a spectacular interacting dwarf galaxy pair at $z=0.026$
• From particles to orbits: precise dark matter density profiles using dynamical information
• Understanding Stellar Mass-Metallicity and Size Relations in Simulated Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies
• New model of density distribution for fermionic dark matter halos
• Renzo's rule revisited: A statistical study of galaxies' baryon - dark matter coupling
• MUSEQuBES: Physical conditions, origins, and multi-element abundances of the circumgalactic medium of an isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxy at z=0.57
• Epicyclic Density Variations in the Indus Stellar Stream
• CROCODILE-DWARF: Assembly and Kinematics of Field Dwarf Galaxies with GADGET4-OSAKA
• Probing Dark Matter with Strong Gravitational Lensing through an Effective Density Slope
• Dwarf stellar haloes: a powerful probe of small-scale galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter
• LYRA II: Cosmological dwarf galaxy formation with inhomogeneous Population III enrichment