Addressing the too big to fail problem with baryon physics and sterile neutrino dark matter

Abstract

N-body dark matter simulations of structure formation in the $\Lambda$CDM model predict a population of subhalos within Galactic halos that have higher central densities than inferred for satellites of the Milky Way, a tension known as the `too big to fail' problem. Proposed solutions include baryonic effects, a smaller mass for the Milky Way halo, and warm dark matter. We test these three possibilities using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to generate luminosity functions for Milky Way halo-analogue satellite populations, the results of which are then coupled to the Jiang & van den Bosch model of subhalo stripping to predict the subhalo $V_{\max }$ functions for the 10 brightest satellites. We find that selecting the brightest satellites (as opposed to the most massive) and modelling the expulsion of gas by supernovae at early times increases the likelihood of generating the observed Milky Way satellite $V_{\max }$ function. The preferred halo mass is $6\times 10^{11}{M}_{\odot }$, which has a 14 percent probability to host a $V_{\max }$ function like that of the Milky Way satellites. This probability is reduced to 8 percent for a $1.0\times 10^{12}{M}_{\odot }$ halo and to 3 percent for a $1.4\times 10^{12}{M}_{\odot }$ halo. We conclude that the Milky Way satellite $V_{\max }$ function is compatible with a CDM cosmology, as previously found by Sawala et al. using hydrodynamic simulations. Sterile neutrino-warm dark matter models achieve a higher degree of agreement with the observations, with a maximum 35 percent chance of generating the observed Milky Way satellite $V_{\max }$ function. However, more work is required to check that the semi-analytic stripping model is calibrated correctly in the sterile neutrino cosmology, and to check if our sterile neutrino models produce sufficient numbers of faint satellites.

16 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS-accepted version featuring minor changes, contact: [email protected]

References in corpus (28)

• Too big to fail? The puzzling darkness of massive Milky Way subhaloes
• The APOSTLE simulations: solutions to the Local Group's cosmic puzzles
• The Observed properties of Dark Matter on small spatial scales
• The Tidal Evolution of Local Group Dwarf Spheroidals
• Baryon effects on the internal structure of LCDM halos in the EAGLE simulations
• The Mass-Concentration-Redshift Relation of Cold and Warm Dark Matter Halos
• Generating Dark Matter Halo Merger Trees
• ETHOS - An Effective Theory of Structure Formation: Dark matter physics as a possible explanation of the small-scale CDM problems
• ETHOS - An Effective Theory of Structure Formation: From dark particle physics to the matter distribution of the Universe
• Sterile neutrino dark matter as a consequence of nuMSM-induced lepton asymmetry
• The abundance of (not just) dark matter haloes
• Cosmic Ménage à Trois: The Origin of Satellite Galaxies On Extreme Orbits
• Crater 2: An Extremely Cold Dark Matter Halo
• A dynamical model of the local cosmic expansion
• Satellites of Simulated Galaxies: survival, merging, and their relation to the dark and stellar halos
• On the Structure of Dark Matter Halos at the Damping Scale of the Power Spectrum with and without Relict Velocities
• Astrophysical constraints on resonantly produced sterile neutrino dark matter
• Galaxies in the EAGLE hydrodynamical simulation and in the Durham and Munich semi-analytical models
• The phase space density of fermionic dark matter haloes
• Searching for decaying dark matter in deep XMM-Newton observation of the Draco dwarf spheroidal
• Satellite galaxies in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation with sterile neutrino dark matter
• Milky Way mass constraints from the Galactic satellite gap
• Dark matter-radiation interactions: the structure of Milky Way satellite galaxies
• Resonant Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter in the Local and High-z Universe
• Properties of Local Group galaxies in hydrodynamical simulations of sterile neutrino dark matter cosmologies
• The cold dark matter content of Galactic dwarf spheroidals: no cores, no failures, no problem
• Modelling Galaxy Merger Timescales and Tidal Destruction
• A new methodology to test galaxy formation models using the dependence of clustering on stellar mass

Cited by in corpus (45)

• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• A White Paper on keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• Galaxy Formation with BECDM: I. Turbulence and relaxation of idealised haloes
• Lyman-alpha Constraints on Ultralight Scalar Dark Matter: Implications for the Early and Late Universe
• Milky Way Satellite Census. II. Galaxy--Halo Connection Constraints Including the Impact of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Sterile Neutrinos
• The Present and Future Status of Heavy Neutral Leptons
• Gravitational probes of dark matter physics
• New Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter from $NuSTAR$ M31 Observations
• Too Big To Fail in Light of Gaia
• Dark matters on the scale of galaxies
• Novel constraints on non-cold (non-thermal) Dark Matter from Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data
• Dwarf Galaxies in CDM, WDM, and SIDM: Disentangling Baryons and Dark Matter Physics
• The diverse dark matter density at sub-kiloparsec scales in Milky Way satellites:implications for the nature of dark matter
• Subhalo destruction in the Apostle and Auriga simulations
• Singlet-Doublet Dark Matter Freeze-in: LHC displaced signatures versus cosmology
• Properties of Local Group galaxies in hydrodynamical simulations of sterile neutrino dark matter cosmologies
• A fresh look into the interacting dark matter scenario
• Spatially Resolved Stellar Kinematics of the Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy Dragonfly 44: II. Constraints on Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Cold dark matter plus not-so-clumpy dark relics
• Warm FIRE: Simulating Galaxy Formation with Resonant Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• Warm dark matter and the ionization history of the Universe
• Dark Matter microphysics and 21 cm observations
• Cosmological searches for a non-cold dark matter component
• Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization
• 21-cm observations and warm dark matter models
• Endothermic self-interacting dark matter in Milky Way-like dark matter haloes
• Galaxy Formation in Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter Models
• Exploring extensions to the standard cosmological model and the impact of baryons on small scales
• ETHOS - an effective theory of structure formation: formation of the first haloes and their stars
• A high-resolution cosmological simulation of a strong gravitational lens
• Evidences for Collisional Dark Matter In Galaxies?
• Degeneracies between baryons and dark matter: the challenge of constraining the nature of dark matter with JWST
• Matching the mass function of Milky Way satellites in competing dark matter models
• The signal of decaying dark matter with hydrodynamical simulations
• Constraining Mixed Dark Matter models with high redshift Lyman-alpha forest data
• Anticipating the XRISM search for the decay of resonantly produced sterile neutrino dark matter
• A general approach for testing non-cold dark matter at small cosmological scales
• Forecasts for Warm Dark Matter from Photometric Galaxy Surveys
• Dark matter model favoured by reionization data: 7 keV sterile neutrino vs cold dark matter
• Constraining the Nature of Dark Matter from Tidal Radii of Cluster Galaxy Subhalos
• Tidal adaptive softening and artificial fragmentation in cosmological simulations
• Dark matter in dwarf galaxies
• Probing non-thermal light DM with structure formation and $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$