Selecting ultra-faint dwarf candidate progenitors in cosmological N-body simulations at high redshifts

Abstract

The smallest satellites of the Milky Way ceased forming stars during the epoch of reionization and thus provide archaeological access to galaxy formation at $z>6$. Numerical studies of these ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) require expensive cosmological simulations with high mass resolution that are carried out down to $z=0$. However, if we are able to statistically identify UFD host progenitors at high redshifts \emph{with relatively high probabilities}, we can avoid this high computational cost. To find such candidates, we analyze the merger trees of Milky Way type halos from the high-resolution $Caterpillar$ suite of dark matter only simulations. Satellite UFD hosts at $z=0$ are identified based on four different abundance matching (AM) techniques. All the halos at high redshifts are traced forward in time in order to compute the probability of surviving as satellite UFDs today. Our results show that selecting potential UFD progenitors based solely on their mass at z=12 (8) results in a 10\% (20\%) chance of obtaining a surviving UFD at $z=0$ in three of the AM techniques we adopted. We find that the progenitors of surviving satellite UFDs have lower virial ratios ($\eta$), and are preferentially located at large distances from the main MW progenitor, while they show no correlation with concentration parameter. Halos with favorable locations and virial ratios are $\approx 3$ times more likely to survive as satellite UFD candidates at $z=0.$

arXiv comment12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication at MNRAS after minor revisions

References in corpus (66)

• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Statistical Properties of X-ray Clusters: Analytic and Numerical Comparisons
• The Average Star Formation Histories of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos from z=0-8
• The Aquarius Project: the subhalos of galactic halos
• The observed properties of dwarf galaxies in and around the Local Group
• The Rockstar Phase-Space Temporal Halo Finder and the Velocity Offsets of Cluster Cores
• Galactic star formation and accretion histories from matching galaxies to dark matter haloes
• The Kinematics of the Ultra-Faint Milky Way Satellites: Solving the Missing Satellite Problem
• Reionization and the abundance of galactic satellites
• Multi-scale initial conditions for cosmological simulations
• Accurate masses for dispersion-supported galaxies
• Reconciling dwarf galaxies with LCDM cosmology: Simulating a realistic population of satellites around a Milky Way-mass galaxy
• Gravitationally Consistent Halo Catalogs and Merger Trees for Precision Cosmology
• The tumultuous lives of galactic dwarfs and the missing satellites problem
• Beasts of the Southern Wild: Discovery of nine Ultra Faint satellites in the vicinity of the Magellanic Clouds
• Eight Ultra-faint Galaxy Candidates Discovered in Year Two of the Dark Energy Survey
• Dynamical Friction and Galaxy Merging Timescales
• Hundreds of Milky Way Satellites? Luminosity Bias in the Satellite Luminosity Function
• Simulations of Pregalactic Structure Formation with Radiative Feedback
• The Luminosity Function of the Milky Way Satellites
• Not so lumpy after all: modeling the depletion of dark matter subhalos by Milky Way-like galaxies
• The Quenching of the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Reionization Era
• ELVIS: Exploring the Local Volume in Simulations
• Uncovering Extremely Metal-Poor Stars in the Milky Way's Ultra-Faint Dwarf Spheroidal Satellite Galaxies
• A Complete Spectroscopic Survey of the Milky Way Satellite Segue 1: The Darkest Galaxy
• Formation Histories of Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Group
• Population III star formation in a Lambda CDM universe, II: Effects of a photodissociating background
• Segue 1: An Unevolved Fossil Galaxy from the Early Universe
• The APOSTLE project: Local Group kinematic mass constraints and simulation candidate selection
• Galaxy Properties and UV Escape Fractions During Epoch of Reionization: Results from the Renaissance Simulations
• Pre-reionization Fossils, Ultra-faint Dwarfs and the Missing Galactic Satellite Problem
• The Star Formation Histories of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies II. Searching For Signatures of Reionization
• The upper bound on the lowest mass halo
• Sweating the small stuff: simulating dwarf galaxies, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, and their own tiny satellites
• The Most Dark Matter Dominated Galaxies: Predicted Gamma-ray Signals from the Faintest Milky Way Dwarfs
• H_2 Cooling of Primordial Gas Triggered by UV Irradiation
• Ultra faint dwarfs: probing early cosmic star formation
• Organized Chaos: Scatter in the relation between stellar mass and halo mass in small galaxies
• The total satellite population of the Milky Way
• Shaken and Stirred: The Milky Way's Dark Substructures
• Chemical Signatures of the First Galaxies: Criteria for One-Shot Enrichment
• The Caterpillar Project: A Large Suite of Milky Way Sized Halos
• Satellites of Simulated Galaxies: survival, merging, and their relation to the dark and stellar halos
• The Eating Habits of Milky Way Mass Halos: Destroyed Dwarf Satellites and the Metallicity Distribution of Accreted Stars
• The stellar-to-halo mass relation for Local Group galaxies
• Too Many, Too Few, or Just Right? The Predicted Number and Distribution of Milky Way Dwarf Galaxies
• The impact of baryonic physics on the subhalo mass function and implications for gravitational lensing
• The Distribution of Alpha Elements in Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies
• Fossils of Reionization in the Local Group
• Where are the Fossils of the First Galaxies? I. Local Volume Maps and Properties of the Undetected Dwarfs
• Ultrafaint Dwarf Galaxies - the lowest mass relics from before reionization
• A Search for Point Sources of EeV Neutrons
• The Dynamical State of Dark Matter Haloes in Cosmological Simulations I: Correlations with Mass Assembly History
• The grouping, merging and survival of subhaloes in the simulated Local Group
• On the dynamical state of galaxy clusters: insights from cosmological simulations II
• The effect of a disc on the population of cuspy and cored dark matter substructures in Milky Way-like galaxies
• Tracing the first stars and galaxies of the Milky Way
• Simulating Neutron Star Mergers as r-process Sources in Ultra Faint Dwarf Galaxies
• An observer's guide to the (Local Group) dwarf galaxies: predictions for their own dwarf satellite populations
• Scaling Relations for Galaxies Prior to Reionization
• The Local Group: The Ultimate Deep Field
• The importance of preventive feedback: inference from observations of the stellar masses and metallicities of Milky Way dwarf galaxies
• The Effects of Varying Cosmological Parameters on Halo Substructure
• Satellite Survival in Highly Resolved Milky Way Class Halos
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program: Discovery of the Most Distant Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxy in the Local Universe

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Faintest Dwarf Galaxies
• Ultra-light Dark Matter is Incompatible with the Milky Way's Dwarf Satellites
• The Formation Times and Building Blocks of Milky Way-mass Galaxies in the FIRE Simulations
• Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies: unveiling the minimum mass of the first stars
• r-process enrichment of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies by fast merging double neutron stars
• Formation of an extended stellar halo around an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy following one of the earliest mergers from galactic building blocks
• R-process enrichment in ultrafaint dwarf galaxies
• On Neutron Star Mergers as the Source of r-process Enhanced Metal Poor Stars in the Milky Way
• s-process Enirchment of Ultrafaint Dwarf Galaxies
• An upper limit on primordial magnetic fields from ultra-faint dwarf galaxies
• Chemical Abundances of the Typhon Stellar Stream