Cosmological simulations of the same spiral galaxy: connecting the dark matter distribution of the host halo with the subgrid baryonic physics

Abstract

The role of baryonic physics, star formation, and stellar feedback, in shaping the galaxies and their host halos is an evolving topic. The dark matter aspects are illustrated in this work by showing distribution features in a Milky-Way-sized halo. We focus on the halo morphology, geometry, and profile as well as the phase space distribution using one dark matter only and five hydrodynamical cosmological high-resolution simulations of the same halo with different subgrid prescriptions for the baryonic physics (Kennicut versus multi-freefall star formation and delayed cooling versus mechanical supernovae feedback). If some general properties like the relative halo-galaxy orientation are similar, the modifications of the gravitational potential due to the presence of baryons are found to induce different dark matter distributions (rounder and more concentrated halo). The mass density profile as well as the velocity distribution are modified distinctively according to the specific resulting baryonic distribution highlighting the variability of those properties (e.g inner power index from 1.3 to 1.8, broader speed distribution). The uncertainties on those features are of paramount importance for dark matter phenomenology, particularly when dealing with dark matter dynamics or direct and indirect detection searches. As a consequence, dark matter properties and prospects using cosmological simulations require improvement on baryonic physics description. Modeling such processes is a key issue not only for galaxy formation but also for dark matter investigations.

References in corpus (14)

• The mass distribution and gravitational potential of the Milky Way
• Baryon effects on the internal structure of LCDM halos in the EAGLE simulations
• Phase-space structure in the local dark matter distribution and its signature in direct detection experiments
• The Causes of Halo Shape Changes Induced by Cooling Baryons: Disks Versus Substructures
• The Dependence of Bar Frequency on Galaxy Mass, Colour, and Gas Content -- and Angular Resolution -- in the Local Universe
• The Shape of the Gravitational Potential in Cold Dark Matter Halos
• Angular momentum properties of haloes and their baryon content in the Illustris simulation
• Snap, Crackle, Pop: sub-grid supernova feedback in AMR simulations of disk galaxies
• Two can play at that game: constraining the role of supernova and AGN feedback in dwarf galaxies with cosmological zoom-in simulations
• Baryonic and dark matter distribution in cosmological simulations of spiral galaxies
• Modeling dark matter subhalos in a constrained galaxy: Global mass and boosted annihilation profiles
• The impact of baryons on dark matter haloes
• Massive disc galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations are too dark matter-dominated
• Two-integral distribution functions in axisymmetric galaxies: implications for dark matter searches

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Galaxy shapes in Magneticum. I. Connecting stellar and dark matter shapes to dynamical and morphological galaxy properties and the large-scale structure
• Dark Matter Velocity Distributions for Direct Detection: Astrophysical Uncertainties are Smaller Than They Appear
• How to Build an Empirical Speed Distribution for Dark Matter in the Solar Neighborhood
• Superbubbles as the source of dynamical friction: gas migration, stellar and dark matter contributions