Shapes of dark matter haloes with discrete globular cluster dynamics: The example of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A)

Abstract

Within the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, dark matter haloes are expected to deviate from spherical symmetry. Constraining the halo shapes at large galactocentric distances is challenging due to the low density of luminous tracers. The well-studied early-type galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A - CenA), has a large number of radial velocities for globular clusters (GCs) and planetary nebulae (PNe) of its extended stellar halo. In this work, we aim to determine the deviation from spherical symmetry of the dark matter halo of CenA at 5 $R_{\mathrm{e}}$ using its GCs as kinematic tracers. We used the largest photometric catalogue of GC candidates to accurately characterise the spatial distribution of the relaxed population and investigated the presence of non-relaxed structures in the kinematic catalogue of GCs using the relaxed point-symmetric velocity field as determined by the host's PNe population. We used anisotropic Jeans modelling under axisymmetric assumptions together with the Gaussian likelihood and GCs as discrete tracers. The gravitational potential is generated by flattened stellar and dark matter distributions. We leveraged different orbital properties of the blue and red GCs to model them separately. We find that discrete kinematics of the GCs are consistent with being drawn from an underlying relaxed velocity field determined from PNe. The best-fit parameters of the gravitational potential recovered from the blue and red GCs separately agree well and the joint results are: $M_{200}=1.86_{-0.69}^{1.61}\times 10^{12}$ M${}_{\odot }$, $M_{\star }/L_{\mathrm{B}}=2.98_{-0.78}^{+0.96}$ and the flattening $q_{\mathrm{DM}}=1.45_{-0.53}^{+0.78}$. Both GC populations show mild rotation, with red having a slightly stronger rotational signature and radially biased orbits, and blue GCs preferring negative velocity anisotropy. An oblate or a spherical dark matter halo of CenA is strongly disfavoured by our modelling.

arXiv comment22 pages, 17 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (105)

• SciPy 1.0--Fundamental Algorithms for Scientific Computing in Python
• Array Programming with NumPy
• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package
• Binary companions of evolved stars in APOGEE DR14: Search method and catalog of ~5,000 companions
• Extragalactic Globular Clusters and Galaxy Formation
• The statistics of LCDM Halo Concentrations
• The Atlas3D project - XV. Benchmark for early-type galaxies scaling relations from 260 dynamical models: mass-to-light ratio, dark matter, Fundamental Plane and Mass Plane
• Halo concentrations in the standard LCDM cosmology
• The Structure of Dark Matter Haloes in Hierarchical Clustering Models
• The Shape of Dark Matter Halos: Dependence on Mass, Redshift, Radius, and Formation
• Measuring the inclination and mass-to-light ratio of axisymmetric galaxies via anisotropic Jeans models of stellar kinematics
• Efficient Multi-Gaussian Expansion of galaxies
• Internal and External Alignment of the Shapes and Angular Momenta of LCDM Halos
• The Effect of Gas Cooling on the Shapes of Dark Matter Halos
• The Anisotropic Distribution of Galactic Satellites
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VII. Resolving the Connection Between Globular Clusters and Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies
• Connecting Angular Momentum and Galactic Dynamics: The complex Interplay between Spin, Mass, and Morphology
• The accretion history of dark matter halos III: A physical model for the concentration-mass relation
• The Distance to NGC 5128 (Centaurus A)
• The extended halo of Centaurus A: uncovering satellites, streams, and substructures
• Mass and shape of the Milky Way's dark matter halo with globular clusters from Gaia and Hubble
• The SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS): Sample definition, methods, and initial results
• A whirling plane of satellite galaxies around Centaurus A challenges cold dark matter cosmology
• A New Method for Estimating Dark Matter Halo Masses using Globular Cluster Systems
• The Shape and Profile of the Milky Way Halo as Seen by the CFHT Legacy Survey
• Reconstructing the Last Major Merger of the Milky Way with the H3 Survey
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. VIII. The Luminosity Function of Globular Clusters in Virgo and Fornax Early-Type Galaxies and its Use as a Distance Indicator
• X-ray Emission from the Hot ISM and SW Radio Lobe of the Nearby Radio Galaxy Centaurus A
• The Nature of UCDs: Internal Dynamics from an Expanded Sample and Homogeneous Database
• The Shape of the Gravitational Potential in Cold Dark Matter Halos
• Evidence for a Triaxial Milky Way Dark Matter Halo from the Sagittarius Stellar Tidal Stream
• Galactic Dark Matter Halos and Globular Cluster Populations. III: Extension to Extreme Environments
• The Planetary Nebula System and Dynamics in the Outer Halo of NGC 5128
• The impact of baryons on the spins and shapes of dark matter haloes
• The shape of the Galactic halo with $Gaia$ DR2 RR Lyrae. Anatomy of an ancient major merger
• The Globular Cluster System of NGC 5128 II. Ages, Metallicities, Kinematics, and Formation
• The mass of the black hole in Centaurus A from SINFONI AO-assisted integral-field observations of stellar kinematics
• Dark Matter Halos in Galaxies and Globular Cluster Populations
• Deep ACS Imaging of the Halo of NGC 5128: Reaching the Horizontal Branch
• The Atlas3D project - XXIV. The intrinsic shape distribution of early-type galaxies
• On determining the shape of matter distributions
• Shape of Dark Matter Haloes in the Illustris Simulation: Effects of Baryons
• Dynamical modelling of stars and gas in NGC2974: determination of mass-to-light ratio, inclination and orbital structure by Schwarzschild's method
• Tidal debris of dwarf spheroidals as a probe of structure formation models
• A 2dF spectroscopic study of globular clusters in NGC 5128: Probing the formation history of the nearest giant Elliptical
• Mapping the Dark Side with DEIMOS: Globular Clusters, X-ray Gas, and Dark Matter in the NGC 1407 Group
• Globular cluster luminosity function as distance indicator
• The Ages, Metallicities and Alpha Element Enhancements of Globular Clusters in the Elliptical NGC 5128: A Homogeneous Spectroscopic Study with Gemini/GMOS
• Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies: A Near-Universal Luminosity Function?
• Stellar Streams as Probes of Dark Halo Mass and Morphology: A Bayesian Reconstruction
• Recovering the intrinsic shape of early-type galaxies
• Tidal Stream Morphology as an Indicator of Dark Matter Halo Geometry: the Case of Palomar 5
• Discrete dynamical modelling of omega Centauri
• The dwarf galaxy satellite system of Centaurus A
• New Mass Estimators for Tracer Populations
• The Kinematics of the Globular Cluster System of NGC 5128 with a New, Large Sample of Radial Velocity Measurements
• What's Up in the Milky Way? The Orientation of the Disc Relative to the Triaxial Halo
• The Kinematics and Dynamics of the Globular Clusters and the Planetary Nebulae of NGC 5128
• How old are the stars in the halo of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A)?
• Trends in the Globular Cluster Luminosity Function of Early-Type Galaxies
• Elliptical galaxy masses out to five effective radii: the realm of dark matter
• The extended Planetary Nebula Spectrograph (ePN.S) early-type galaxy survey. The kinematic diversity of stellar halos and the relation between halo transition scale and stellar mass
• The SLUGGS Survey: stellar kinematics, kinemetry and trends at large radii in 25 early-type galaxies
• Galaxy shapes and alignments in the MassiveBlack-II hydrodynamic and dark matter-only simulations
• Shapes of dark matter halos
• Polar Ring Galaxies and the Tully Fisher relation: implications for the dark halo shape
• Signatures of accretion events in the halos of early-type galaxies from comparing PNe and GCs kinematics
• The Stellar Halo of the Galaxy is Tilted & Doubly Broken
• The coherent motion of Cen A dwarf satellite galaxies remains a challenge for $\Lambda$CDM cosmology
• The stellar halos of ETGs in the IllustrisTNG simulations: the photometric and kinematic diversity of galaxies at large radii
• Dark matter halo shapes in the Auriga simulations
• The stellar halos of ETGs in the IllustrisTNG simulations: II. Accretion, merger history, and dark halo connection
• The Dependence of Globular Cluster Number on Density for Abell Cluster Central Galaxies
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: The internal orbital structure and mass distribution of passive galaxies from triaxial orbit-superposition Schwarzschild models
• The MASSIVE Survey - X. Misalignment between Kinematic and Photometric Axes and Intrinsic Shapes of Massive Early-Type Galaxies
• The SLUGGS Survey: A comparison of total-mass profiles of early-type galaxies from observations and cosmological simulations, to $\sim$4 effective radii
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: the intrinsic shape of kinematically selected galaxies
• A Tilted Dark Halo Origin of the Galactic Disk Warp and Flare
• Structural Parameters for Globular Clusters in NGC 5128. II: HST/ACS Imaging and New Clusters
• The Survey of Centaurus A's Baryonic Structures (SCABS). II. The Extended Globular Cluster System of NGC5128 and its Nearby Environment
• A Recent Major Merger Tale for the Closest Giant Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A
• NGC 5128: The Giant Beneath
• A Gaia-based catalog of candidate stripped nuclei and luminous globular clusters in the halo of Centaurus A
• A discrete chemo-dynamical model of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5846: dark matter fraction, internal rotation and velocity anisotropy out to six effective radii
• Mapping Dark Matter with Extragalactic Stellar Streams: the Case of Centaurus A
• NGC 5128 globular cluster candidates out to 150 kpc: a comprehensive catalog from Gaia and ground based data
• A Photometric Survey of Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey III -- Kinematical characterisation of globular clusters across the Fornax galaxy cluster
• A stream come true: Connecting tidal tails, shells, streams, and planes with galaxy kinematics and formation history
• The outermost stellar halo of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A): Radial structure
• Measuring Dark Matter in Galaxies: The Mass Fraction Within 5 Effective Radii
• Joint Gas and Stellar Dynamical Models of WLM: An isolated dwarf galaxy within a cored, prolate DM halo
• An imaging and spectroscopic study of the planetary nebulae in NGC 5128 (Centaurus A): Planetary nebulae catalogues
• What to expect when using globular clusters as tracers of the total mass distribution in Milky Way-mass galaxies
• New Velocity Measurements of NGC 5128 Globular Clusters out to 130 kpc: Outer Halo Kinematics, Substructure and Dynamics
• Investigating the Dark Matter Halo of NGC 5128 using a Discrete Dynamical Model
• The shape of dark matter haloes: results from weak lensing in the Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS)
• Dark matter in massive galaxies
• Total mass slopes and enclosed mass constrained by globular cluster system dynamics

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Galaxy archaeology for wet mergers: Globular cluster age distributions in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies
• Galaxy shapes in Magneticum. I. Connecting stellar and dark matter shapes to dynamical and morphological galaxy properties and the large-scale structure
• Major Mergers Mean Major Offset: Drivers of Intrinsic Scatter in The $M_{GCS}-M_h$ Scaling Relation for Massive Elliptical Galaxies