Semi-Analytic Modeling of Dark Matter Subhalo Encounters with Thin Stellar Streams: Statistical Predictions for GD-1-like Streams in CDM

Abstract

Stellar streams from disrupted globular clusters are dynamically cold structures that are sensitive to perturbations from dark matter subhalos, allowing them in principle to trace the dark matter substructure in the Milky Way. We model, within the context of $\Lambda$CDM, the likelihood of dark matter subhalos to produce a significant feature in a GD-1-like stream and analyze the properties of such subhalos. We generate many realizations of the subhalo population within a Milky Way mass host halo using the semi-analytic code SatGen, accounting for effects such as tidal stripping and dynamical friction. The subhalo distributions are combined with a GD-1-like stream model, and the impact of subhalos that pass close to the stream are modeled with Gala. We find that subhalos with masses in the range $2\times 10^6{M}_{\odot }-10^8{M}_{\odot }$ at the time of the stream-subhalo encounter, corresponding to masses of about $2\times 10^7{M}_{\odot }-10^9{M}_{\odot }$ at the time of infall, are the likeliest to produce gaps in a GD-1-like stream. We find that gaps occur on average $\sim$3~times per realization of the host system. These gaps have typical widths of $\sim (5-27)$~deg and fractional underdensities of $\sim (10-30)\%$, with larger gaps being caused by heavier subhalos. The stream-subhalo encounters responsible for these have impact parameters $(0.1-1.5)$~kpc and relative velocities $\sim (200-410)$~km/s. We also investigate the effects of increasing the host-halo mass on the gap properties and formation rate.

20 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (71)

• The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos
• Observational evidence for self-interacting cold dark matter
• The Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic and Integrated Properties
• galpy: A Python Library for Galactic Dynamics
• Halo Formation in Warm Dark Matter Models
• A box-fitting algorithm in the search for periodic transits
• Resolving the Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos
• Reionization and the abundance of galactic satellites
• Direct Detection of CDM Substructure
• A catalogue of masses, structural parameters and velocity dispersion profiles of 112 Milky Way globular clusters
• Massloss of galaxies due to a UV-background
• Accurate universal models for the mass accretion histories and concentrations of dark matter halos
• The Circular Velocity Curve of the Milky Way from $5$ to $25$ kpc
• Detection of a 63 Degree Cold Stellar Stream in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Constraints on MACHO Dark Matter from Compact Stellar Systems in Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies
• Sinking Satellites and the Heating of Galaxy Discs
• The extended tails of Palomar 5: A ten degree arc of globular cluster tidal debris
• Cold Dark Matter Substructure and Galactic Disks I: Morphological Signatures of Hierarchical Satellite Accretion
• Generating Dark Matter Halo Merger Trees
• Uncovering CDM halo substructure with tidal streams
• Photoionization and the Formation of Dwarf Galaxies
• Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos and the Gravothermal Catastrophe
• How Lumpy is the Milky Way's Dark Matter Halo?
• Milky Way Satellite Census. II. Galaxy--Halo Connection Constraints Including the Impact of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Spur and the Gap in GD-1: Dynamical evidence for a dark substructure in the Milky Way halo
• Clumpy Streams from Clumpy Halos: Detecting Missing Satellites with Cold Stellar Structures
• The upper bound on the lowest mass halo
• The number and size of subhalo-induced gaps in stellar streams
• The End of the MACHO Era: Limits on Halo Dark Matter from Stellar Halo Wide Binaries
• Gravothermal collapse of isolated self-interacting dark matter haloes: N-body simulation versus the fluid model
• Dark Matter Sub-Halo Counts via Star Stream Crossings
• Cold Dark Matter Substructure and Galactic Disks II: Dynamical Effects of Hierarchical Satellite Accretion
• Constraining Dissipative Dark Matter Self-Interactions
• Linear perturbation theory for tidal streams and the small-scale CDM power spectrum
• Off the beaten path: Gaia reveals GD-1 stars outside of the main stream
• Accelerated core collapse in tidally stripped self-interacting dark matter halos
• Forensics of Subhalo-Stream Encounters: The Three Phases of Gap Growth
• Dynamical modeling of tidal streams
• The Radical Consequences of Realistic Satellite Orbits for the Heating and Implied Merger Histories of Galactic Disks
• Gravothermal Collapse of Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos and the Origin of Massive Black Holes
• Properties of Dark Subhaloes from Gaps in Tidal Streams
• Star Stream Folding by Dark Galactic Sub-Halos
• SatGen: a semi-analytical satellite galaxy generator -- I. The model and its application to Local-Group satellite statistics
• Determining the full satellite population of a Milky Way-mass halo in a highly resolved cosmological hydrodynamic simulation
• Halometry from Astrometry
• Core-collapse, evaporation and tidal effects: the life story of a self-interacting dark matter subhalo
• Dynamics of stream-subhalo interactions
• The tidal evolution of dark matter substructure -- I. Subhalo density profiles
• Broken into Pieces: ATLAS and Aliqa Uma as One Single Stream
• Probing the nature of dark matter particles with stellar streams
• Signatures of LCDM substructure in tidal debris
• Universal gravothermal evolution of isolated self-interacting dark matter halos for velocity-dependent cross sections
• Dynamical Effects of CDM Subhalos on a Galactic Disk
• Multiple components of the Jhelum stellar stream
• On the density profile of dark matter substructure in gravitational lens galaxies
• A semi-analytic study of self-interacting dark-matter haloes with baryons
• First Results on Dark Matter Substructure from Astrometric Weak Lensing
• Forecasts for Galaxy Formation and Dark Matter Constraints from Dwarf Galaxy Surveys
• Inferring the concentration of dark matter subhalos perturbing strongly lensed images
• The Minimum Halo Mass for Star Formation at z = 6 - 8
• Constraints on Dark Matter from Dynamical Heating of Stars in Ultrafaint Dwarfs. Part 2: Substructure and the Primordial Power Spectrum
• Measuring the Small-Scale Matter Power Spectrum with High-Resolution CMB Lensing
• SatGen -- II. Assessing the impact of a disc potential on subhalo populations
• Constraints of the Clumpyness of Dark Matter Halos Through Heating of the Disk Galaxies
• Stochastic tidal heating by random interactions with extended substructures
• Orbital distribution of infalling satellite halos across cosmic time
• Numerical Challenges in Modeling Gravothermal Collapse in Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos
• The dark side of FIRE: predicting the population of dark matter subhaloes around Milky Way-mass galaxies
• Improved particle spray algorithm for modeling globular cluster streams
• Subhalo effective density slope measurements from HST strong lensing data with neural likelihood-ratio estimation
• Astrometric Weak Lensing with Gaia DR3 and Future Catalogs: Searches for Dark Matter Substructure

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Measurement of Substructure from the Kinematics of the GD-1 Stellar Stream