(Abridged) We perform dissipationless N-body simulations to elucidate the dynamical response of thin disks to bombardment by cold dark matter (CDM) substructure. Our method combines (1) cosmological simulations of the formation of Milky Way (MW)-sized CDM halos to derive the properties of substructure and (2) controlled numerical experiments of consecutive subhalo impacts onto an initially-thin, fully-formed MW type disk galaxy. The present study is the first to account for the evolution of satellite populations over cosmic time in such an investigation of disk structure. We find that accretions of massive subhalos onto the central regions of host halos, where the galactic disks reside, since z~1 should be common. One host halo accretion history is used to initialize the controlled simulations of satellite-disk encounters. We show that these accretion events severely perturb the thin galactic disk and produce a wealth of distinctive dynamical signatures on its structure and kinematics. These include (1) considerable thickening and heating at all radii, with the disk thickness and velocity ellipsoid nearly doubling at the solar radius; (2) prominent flaring associated with an increase in disk thickness greater than a factor of 4 in the disk outskirts; (3) surface density excesses at large radii, beyond ~5 disk scale lengths, resembling those of observed antitruncated disks; (4) lopsidedness at levels similar to those measured in observational samples of disk galaxies; and (5) substantial tilting. The interaction with the most massive subhalo drives the disk response while subsequent bombardment is much less efficient at disturbing the disk. We conclude that substructure-disk encounters of the kind expected in the LCDM paradigm play a significant role in setting the structure of disk galaxies and driving galaxy evolution.
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph) orbiting the Milky Way are complex objects often with complicated star formation histories and internal dynamics. In this work, we search for stellar substructures in four of the classical dSph satellites of the Milky Way: Sextans, Carina, Leo I, and Leo II. We apply two methods to search for stellar substructure: the minimum spanning tree method, which helps us to find and quantify spatially connected structures, and the "brute-force" method, which is able to find elongated stellar substructures. We detected the previously known substructure in Sextans, and al…
The COld STream finder Algorithm (COSTA) is a novel algorithm to find streams in the phase space of planetary nebulae (PNe) and globular cluster (GCs) populations. COSTA isolates groups of particles with small velocity dispersion, using an iterative sigma-clipping over a defined number of neighbor particles. We have applied COSTA to a catalog of about 2000 PNe and GCs from the Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey (FVSS), within 200 kpc from the cluster core, to detect cold substructures and characterize their kinematics. We have found 13 cold substructures, with velocity dispersion ranging …
We use high-resolution $N$-body simulations to study the effect of a galactic disc on the dynamical evolution of dark matter substructures with orbits and structural parameters extracted from the Aquarius A-2 merger tree (Springel et al. 2008). Satellites are modelled as equilibrium $N$-body realizations of generalized Hernquist profiles with $2\times10^6$ particles and injected in the analytical evolving host potential at $z_\mathrm{infall}$, defined by the peak of their mass evolution. We select all substructures with $M_{200}(z_\mathrm{infall})\geq 10^8\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ and first pericent…
We present a general method to identify infalling substructure in discrete datasets with position and line-of-sight velocity data. We exploit the fact that galaxies falling onto a brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in a virialised cluster, or dwarf satellites falling onto a central galaxy like the Milky Way, follow nearly radial orbits. If the orbits are exactly radial, we show how to find the probability distribution for a satellite's energy, given a tracer density for the satellite population, by solving an Abel integral equation. This is an extension of Eddington (1916)'s classical formula for …
Context: We present COSTA (COld STream finder Algorithm), a novel algorithm to search for cold kinematical substructures in the phase space of planetary nebulae (PNe) and globular clusters (GCs) in the halo of massive galaxies and intracluster regions. Aims: COSTA aims at detecting small sized, low velocity dispersion streams, as the ones produced in recent interactions of dwarf galaxies with the halo of more massive galaxies, including the ones sitting in the central region of rich galaxy clusters. Methods: COSTA is based on a deep friend-of-friend procedure that isolates groups of N particle…
We present the widest-field resolved stellar map to date of the closest ($D\sim3.8$ Mpc) massive elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A; Cen A), extending out to a projected galactocentric radius of $\sim150$ kpc. The dataset is part of our ongoing Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) utilizing the Magellan/Megacam imager. We resolve a population of old red giant branch stars down to $\sim1.5$ mag below the tip of the red giant branch, reaching surface brightness limits as low as $μ_{V,0}\sim32$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. The resulting spatial stellar density map highlights a p…
We present high-fidelity, 30 milliarcsecond (200-pc) resolution ALMA rest-frame 240 $μ$m observations of cold dust emission in three typical main-sequence star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at $z \sim 3$ in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF). The cold dust is distributed within the smooth disk-like central regions of star formation $1 - 3$ kpc in diameter, despite their complex and disturbed rest-frame UV and optical morphologies. No dust substructures or clumps are seen down to $\simeq 1- 3$ $M_\odot$yr$^{-1}$ (1$σ$) per 200-pc beam. No dust emission is observed at the locations of UV-emitting clum…
Tidal streams from existing and destroyed satellite galaxies populate the outer regions of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). This inhomogeneous debris can be studied without many of the obstacles that plague Milky Way research. We review the history of tidal stream research in M31, and in its main satellite galaxies. We highlight the numerous tidal streams observed around M31, some of which reside at projected distances of up to 120 kpc from the center of this galaxy. Most notable is the Giant Stellar Stream, a signature of the most recent significant accretion event in the M31 system. This event in…
We derive the fraction of substructure in the Galactic halo using a sample of over 10,000 spectroscopically-confirmed halo giant stars from the LAMOST spectroscopic survey. By observing 100 synthetic models along each line of sight with the LAMOST selection function in that sky area, we statistically characterize the expected halo populations. We define as SHARDS (Stellar Halo Accretion Related Debris Structures) any stars in >3-sigma excesses above the model predictions. We find that at least 10% of the Milky Way halo stars from LAMOST are part of SHARDS. By running our algorithm on smooth ha…
The disruption of substructure in galaxy clusters likely plays an important role in shaping the cluster population as a significant fraction of cluster galaxies today have spent time in a previous host system, and thus may have been pre-processed. Once inside the cluster, group galaxies face the combined environmental effects from group and cluster - so called 'post-processing'. We investigate these concepts, by tracking the evolution of satellites and their hosts after entering the cluster and find that tidal forces during their first pericentric passage are very efficient at breaking up grou…
A Megacam Survey of Outer Halo Satellites. IV. Two foreground populations possibly associated with the Monoceros substructure in the direction of NGC2419 and Koposov2
Prestellar cores are self-gravitating dense and cold structures within molecular clouds where future stars are born. They are expected, at the stage of transitioning to the protostellar phase, to harbor centrally concentrated dense (sub)structures that will seed the formation of a new star or the binary/multiple stellar systems. Characterizing this critical stage of evolution is key to our understanding of star formation. In this work, we report the detection of high density (sub)structures on the thousand-au scale in a sample of dense prestellar cores. Through our recent ALMA observations tow…
One of the key open questions in extragalactic astronomy is what stops star formation in galaxies. While it is clear that the cold gas reservoir, which fuels the formation of new stars, must be affected first, how this happens and what are the dominant physical mechanisms involved is still a matter of debate. At least for satellite galaxies, it is generally accepted that internal processes alone cannot be responsible for fully quenching their star formation, but that environment should play an important, if not dominant, role. In nearby clusters, we see examples of cold gas being removed from …
We present the evidence for the existence of substructure in the cold front cluster A2554 based on a 20.14 ks Chandra observation. Using centroid shift and X-ray brightness concentration parameters, we confirm that A2554 is a dynamically disturbed system. We detect two dominant structures; a main cluster at z = 0.1108 and a foreground northern substructure at z = 0.1082. The analysis reveals an X-ray surface brightness edge at r \simeq 60 kpc from the cluster core. The thermodynamical profiles across the edge are ruling out the shock scenario. The temperature jump (from \sim 6 keV to \sim 10 k…
The satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW) are effective probes of the underlying dark matter (DM) substructure, which is sensitive to the nature of the DM particle. In particular, a class of DM models have a power spectrum cut-off on the mass scale of dwarf galaxies and thus predict only small numbers of substructures below the cut-off mass. This makes the MW satellite system appealing to constrain the DM properties: feasible models must produce enough substructure to host the number of observed Galactic satellites. Here, we compare theoretical predictions of the abundance of DM substructur…
In this work, we explore the idea that substructures like stellar clusters could be formed from the tidal stream produced in galactic minor mergers. We use $N$-body and SPH simulations of satellite galaxies interacting with a larger galaxy. We study the distribution of mass in streams to identify overdensity regions in which a substructure could be formed. We found that without gas, no substructure formed as none of the overdensities shows a definite morphology nor dynamical stability. Including gas we found that several clumps appear and proved to be real long standing physical structures ($t…
The tidal features of the classical Milky Way satellites: Expected in MOND but inconsistent with cold dark matter models
Helmholtz Institut für Strahlen und Kernphysik, Universität Bonn（波恩大学赫尔姆霍兹射线与核物理研究所）；Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学宇宙学与引力研究所）；Astronomical Institute of Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics（查理大学数学物理学院天文研究所）
We investigate the spatially-resolved morphology of galaxies in the early Universe. We consider a typical redshift z = 6 Lyman Break galaxy, "Althaea" from the SERRA hydrodynamical simulations. We create mock rest-frame ultraviolet, optical, and far-infrared observations, and perform a two-dimensional morphological analysis to de-blend the galaxy disk from substructures (merging satellites or star-forming regions). We find that the [CII]158um emitting region has an effective radius 1.5 - 2.5 times larger than the optical one, consistent with recent observations. This [CII] halo in our simulate…
Luminous Satellites versus Dark Subhaloes: Clustering in the Milky Way
观测到的银河系卫星星系群为小尺度上的星系形成理论提供了一个独特的试验场。我们的新方法是调查已知的银河系卫星星系的集群和量化的数量的子结构内的分布使用两点关联函数统计在三个空间：配置空间，视线速度空间，和四维相空间。这些结果进行了比较的三套subhaloes在通过Lactea II冷暗物质模拟定义为代表发光的矮星。我们没有发现任何证据在一个显着性水平以上的2西格玛的子结构内的银河系卫星星系的分布在任何三个空间。在四维相空间中，在所有三个空间和更广泛的尺度范围内，“发光”的次晕集合比银河系卫星更强烈地聚集在一起。每个“发光”的subhalo集聚类的结果，其视线内的速度空间分布的子结构在大于3西格玛的意义，而银河系的卫星星系是随机分布在视线的速度空间。虽然我们的比较是只有一个冷暗物质模拟，银河系卫星星系和所有聚类方法的Via Lactea II subhalo集之间的不一致性表明冷暗物质理论和观测到的银河系卫星之间存在潜在的新的“小尺度”紧张关系。未来的工作将通过研究额外的模拟来获得观测到的银河系卫星和冷暗物质理论之间更可靠的比较。
We present structural parameters from a wide-field homogeneous imaging survey of Milky Way satellites carried out with the MegaCam imagers on the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and 6.5m Magellan-Clay telescope. Our survey targets an unbiased sample of "outer halo" satellites (i.e., substructures having Galactocentric distances greater than 25 kpc) and includes classical dSph galaxies, ultra-faint dwarfs, and remote globular clusters. We combine deep, panoramic $gr$ imaging for 44 satellites and archival $gr$ imaging for 14 additional objects (primarily obtained with the DECam instr…
While the galactic density wave theory is over 50 years old and well known in science, whether it fits our own Milky Way disk has been difficult to say. Here we show a substructure inside the spiral arms. This substructure is reversing with respect to the Galactic Meridian (longitude zero), and crosscuts of the arms at negative longitudes appear as mirror images of crosscuts of the arms at positive longitudes. Four lanes are delineated: mid-arm (extended 12CO gas at mid arm, HI atoms), in-between offset by about 100 pc (synchrotron, radio recombination lines), in between offset by about 200 pc…
A large population of extended substructures generates a stochastic gravitational field that is fully specified by the function $p({\bf F})$, which defines the probability that a tracer particle experiences a force $\bf F$ within the interval ${\bf F},{\bf F}+ d\bf F$. This paper presents a statistical technique for deriving the spectrum of random fluctuations directly from the number density of substructures with known mass and size functions. Application to the subhalo population found in cold dark matter simulations of Milky Way-sized haloes shows that, while the combined force distribution…
Within $Λ$CDM, dwarf galaxies like the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are expected to host numerous dark matter subhalos, several of which should host faint dwarf companions. Recent Gaia proper motions confirm new members of the LMC-system in addition to the previously known SMC, including two classical dwarf galaxies ($M_\ast$ > $10^5$ M$_{\odot}$; Carina and Fornax) as well as several ultra-faint dwarfs (Car2, Car3, Hor1, and Hyd1). We use the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations to study the dark and luminous (down to ultrafaint masses, $M_\ast$ ~ $6\times10^3$ M$_{\odot}$) s…
The Andromeda (M31) galaxy displays several substructures in its inner halo whose origin as remnants of accreted satellites or perturbations of the pre-existing disc are encoded in the properties of their stellar populations (SPs), leaving traces on their deep [OIII] 5007 Åplanetary nebulae luminosity functions (PNLFs). By characterizing the morphology of the PNLFs, we constrain their origin. From our 54 sq. deg. deep narrow-band [OIII] survey of M31, we identify planetary nebulae (PNe) in the M31 disc and six major inner-halo substructures - the Giant Stream, North East Shelf, G1-Clump, North…
In this paper we investigate environment driven gas depletion in satellite galaxies, taking full advantage of the atomic hydrogen (HI) spectral stacking technique to quantify the gas content for the entire gas-poor to -rich regime. We do so using a multi-wavelength sample of 10,600 satellite galaxies, selected according to stellar mass (log M$_{\star}$/M$_{\odot}$ $\geq$ 9) and redshift (0.02 $\leq$ z $\leq$ 0.05) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with HI data from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey. Using key HI-to-stellar mass scaling relations, we present evidence that the gas c…
We present direct $N$-body simulations of tidally filling 30,000 ${\rm M}_\odot$ star clusters orbiting between 10 kpc and 100 kpc in galaxies with a range of dark matter substructure properties. The time-dependent tidal force is determined based on the combined tidal tensor of the galaxy's smooth and clumpy dark matter components, the latter of which causes fluctuations in the tidal field that can heat clusters. The strength and duration of these fluctuations are sensitive to the local dark matter density, substructure fraction, sub-halo mass function, and the sub-halo mass-size relation. Bas…
We present initial results from the "Ponos" zoom-in numerical simulations of dark matter substructures in massive ellipticals. Two very highly resolved dark matter halos with $M_{\rm vir}=1.2\times 10^{13}$ $M_{\odot}$ and $M_{\rm vir}=6.5\times 10^{12}$ $M_{\odot}$ and different ("violent" vs. "quiescent") assembly histories have been simulated down to $z=0$ in a $Λ$CDM cosmology with a total of 921,651,914 and 408,377,544 particles, respectively. Within the virial radius, the total mass fraction in self-bound $M_{\rm sub}>10^6$ $M_{\odot}$ subhalos at the present epoch is 15% for the violent…
Although highly successful on cosmological scales, Cold Dark Matter (CDM) models predict unobserved over-dense `cusps' in dwarf galaxies and overestimate their formation rate. We consider an ultra-light axion-like scalar boson which promises to reduce these observational discrepancies at galactic scales. The model, known as Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM), avoids cusps, suppresses small-scale power, and delays galaxy formation via macroscopic quantum pressure. We compare the substructure and density fluctuations of galactic dark matter haloes comprised of ultra-light axions to conventional CDM results…
The survey of planetary nebulae in Andromeda (M31) VI. Kinematics of M31 inner-halo substructures and comparison with major-merger simulation predictions
The population of satellite galaxies in a host galaxy is a combination of the cumulative accretion of subhaloes and their associated star formation efficiencies, therefore, the luminosity distribution of satellites provides valuable information of both dark matter properties and star formation physics. Recently, the luminosity function of satellites in nearby Milky Way-mass galaxies has been well measured to satellites as faint as Leo I with $M_{V} \sim -8$. In addition to the finding of the diversity in the satellite luminosity functions, it has been noticed that there is a big gap among the …
The dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way Crater II and Antlia II have uncommonly low dynamical mass densities, due to their large size and low velocity dispersion. Previous work have failed to identify formation scenarios within the $Λ$CDM framework and have invoked cored dark matter haloes, processed by tides. I show that the tidal evolution of $Λ$CDM NFW haloes is richer than previously recognised: tidal heating causes the innermost regions of haloes that fall short of the mass-concentration relation to expand significantly, resulting in the formation of giant, kinematically cold satell…
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy are each surrounded by a thin plane of satellite galaxies that may be corotating. Cosmological simulations predict that most satellite galaxy systems are close to isotropic with random motions, so those two well-studied systems are often interpreted as rare statistical outliers. We test this assumption using the kinematics of satellite galaxies around the Centaurus A galaxy. Our statistical analysis reveals evidence for corotation in a narrow plane: of the 16 Centaurus A's satellites with kinematic data, 14 follow a coherent velocity pattern aligned with the …
