9 pages, 7 figures, published in A&A Letters. Key result of the paper is shown in Figure 5. For a discussion on the physically motivated size definition used, see Trujillo et al. (2020)
Now almost 70 years since its introduction, the effective or half-light radius has become a very popular choice for characterising galaxy size. However, the effective radius measures the concentration of light within galaxies and thus does not capture the intuitive definition of size which is related to the edge or boundary of objects. For this reason, we aim to demonstrate the undesirable consequence of using the effective radius to draw conclusions about the nature of faint 'ultra-diffuse galaxies' (UDGs) when compared to dwarfs and Milky Way-like galaxies. Instead of the effective radius, we use a measure of galaxy size based on the location of the gas density threshold required for star formation. Compared to the effective radius, this physically motivated definition places the sizes much closer to the boundary of a galaxy. Therefore, considering the sizes and stellar mass density profiles of UDGs and regular dwarfs, we find that the UDGs have sizes that are within the size range of dwarfs. We also show that currently known UDGs do not have sizes comparable to Milky Way-like objects. We find that, on average, UDGs are ten times smaller in extension than Milky Way-like galaxies. These results show that the use of size estimators sensitive to the concentration of light can lead to misleading results.
We investigate the impact of f(R) modified gravity on the internal properties of Milky Way sized dark matter halos in a set of cosmological zoom simulations of seven halos from the Aquarius suite, carried out with our code MG-GADGET in the Hu & Sawicki f(R) model. Also, we calculate the fifth forces in ideal NFW-halos as well as in our cosmological simulations and compare them against analytic model predictions for the fifth force inside spherical objects. We find that these theoretical predictions match the forces in the ideal halos very well, whereas their applicability is somewhat limited f…
Recent kinematical constraints on the internal densities of the Milky Way's dwarf satellites have revealed a discrepancy with the subhalo populations of simulated Galaxy-scale halos in the standard CDM model of hierarchical structure formation. This has been dubbed the "too big to fail" problem, with reference to the improbability of large and invisible companions existing in the Galactic environment. In this paper, we argue that both the Milky Way observations and simulated subhalos are consistent with the predictions of the standard model for structure formation. Specifically, we show that t…
Collisionless simulations of the CDM cosmology predict a plethora of dark matter substructures in the halos of Milky Way sized galaxies, yet the number of known luminous satellites galaxies is very much smaller, a discrepancy that has become known as the `missing satellite problem'. The most massive substructures have been shown to be plausibly the hosts of the brightest satellites, but it remains unclear which processes prevent star formation in the many other, purely dark substructures. We use high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of the formation of Milky Way sized galaxies in order to t…
The concordance $Λ$CDM cosmology predicts tens of satellite galaxies distributed in the inner region ($<40\ \lkpc$) of the Milky Way (MW), yet at most $12$ were discovered at present day, including 3 discovered very recently by Dark Energy Survey (DES) and 5 from other surveys (e.g. PanSTARRS, MagLiteS). We use $5$ ultra-high resolution simulations of MW sized dark matter haloes from the $\aqua$ project, combined with $\galf$ semi-analytical galaxy formation model, to investigate properties of the model satellite galaxy population inside $40\ \lkpc$ of MW sized haloes. On average, in each halo…
The dominant physical processes responsible for the formation and longevity of giant gaseous and stellar discs in galaxies remain controversial. Although they are rare (less than 10 confirmed as of now), giant low-surface brightness (gLSB) discy galaxies provide interesting insights given their extreme nature. We describe observations of UGC 1378 including deep spectroscopy with the Russian 6m telescope and multi-band imaging with Binospec at the MMT. Galaxy UGC 1378 has both high surface brightness and an extended low surface brightness discs. Our stellar velocity dispersion data for the high…
We study the orbital properties of dark matter haloes by combining a spectral method and cosmological simulations of Milky Way-sized galaxies. We compare the dynamics and orbits of individual dark matter particles from both hydrodynamic and $N$-body simulations, and find that the fraction of box, tube and resonant orbits of the dark matter halo decreases significantly due to the effects of baryons. In particular, the central region of the dark matter halo in the hydrodynamic simulation is dominated by regular, short-axis tube orbits, in contrast to the chaotic, box and thin orbits dominant in …
Stellar streams originating in disrupted dwarf galaxies and star clusters are observed around the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Such substructures are the important tracers that record how the host haloes have accreted progenitor galaxies. Based on the cosmological context, we investigate the relationship between structural properties of substructures such as length and thinness at $z=0$, and orbits of their progenitors. We model stellar components of a large sample of substructures around Milky Way-sized haloes by combining semi-analytic models with a high-resolution cosmological $N$-body si…
The probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the average densities of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) and the diffuse atomic gas are close to lognormal, especially when lines of sight at |b|<5 degree and |b|>5 degree are considered separately. Our results provide strong support for the existence of a lognormal density PDF in the diffuse ISM, consistent with a turbulent origin of density structure in the diffuse gas.
We study the properties of the central spheroids located within 10 kpc of the centre of mass of Milky Way mass-sized galaxies simulated in a cosmological context. The simulated central regions are dominated by stars older than 10 Gyr, mostly formed in situ, with a contribution of ~30 per cent from accreted stars. These stars formed in well-defined starbursts, although accreted stars exhibit sharper and earlier ones. The fraction of accreted stars increases with galactocentric distance, so that at a radius of ~8-10 kpc a fraction of ~40 per cent, on average, are detected. Accreted stars are sli…
Solving Milky Way-sized Systems with Haskap Pie: A Halo finding Algorithm with efficient Sampling, K-means clustering, tree-Assembly, Particle tracking, Python modules, Inter-code applicability, and Energy solving
Using realistic cosmological simulations of Milky Way sized haloes, we study their dynamical state and the accuracy of inferring their mass profiles with steady-state models of dynamical tracers. We use a new method that describes the phase-space distribution of a steady-state tracer population in a spherical potential without any assumption regarding the distribution of their orbits. Applying the method to five haloes from the Aquarius $Λ$CDM N-body simulation, we find that dark matter particles are an accurate tracer that enables the halo mass and concentration parameters to be recovered wit…
We introduce a new set of simulations of Milky Way-sized galaxies using the AMR code ART + hydrodynamics in a $Λ$CDM cosmogony. The simulation series is named GARROTXA and follow the formation of a halo/galaxy from z~$=$~60 to z~$=$~0. The final virial mass of the system is $\sim$7.4$\times$10$^{11}$M$_{\odot}$. Our results are as follows: (a) contrary to many previous studies, the circular velocity curve shows no central peak and overall agrees with recent MW observations. (b) Other quantities, such as M$\_{*}$(6$\times$10$^{10}$M$_\odot$) and R$_d$ (2.56 kpc), fall well inside the observatio…
The long-standing challenge of creating a Milky Way-like disk galaxy from cosmological simulations has motivated significant developments in both numerical methods and physical models in recent years. We investigate these two fundamental aspects in a new comparison project using a set of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of the formation and evolution of a Milky Way-size galaxy. In this study, we focus on the comparison of two particle-based hydrodynamics methods: the improved smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code Gadget, and the Lagrangian Meshless Finite-Mass (MFM) code GIZMO. All t…
We study the global and radial stellar mass assembly of eight zoomed-in MW-sized galaxies produced in Hydrodynamics cosmological simulations. The disk-dominated galaxies (4) show a fast initial stellar mass growth in the innermost parts, driven mostly by in-situ SF, but since $z\sim2-1$ the SF enters in a long-term quenching phase. The outer regions follow this trend but more gentle as more external they are. As the result, the radial stellar mass growth is highly inside-out due to both the inside-out structural growth and inside-out SF quenching. The half-mass radius evolves fast; for instanc…
We employ an improved methodology to insert live stellar disks into high-resolution dark matter simulations of Milky Way sized halos, allowing us to investigate the fate of thin stellar disks in the tumultuous environment of cold dark matter structures. We study a set of eight different halos, drawn from the Aquarius simulation project, in which stellar disks are adiabatically grown with a prescribed structure, and then allowed to self-consistently evolve. The initial velocity distribution is set-up in very good equilibrium with the help of the GALIC code. We find that the residual triaxiality…
We use a high resolution cosmological zoom simulation of a Milky Way-sized halo to study the observable features in velocity and metallicity space associated with the dynamical influence of spiral arms. For the first time, we demonstrate that spiral arms, that form in a disc in a fully cosmological environment with realistic galaxy formation physics, drive large-scale systematic streaming motions. In particular, on the trailing edge of the spiral arms the peculiar galacto-centric radial and azimuthal velocity field is directed radially outward and azimuthally backward, whereas it is radially i…
Emission from carbon monoxide (CO) is ubiquitously used as a tracer of dense star forming molecular clouds. There is, however, growing evidence that a significant fraction of CO emission originates from diffuse molecular gas. Quantifying the contribution of diffuse CO-emitting gas is vital for understanding the relation between molecular gas and star formation. We examine the Galactic distribution of two CO-emitting gas components, a high column density component detected in 13CO and 12CO, and a low column density component detected in 12CO, but not in 13CO. The "diffuse" and "dense" component…
We introduce a new set of eight Milky Way-sized cosmological simulations performed using the AMR code ART + Hydrodynamics in a LCDM cosmology. The set of zoom-in simulations covers present-day virial masses in the 0.83-1.56 x 10^12 msun range and is carried out with our simple but effective deterministic star formation (SF) and ``explosive' stellar feedback prescriptions. The work is focused on showing the goodness of the simulated set of ``field' Milky Way-sized galaxies. Our results are as follows. (a) The circular velocity curves of our simulated galaxies are nearly flat. (b) Runs ending wi…
To better understand the formation of large, low surface brightness galaxies, we measure the correlation function between ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) candidates and Milky Way analogs (MWAs). We find that (1) the projected radial distribution of UDG satellites (projected surface density $\propto r^{-0.84\pm0.06}$) is consistent with that of normal satellite galaxies, (2) the number of UDG satellites per MWA ($S_{\rm UDG}$) is $\sim 0.5\pm0.1$ over projected radii from 20 to 250 kpc and $-17< M_r < -13.5$, (3) $S_{\rm UDG}$ is consistent with a linear extrapolation of the relationship between the…
With modern large scale spectroscopic surveys, such as the SDSS and LSS-GAC, Galactic astronomy has entered the era of millions of stellar spectra. Taking advantage of the huge spectroscopic database, we propose to use a "standard pair" technique to a) Estimate multi-band extinction towards sightlines of millions of stars; b) Detect and measure the diffuse interstellar bands in hundreds of thousands SDSS and LAMOST low-resolution spectra; c) Search for extremely faint emission line nebulae in the Galaxy; and d) Perform photometric calibration for wide field imaging surveys. In this contributio…
Vertically extended, high velocity dispersion stellar distributions appear to be a ubiquitous feature of disc galaxies, and both internal and external mechanisms have been proposed to be the major driver of their formation. However, it is unclear to what extent each mechanism can generate such a distribution, which is likely to depend on the assembly history of the galaxy. To this end, we perform 16 high resolution cosmological-zoom simulations of Milky Way-sized galaxies using the state-of-the-art cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical code \textlcsc{AREPO}, and analyse the evolution of the vert…
We show that in N-body simulations of isolated spiral discs, spiral arms appear to transient, recurring features that co-rotate with the stellar disc stars at all radii. As a consequence, stars around the spiral arm continually feel a tangential force from the spiral and gain/lose angular momentum at all radii where spiral structure exists, without gaining significant amounts of random energy. We demonstrate that the ubiquitous radial migration in these simulations can be seen as outward (inward) systematic streaming motions along the trailing (leading) side of the spiral arms. We characterise…
The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) still remain an unknown commodity. Both dust and molecules have been suggested as carriers but none proposed have yet been able to explain the nature and the diversity of the DIBs. Hence, it is perhaps time to review the problem in terms of the intermediate-sized nano-particles. It is here proposed that the DIB carriers are the nm-sized and sub- nm-sized products of the UV photo-fragmentation of hydrogenated amorphous carbon grains, a-C(:H), and their heteroatom-doped variants, a-C:H:X (where X may be O, N, Mg, Si, Fe, S, Ni, P, ...). An in…
We have combined observations of Galactic high-velocity HI from two surveys: a very sensitive survey from the Green Bank 140ft Telescope with limited sky coverage, and the less sensitive but complete Galactic All Sky Survey from the 64m Parkes Radio Telescope. The two surveys preferentially detect different forms of neutral gas due to their sensitivity. We adopt a machine learning approach to divide our data into two populations that separate across a range in column density: 1) a narrow line-width population typical of the majority of bright high velocity cloud components, and 2) a fainter, b…
We investigate the kinematic signatures induced by spiral and bar structure in a set of simulations of Milky Way-sized spiral disc galaxies. The set includes test particle simulations that follow a quasi-stationary density wave-like scenario with rigidly rotating spiral arms, and $N$-body simulations that host a bar and transient, co-rotating spiral arms. From a location similar to that of the Sun, we calculate the radial, tangential and line-of-sight peculiar velocity fields of a patch of the disc and quantify the fluctuations by computing the power spectrum from a two-dimensional Fourier tra…
Recent submillimeter and far-infrared wavelength observations of absorption in the rotational ground-state lines of various simple molecules against distant Galactic continuum sources have opened the possibility of studying the chemistry of diffuse molecular clouds throughout the Milky Way. In order to calculate abundances, the column densities of molecular and atomic hydrogen, HI, must be known. We aim at determining the atomic hydrogen column densities for diffuse clouds located on the sight lines toward a sample of prominent high-mass star-forming regions that were intensely studied with th…
We investigate the properties of halo gas using three cosmological `zoom-in' simulations of realistic Milky Way-galaxy analogs with varying sub-grid physics. In all three cases, the mass of hot ($T > 10^6$ K) halo gas is $\sim 1\%$ of the host's virial mass. The X-ray luminosity of two of the runs is consistent with observations of the Milky Way, while the third simulation is X-ray bright and resembles more closely a very massive, star-forming spiral. Hot halos extend to 140 kpc from the galactic center and are surrounded by a bubble of warm-hot ($T = 10^5 - 10^6$K) gas that extends to the vir…
We extend the Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy (UDG) abundance relation, $N_{UDG}-M_{200}$, to lower halo mass hosts $(M_{200}\sim10^{11.6-12.2}M_{\odot})$. We select UDG satellites from published catalogs of dwarf satellite galaxies around Milky Way analogs, namely the Exploration of Local Volume Satellites (ELVES) survey, Satellite Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) survey, and a survey of Milky Way-like systems conducted using the Hyper-Suprime Cam. Of the 516 satellites around a total of 75 Milky Way-like hosts, we find 41 satellites around 33 hosts satisfy the UDG criteria. The distributions of host halo…
Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) trace warm neutral and weakly-ionized diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). Here we present a dedicated, high signal-to-noise spectroscopic study of two of the strongest DIBs, at 5780 and 5797 Å, in optical spectra of 666 early-type stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, along with measurements of the atomic Na\,{\sc i}\,D and Ca\,{\sc ii}\,K lines. The resulting maps show for the first time the distribution of DIB carriers across large swathes of galaxies, as well as the foreground Milky Way ISM. We confirm the association of the 5797 Å DIB with neutral…
We use high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way-sized galaxies with varying supernovae feedback strengths and merger histories to investigate the formation of their gaseous halos and especially their hot ($>10^6$~K) X-ray luminous coronae. Our simulations predict the presence of significant hot gas in the halos as early as $z=3-4$, well before the halos ought to be able to sustain hot mode accretion in the conventional picture. The nascent coronae grow inside-out and initially do so primarily as a result of outflows from the central galaxies powered by merger-induce…
We study evolution of single subhaloes with their masses of $\sim10^9 M_\odot$ in a Milky-Way-sized host halo for self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) models. We perform dark-matter-only N-body simulations of dynamical evolution of individual subhaloes orbiting its host by varying self-scattering cross sections (including a velocity-dependent scenario), subhalo orbits, and internal properties of the subhalo. We calibrate a gravothermal fluid model to predict time evolution in spherical mass density profiles of isolated SIDM haloes with the simulations. We find that tidal effects of SIDM subhalo…
We announce the discovery of the Crater 2 dwarf galaxy, identified in imaging data of the VST ATLAS survey. Given its half-light radius of ~1100 pc, Crater 2 is the fourth largest dwarf in the Milky Way, surpassed only by the LMC, SMC and the Sgr dwarf. With a total luminosity of $M_V\approx-8$, this satellite galaxy is also one of the lowest surface brightness dwarfs. Falling under the nominal detection boundary of 30 mag arcsec$^{-2}$, it compares in nebulosity to the recently discovered Tuc 2 and Tuc IV and UMa II. Crater 2 is located ~120 kpc from the Sun and appears to be aligned in 3-D w…
We measure the optical spectrum of the Diffuse Galactic Light (DGL) -- the local Milky Way in reflection -- using 92,000 blank-sky spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We correlate the SDSS optical intensity in regions of blank sky against 100 micron intensity independently measured by the COsmic Background Explorer (COBE) and InfraRed Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) satellites, which provides a measure of the dust column density times the intensity of illuminating starlight. The spectrum of scattered light is very blue and shows a clear 4000 Angstrom break and broad Mg b absorption. T…
We have carried out deep, high velocity resolution, interferometric Galactic HI 21 cm absorption spectroscopy towards 32 compact extra-galactic radio sources with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The optical depth spectra for most sources have root mean square noise values \lesssim 10^{-3} per 1 km/s velocity channel and are thus sufficiently sensitive to detect absorption by warm neutral hydrogen with HI column densities N_HI \gtrsim 10^{20} cm^{-2}, spin temperatures T_s \leq 5000 K, and line widths equal to the thermal width (20…
Stellar cluster formation in a Milky Way-sized galaxy at z>4 -- II. A hybrid formation scenario for the nuclear star cluster and its connection to the nuclear stellar ring
We report the discovery of 47 low surface brightness objects in deep images of a 3 x 3 degree field centered on the Coma cluster, obtained with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The objects have central surface brightness mu(g,0) ranging from 24 - 26 mag/arcsec^2 and effective radii r_e = 3"-10", as measured from archival Canada France Hawaii Telescope images. From their spatial distribution we infer that most or all of the objects are galaxies in the Coma cluster. This relatively large distance is surprising as it implies that the galaxies are very large: with r_e = 1.5 - 4.6 kpc their sizes are…
This is the second of three papers that search for the predicted stellar cusp around the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, with new data and methods. We aim to infer the distribution of the faintest stellar population currently accessible through observations around Sagittarius A*. We use adaptive optics assisted high angular resolution images obtained with the NACO instrument at the ESO VLT. Through optimised PSF fitting we remove the light from all detected stars above a given magnitude limit. Subsequently we analyse the remaining, diffuse light density. The analysed diffuse li…
We analyze the anisotropy profile of the Milky Way's smooth, diffuse stellar halo using SDSS/SEGUE blue horizontal branch stars and SDSS/SEGUE and LAMOST K giants. These intrinsically luminous stars allow us to probe the halo to approximately 100 kpc from the Galactic center. Line-of-sight velocities, distances, metallicities, and proper motions are available for all stars via SDSS/SEGUE, LAMOST, and Gaia, and we use these data to construct a full 7D set consisting of positions, space motions, and metallicity. We remove substructure from our samples using integrals of motion based on the metho…
We present results from \textsc{GigaEris}, a cosmological, $N$-body hydrodynamical "zoom-in" simulation of the formation of a Milky Way-sized galaxy halo with unprecedented resolution, encompassing of order a billion particles within the refined region. The simulation employs a modern implementation of smoothed-particle hydrodynamics, including metal-line cooling and metal and thermal diffusion. We focus on the early assembly of the galaxy, down to redshift $z=4.4$. The simulated galaxy has properties consistent with extrapolations of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies to higher redshi…
We model the kinematics of the high- and intermediate- velocity clouds (HVCs and IVCs) observed in absorption towards a sample of 55 Galactic halo stars with accurate distance measurements. We employ a simple model of a thick disc whose main free parameters are the gas azimuthal, radial and vertical velocities ($v_ϕ$, $v_{\rm R}$ and $v_{\rm z}$), and apply it to the data by fully accounting for the distribution of the observed features in the distance-velocity space. We find that at least two separate components are required to reproduce the data. A scenario where the HVCs and the IVCs are tr…
We analyze the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in the first Galactic quadrant from l=18deg to 40deg using radio recombination line (RRL) data from the Green Bank Telescope. These data allow us to distinguish DIG emission from HII region emission and thus study the diffuse gas essentially unaffected by confusion from discrete sources. We find that the DIG has two dominant velocity components, one centered around 100km/s associated with the luminous HII region W43, and the other centered around 45km/s not associated with any large HII region. Our analysis suggests that the two velocity components near…
We study the luminosity function and the radial distribution of satellite galaxies within Milky Way sized haloes as predicted in Cold Dark Matter based models of galaxy formation, making use of numerical N-body techniques as well as three different semi-analytic model (SAMs) galaxy formation codes. We extract merger trees from very high-resolution dissipationless simulations of four Galaxy-sized DM haloes, and use these as common input for the semi-analytic models. We present a detailed comparison of our predictions with the observational data recently obtained on the Milky Way satellite lumin…
Context: The bulk of the Molecular gas in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Galactic center region shows warm kinetic temperatures, ranging from $>20$ K in the coldest and densest regions (n$\sim 10^{4-5}$ cm$^{-3}$) up to more than 100 K for densities of about n$\sim 10^3$ cm$^{-3}$. Recently, a more diffuse, hotter ($n \sim 100$ cm$^{-3}$, $T\sim 250$ K) gas component was discovered through absorption observations of H$_3^+$. This component may be widespread in the Galactic center, and low density gas detectable in absorption may be present even outside the CMZ along sightlines crossin…
We simulate the tidal disruption of a collisionless N-body globular star cluster in a total of 300 different orbits selected to have galactocentric radii between 10 and 30 kpc in four dark matter halos: (a) a spherical halo with no subhalos, (b) a spherical halo with subhalos, (c) a realistic halo with no subhalos, and (d) a realistic halo with subhalos. This allows us to isolate and study how the halo's (lack of) dynamical symmetry and substructures affect the dispersal of tidal debris. The realistic halos are constructed from the snapshot of the Via Lactea II simulation at redshift zero. We …
We aim to compare variations in the full-UV dust extinction curve (912-3000 Angstrom), with the HI/H$_2$/total H content along diffuse Milky Way sightlines, to investigate possible connections between ISM conditions and dust properties. We combine an existing sample of 75 UV extinction curves based on IUE and FUSE data, with atomic and molecular column densities measured through UV absorption. The H$_2$ column density data are based on existing Lyman-Werner absorption band models from earlier work on the extinction curves. Literature values for the HI column density were compiled, and improved…
A set of diffuse interstellar clouds in the inner Galaxy within a few hundred pc of the Galactic plane has been observed at an angular resolution of ~1 arcmin combining data from the NRAO Green Bank Telescope and the Very Large Array. At the distance of the clouds the linear resolution ranges from ~1.9 pc to ~2.8 pc. These clouds have been selected to be somewhat out of the Galactic plane and are thus not confused with unrelated emission, but in other respects they are a Galactic population. They are located near the tangent points in the inner Galaxy, and thus at a quantifiable distance: $2.3…
A first taste of MEAD (Measuring Extinction and Abundances of Dust) -- I. Diffuse Milky Way interstellar dust extinction features in JWST infrared spectra
We have observed the NGC 2403 group of galaxies using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in a search for faint, extended neutral hydrogen clouds similar to the clouds found around the M81/M82 group, which is located approximately 250 kpc from the NGC 2403 group along the same filament of galaxies. For an HI cloud with a size < 10 kpc within 50 kpc of a group galaxy, our 7-sigma mass detection limit is 2.2 x 10^6 M_sun for a cloud with a linewidth of 20 km/s, over the velocity range from -890 to 1750 km/s. At this sensitivity level we detect 3 new HI clouds in the direction of the gr…
The Diffuse Gamma-ray Sky of a Milky Way Analogue: Local Diversity and Global Constraints
Universität Heidelberg(海德堡大学);Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik(马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所);Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)(波茨坦莱布尼茨天体物理研究所);University of Vienna(维也纳大学);Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik(马克斯·普朗克核物理研究所);Université Paris-Saclay(巴黎萨克雷大学);Université Paris-Cité(巴黎西岱大学);CEA(法国原子能和替代能源委员会);CNRS(法国国家科学研究中心);AIM(天体物理学与宇宙学研究所);Université Lyon 1(里昂第一大学);ENS de Lyon(里昂高等师范学院);CRAL(里昂天体物理研究中心)
We report the discovery of 854 ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the Coma cluster using deep R band images, with partial B, i, and Halpha band coverage, obtained with the Subaru telescope. Many of them (332) are Milky Way-sized with very large effective radii of r_e>1.5kpc. This study was motivated by the recent discovery of 47 UDGs by van-Dokkum et al. (2015); our discovery suggests >1,000 UDGs after accounting for the smaller Subaru field. The new UDGs show a distribution concentrated around the cluster center, strongly suggesting that the great majority are (likely longtime) cluster members.…
We present the largest number of Milky Way sized dark matter halos simulated at very high mass ($\sim$$10^4$ M$_\odot$/particle) and temporal resolution ($\sim$5 Myrs/snapshot) done to date, quadrupling what is currently available in the literature. This initial suite consists of the first 24 halos of the $Caterpillar$ $Project$ (www.caterpillarproject.org) whose project goal of 60 - 70 halos will be made public when complete. We resolve $\sim$20,000 gravitationally bound subhalos within the virial radius of each host halo. Over the ranges set by our spatial resolution our convergence is excel…
We present deep HI observations of three compact high-velocity clouds (CHVCs). The main goal is to study their diffuse warm gas and compact cold cores. We use both low- and high-resolution data obtained with the 100 m Effelsberg telescope and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The combination is essential in order to study the morphological properties of the clouds since the single-dish telescope lacks a sufficient angular resolution while the interferometer misses a large portion of the diffuse gas. Here single-dish and interferometer data are combined in the image domain with a…
Due to the peculiar properties of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), understanding their origin presents a major challenge. Previous X-ray studies demonstrated that the bulk of UDGs lack substantial X-ray emission, implying that they reside in low-mass dark matter halos. This result, in concert with other observational and theoretical studies, pointed out that most UDGs belong to the class of dwarf galaxies. However, a subset of UDGs is believed to host a large population of globular clusters (GCs), which is indicative of massive dark matter halos. This, in turn, hints that some UDGs may be failed…