High mass-to-light ratios of UCDs - Evidence for dark matter ?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether dark matter can explain the high mass-to-light ratios observed in ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) by using N-body simulations of star-dark matter systems.

Contribution

The paper presents novel N-body simulations demonstrating that dark matter can remain in UCDs due to long dynamical friction timescales, supporting dark matter as an explanation for their elevated M/L ratios.

Findings

Dark matter is retained in UCDs due to long dynamical friction timescales.

Dark matter is likely absent from the centers of globular clusters but present in their outskirts.

Elevated M/L ratios in UCDs can be explained by residual dark matter content.

Abstract

Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) are stellar systems with masses of around 10^7 to 10^8 Msun and half mass radii of 10-100 pc. They have some properties in common with massive globular clusters, however dynamical mass estimates have shown that UCDs have mass-to-light ratios which are on average about twice as large than those of globular clusters at comparable metallicity, and tend to be larger than what one would expect for old stellar systems with standard mass functions. One possible explanation for elevated high mass-to-light ratios in UCDs is the existence of a substantial amount of dark matter, which could have ended up in UCDs if they are the remnant nuclei of tidally stripped dwarf galaxies. Tidal stripping of dwarf galaxies has also been suggested has the origin of several massive globular clusters like Omega Cen, in which case globular clusters could have also formed with substantial amounts of dark matter. In this paper, we present collisional N-body simulations which study the co-evolution of a system composed out of stars and dark matter. We find that the dark matter gets removed from the central regions of such systems due to dynamical friction and mass segregation of stars. The friction timescale is significantly shorter than a Hubble time for typical globular clusters, while most UCDs have friction times much longer than a Hubble time. Therefore, a significant dark matter fraction remains within the half-mass radius of present-day UCDs, making dark matter a viable explanation for the elevated M/L ratios of UCDs. If at least some globular clusters formed in a way similar to UCDs, we predict a substantial amount of dark matter in their outer parts.