Smooth, undisturbed dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Perseus Cluster core: Implications for dark matter content

TL;DR

Deep HST/ACS observations of Perseus Cluster's core reveal smooth dwarf ellipticals with high dark matter content, suggesting they are protected from tidal disruption by dark matter subhalos, even in dense cluster environments.

Contribution

Introduces a new method to estimate dark matter content in cluster dwarf spheroidals without kinematic data, based on their size and morphology.

Findings

Dwarfs are smooth and show no signs of tidal disruption.

Mass-to-light ratios range from 1 to 120, similar to Local Group dSphs.

Dwarfs likely reside in dark matter subhalos that prevent disruption.

Abstract

Using deep HST/ACS observations of the core of the Perseus Cluster, we identify a large population of dwarf elliptical galaxies down to M_V = -12. All these dwarfs are remarkably smooth in appearance, showing no evidence for internal features that could be the result of tidal processes or star formation induced by the cluster potential. Based on these observations and the relatively large sizes of these dwarfs, we argue that at least some must have a large dark matter component to prevent their disruption by the cluster potential. We further derive a new method to quantify the dark matter content of cluster dSphs without the use of kinematics, which are impossible to obtain at these distances. We find that mass-to-light ratios for dwarfs in the core of the Perseus Cluster are comparable to those found for Local Group dSphs, ranging between M/L ~ 1 and 120. This is evidence that dwarf spheroidals reside in dark matter subhalos that protect them from tidal processes in the cores of dense clusters.