The Baryons in the Milky Way Satellites

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamical simulations to analyze the formation and properties of Milky Way satellite galaxies, comparing baryonic effects with dark matter-only models and assessing their consistency with observations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed simulation-based analysis of satellite galaxy formation, including baryonic effects, and compares results with observational data to evaluate model realism.

Findings

Baryons have a minor impact on dark matter halo structure.

Simulated satellite luminosity functions match observations reasonably well.

Most massive satellites have higher mass-to-light ratios than observed in MW dSphs.

Abstract

We investigate the formation and evolution of satellite galaxies using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of a Milky Way(MW)-like system, focussing on the best resolved examples, analogous to the classical MW satellites. Comparing with a pure dark matter simulation, we find that the condensation of baryons has had a relatively minor effect on the structure of the satellites' dark matter halos. The stellar mass that forms in each satellite agrees relatively well over three levels of resolution (a factor of ~64 in particle mass) and scales with (sub)halo mass in a similar way in an independent semi-analytical model. Our model provides a relatively good match to the average luminosity function of the MW and M31. To establish whether the potential wells of our satellites are realistic, we measure their masses within observationally determined half-light radii, finding that the most massive examples have somewhat higher mass-to-light ratios than those derived for the MW dSphs from stellar kinematic data. A statistical test yields a ~9 percent probability that the simulated and observationally derived distributions of masses are consistent. Our results may suggest that either the MW halo is less massive than assumed in our simulations (~1.4e12 M_sun) or that there is substantial scatter in the satellite luminosity function or distribution of mass-to-light ratios at fixed host halo mass. Alternatively, feedback processes not properly captured by our simulations may have reduced the central densities of (sub)halos, or the subhalos may have initially formed with lower concentrations as would be the case, for example, if the dark matter were made of warm, rather than cold particles.