To be or not to be oblate: the shape of the dark matter halo in the polar ring galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the shape of dark matter halos in two polar ring galaxies using kinematic data and simulations, revealing diverse halo geometries that vary with radius and differ between systems.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of dark matter halo shapes in polar ring galaxies, showing their diversity and radial dependence based on observational data and modeling.

Findings

SPRC-7 has a slightly flattened halo towards the polar plane with axis ratio ~1.5-1.7.

NGC 4262's halo shape varies from flattened near the disk to prolate at larger radii.

Dark matter halo shapes are diverse and radius-dependent in polar ring galaxies.

Abstract

With the aim to determine the spatial distribution of the dark matter halo, we investigate two polar ring galaxies NGC 4262 and SPRC-7. For both galaxies the stellar kinematics data for the central galaxy were obtained from optical spectroscopy at the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The information about polar gaseous components was taken from the optical 3D-spectroscopic observations of ionized gas (for SPRC-7) and H {\sc i} radio observations (for NGC 4262). SPRC-7 is the system with a relative angle $\delta=73^{\circ}$ towards the central galaxy and a quite massive stellar-gaseous polar component. Meanwhile NGC 4262 is the classic polar case with $\delta=88^{\circ}$ where the polar ring mainly consists of neutral gas with a negligible stellar contribution to the mass. We are hence dealing with two different systems and the results are quite diverse too. The observed properties of both galaxies were compared with the results of self consistent simulations of velocity fields of the polar component along with the rotation curve of the central lenticular galaxy. For SPRC-7 we have found a slightly flattened halo towards the polar plane with the axis ratio $c/a \simeq 1.7 \pm 0.2$ for the isothermal halo model and $c/a \simeq 1.5 \pm 0.2$ for the NFW model. The case of NGC 4262 is more unusual, the shape of the dark matter distribution varies strongly with radius. Namely, the dark matter halo is fattened in the vicinity of the galactic disc ($c/a \approx 0.4 \pm 0.1$), however it is prolate far beyond the central galaxy ($c/a \approx 1.7$ for the isothermal halo and $c/a \approx 2.3$ for NFW).