Evolution of Low Mass Galactic Subhalos and Dependence on Concentration

TL;DR

This study analyzes the orbital and structural evolution of over 6000 low-mass galactic subhalos in the Via Lactea II simulation, revealing how their initial concentration influences their tidal evolution and mass loss.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the concentration at infall is a key predictor of subhalo evolution, providing new insights into the dynamics of low-mass subhalos in galaxy formation models.

Findings

Lower mass subhalos are less affected by dynamical friction.

Subhalos that fell in earlier are less concentrated.

Concentration at infall predicts mass loss and structural evolution.

Abstract

We carry out a detailed study of the orbital dynamics and structural evolution of over 6000 subhalos in the Via Lactea II simulation, from infall to present. By analyzing subhalos with masses down to m = 4e5 Msun, we find that lower mass subhalos, which are not strongly affected by dynamical friction, exhibit behaviors qualitatively different from those found previously for more massive ones. Furthermore, there is a clear trend of subhalos that fell into the host earlier being less concentrated. We show that the concentration at infall characterizes various aspects of subhalo evolution. In particular, tidal effects truncate the growth of less concentrated subhalos at larger distances from the host; subhalos with smaller concentrations have larger infall radii. The concentration at infall is further shown to be a determining factor for the subsequent mass loss of subhalos within the host, and also for the evolution of their internal structure in the v_max-r_max plane. Our findings raise the prospects of using the concentration to predict the tidal evolution of subhalos, which will be useful for obtaining analytic models of galaxy formation, as well as for near field cosmology.