Orbit anisotropy of dark matter haloes with Schwarzschild modelling

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Schwarzschild modelling can accurately recover the orbit anisotropy profiles of dark matter haloes from mock data, provided the mass distribution is correctly assumed.

Contribution

The study shows for the first time that Schwarzschild orbit superposition can precisely determine dark matter halo anisotropy profiles from mock data.

Findings

High-precision anisotropy recovery when mass distribution is correct

Ability to distinguish between different anisotropy models

Validation using four numerical halo realizations

Abstract

We apply the Schwarzschild orbit superposition method to mock data in order to investigate the accuracy of recovering the profile of the orbit anisotropy. The mock data come from four numerical realizations of dark matter haloes with well defined anisotropy profiles. We show that when assuming a correct mass distribution we are able to determine the anisotropy with high precision and clearly distinguish between the models.