A Deficit of Dark Matter from Jeans Modeling of the Ultra-diffuse Galaxy NGC 1052-DF2

TL;DR

This study uses Jeans modeling to analyze the ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC 1052-DF2, finding it has a significant deficit of dark matter and challenging standard galaxy-halo relations.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on the mass distribution of DF2, showing it deviates from typical stellar-halo mass relations and exhibits a low dark matter content.

Findings

DF2's dynamical mass-to-light ratio is consistent with stellar population estimates.

Standard stellar-halo mass models are in tension with observed kinematics.

DF2 is an outlier among dwarf galaxies in size and dark matter content.

Abstract

The discovery of the ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 and its peculiar population of star clusters has raised new questions about the connections between galaxies and dark matter halos at the extremes of galaxy formation. In light of debates over the measured velocity dispersion of its star clusters and the associated mass estimate, we constrain mass models of DF2 using its observed kinematics with a range of priors on the halo mass. Models in which the galaxy obeys a standard stellar-halo mass relation are in tension with the data and also require a large central density core. Better fits are obtained when the halo mass is left free, even after accounting for increased model complexity. The dynamical mass-to-light ratio for our model with a weak prior on the halo mass is $1.7^{+0.7}_{-0.5} \ M_\odot / L_{\odot, V}$, consistent with the stellar population estimate for DF2. We use tidal analysis to find that the low-mass models are consistent with the undisturbed isophotes of DF2. Finally we compare with Local Group dwarf galaxies and demonstrate that DF2 is an outlier in both its spatial extent and its relative dark matter deficit.