The compactness of ultra faint dwarf galaxies : a new challenge ?

TL;DR

This study investigates the formation and size limitations of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies using a novel combination of cosmological simulations, revealing constraints on their initial conditions and the impact of their assembly history.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new method combining hydrodynamical and dark matter simulations to better understand UFD sizes and formation constraints, highlighting the importance of initial conditions.

Findings

UFDs smaller than 20 pc cannot be formed in simulations.

Larger UFDs (~80 pc) require initial stellar building blocks >35 pc.

UFDs retain signatures of their assembly history, affecting their observed morphology.

Abstract

So far, numerical simulations of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) failed to properly reproduce the observed size-luminosity relation. In particular, no hydro-dynamical-run managed to form UFDs with a half light radius as small as 30 pc as seen in several UFD candidates. We tackle this problem by developing a simple but numerically clean and powerful method in which predictions of the stellar content of UFDs from LCDM cosmological hydro-dynamical-simulations is combined with very high resolution dark matter only runs. This method allows to trace the build-up history of UFDs and determine the impact of the merger of building-block objects on their final size. We found that, while no UFDs more compact than 20 pc can be formed, slightly larger system are reproduced only if all member stars are issued from the same initial mini-halo. However this imposes (i) the total virial mass to be smaller than 3x10^8Msol, (ii) the stellar content prior to the end of the re-ionisation epoch to be very compact (<15 pc) and strongly gravitationally bound, a challenge for current hydro-dynamical numerical simulations. If initial stellar building blocks are larger than 35 pc the size of the UFD will extend to 80 pc. Finally, our study shows that UFDs keep strong imprints of their build-up history in the form of elongated or extended stellar halos. Those features can erroneously be interpreted as tidal signatures.