Interpreting the Extremely Diffuse Stellar Distribution of the Nube Galaxy through Fuzzy Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether fuzzy dark matter can explain the unusually diffuse stellar distribution of the Nube galaxy through numerical simulations, providing a potential alternative to standard dark matter models.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that fuzzy dark matter with a specific particle mass can reproduce the diffuse stellar distribution observed in Nube, offering a novel explanation.

Findings

FDM with a particle mass around 10^{-23} eV matches observations.

Numerical simulations support FDM as a plausible cause for stellar diffusion.

Results challenge traditional cold dark matter explanations.

Abstract

Recent observations have uncovered a remarkably flat and extremely diffuse stellar distribution within the almost dark dwarf galaxy Nube, posing a challenge to the standard cold dark matter scenario. In this study, we employ numerical simulations to explore the possibility that this anomalous stellar distribution can be attributed to the dynamical heating effect of fuzzy dark matter (FDM). The relatively isolated location and low baryon fraction of Nube make it an ideal system for investigating this effect. Our findings indicate that by adopting a halo profile consistent with the dynamical mass estimation of Nube and an FDM particle mass on the order of $10^{-23}$ eV, the final 2D stellar distribution derived from simulation closely matches observational data. These results suggest that FDM could provide an explanation for the extremely diffuse stellar distribution of Nube.