Cosmological Zoom-In Simulations of Milky Way Host Mass Dark Matter Halos with a Blue-Tilted Primordial Power Spectrum

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to show that a blue-tilted primordial power spectrum can significantly increase the number and density of dark matter substructures in Milky Way-sized halos, addressing cosmological challenges.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a blue-tilted primordial power spectrum enhances dark matter substructure abundance and density in Milky Way-like halos, providing potential solutions to observed discrepancies.

Findings

Subhalo mass functions are enhanced by over a factor of two for masses below 10^10 M_sun.

Subhalo V_max functions are increased by a factor of four for V_max less than 30 km/s.

Substructure fraction can be an order of magnitude higher near the virial radius.

Abstract

Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope revealed a surprisingly large number of galaxies at high redshift, challenging the standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmology with a power-law primordial power spectrum. Previous studies alleviated this tension with a blue tilted primordial power spectrum ($P(k)\propto k^{m_s}$ with $m_s>1$ at small scales $>1~{\rm cMpc}^{-1}$). In this study, we examine whether the blue tilted model can boost dark matter substructures especially at low redshift, thereby addressing other potential challenges to the standard cosmology. First, substructures in the standard cosmological model may not be sufficient to explain the anomalous flux ratio problem observed in strong gravitational lensing. Second, the number of observed nearby satellite galaxies could be higher than the theoretical predictions of the standard cosmology, after completeness correction and tidal stripping by baryonic disks. To study the impact of a blue tilted primordial power spectrum on substructures, we perform high-resolution cosmological zoom-in dark matter-only simulations of Milky Way host mass halos, evolving to redshift $z=0$. At $z=0$, we find that the blue-tilted subhalo mass functions can be enhanced by more than a factor of two for subhalo masses $M_{\rm sub} \lesssim 10^{10} ~M\odot$, whereas the subhalo $V_{\rm max}$ functions can be enhanced by a factor of four for maximum circular velocities $V_{\rm max}\lesssim 30 ~{\rm km/s}$. The blue-tilted scaled cumulative substructure fraction can be an order of magnitude higher at $\sim$10\% of the virial radius. The blue-tilted subhalos also have higher central densities, since the blue-tilted subhalos reach the same $V_{\rm max}$ at a smaller distance $R_{\rm max}$ from the center. We have also verified these findings with higher-resolution simulations.