Collision frequency between dark matter subhaloes within Milky Way-like galaxies

TL;DR

This study estimates the collision frequency of dark matter subhaloes in Milky Way-like galaxies, revealing that such collisions are frequent and occur on short timescales, impacting galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides an analytical and simulation-based estimate of dark matter subhalo collision rates within Milky Way-like galaxies, a novel approach to understanding subhalo interactions.

Findings

Collision frequency of ~210 per Gyr for violent encounters

Collision timescale of about 4.7 million years

Colliding pairs have similar density distributions to all pairs

Abstract

In the standard cold dark matter (CDM) model, sub-galactic structures hierarchically collide and merge to build up larger structures. Mergers and collisions between dwarf galaxies and dark matter subhaloes (DMSHs) play an important role in the evolution and formation of structures within a massive galaxy. We investigate the collision frequency between DMSHs associated with a massive host galaxy such as the Milky Way. We analytically estimate the density distribution of DMSH pairs for the relative distance and relative velocity ($r_\mathrm{rel}$-$v_\mathrm{rel}$) and the distance from the centre of the host halo and relative velocity ($r$-$v_\mathrm{rel}$) planes, based on the distribution function of the host halo in the phase space. Then, we evaluate the collision frequencies of DMSHs by integrating the orbital evolution of DMSHs in Milky-Way-like host haloes selected from cosmological $N$-body simulations. The frequency of violent encounters, in which the relative distance of DMSHs is shorter than the sum of scale radii, is averaged as $2.1\times 10^2\,\mathrm{Gyr}^{-1}$. Since the time scale of violent encounters, $4.7\,\mathrm{Myr}$, is shorter than the dynamical time of the host halo, collisions between DMSHs occur frequently within the host halo. Although interactions between DMSHs produce pairs with higher relative velocities, the density distributions of all and colliding pairs between DMSHs provided by numerical results are approximately similar to those of the analytical model neglecting the interactions of DMSHs on $r_\mathrm{rel}$-$v_\mathrm{rel}$ plane for all pairs and $r$-$v_\mathrm{rel}$ plane for colliding pairs. We compare our results with observed colliding dwarf galaxies and provide insight into the abundance of DMSHs.