http://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12192
We run state-of-the-art high resolution fully GPU N-body simulations to show that M31 harbours a dark matter core. Observational data in the inner halo of M31 provide stringent constraints on the initial conditions of our simulations. We demonstrate that an infalling satellite on a highly eccentric orbit is at the origin of the giant stellar stream and the shell-like features of M31. The infalling satellite heats up the central parts of its host and triggers a cusp-core transition in the dark matter halo of M31, generating a universal core independently of the initial conditions. Our results imply that cores in massive galaxies are a common and natural feature of cold dark matter haloes that have been initially cuspy but have accreted subhaloes on highly eccentric orbits
P. Boldrini, R. Mohayaee and J. Silk
Fri, 28 Feb 20
29/49
Comments: 5 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to MNRAS
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