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Probing non-spherical dark halos in the Galactic dwarf satellites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2014

Kohei Hayashi
Affiliation:
Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan email: k.hayasi@astr.tohoku.ac.jp, email: chiba@astr.tohoku.ac.jp
Masashi Chiba
Affiliation:
Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan email: k.hayasi@astr.tohoku.ac.jp, email: chiba@astr.tohoku.ac.jp
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Abstract

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We construct axisymmetric mass models for dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies in the Milky Way to obtain realistic limits on the non-spherical structure of their dark halos. This is motivated by the fact that the observed luminous parts of the dSphs are actually non-spherical and cold dark matter models predict non-spherical virialized dark halos on sub-galactic scales. Applying these models to line-of-sight velocity dispersion profiles along three position angles in six Galactic satellites, we find that the best fitting cases for most of the dSphs yield not spherical but oblate and flattened dark halos. We also find that the mass of the dSphs enclosed within inner 300 pc varies depending on their total luminosities, contrary to the conclusion of previous spherical models. This suggests the importance of considering non-spherical shapes of dark halos in dSph mass models.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

References

Hayashi, K., Chiba, M. 2012, ApJ, 755, 145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strigari, L. E., Bullock, J. S., Kaplinghat, M., Simon, J. D., Geha, M., Willman, B., & Walker, M. G. 2008, Nature, 454, 1096CrossRefGoogle Scholar