Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 449, Issue 1, Pages L46-L50Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slv012
Keywords
methods: numerical; galaxies: dwarf; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; Local Group; dark matter
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We use high-resolution N-body simulations to follow the formation and evolution of tidal streams associated with dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). The dSph models are embedded in dark matter (DM) haloes with either a centrally divergent 'cusp', or a homogeneous-density 'core'. In agreement with previous studies, we find that as tides strip the galaxy the evolution of the half-light radius and the averaged velocity dispersion follows well-defined tracks that are mainly controlled by the amount of mass lost. Crucially, the evolutionary tracks behave differently depending on the shape of the DM profile: at a fixed remnant mass, dSphs embedded in cored haloes have larger sizes and higher velocity dispersions than their cuspy counterparts. The divergent evolution is particularly pronounced in galaxies whose stellar component is strongly segregated within their DM halo and becomes more disparate as the remnant mass decreases. Our analysis indicates that the DM profile plays an important role in defining the internal dynamics of tidal streams. We find that stellar streams associated with cored DM models have velocity dispersions that lie systematically above their cuspy counterparts. These results suggest that modelling the dynamics of streams with known dSph progenitors may reveal the distribution of DM on the smallest galactic scales.
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