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Satellite galaxies as better tracers of the Milky Way halo mass
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2020
Abstract
The inference of the Milky Way halo mass requires modelling the phase space structure of dynamical tracers, with different tracers following different models and having different levels of sensitivity to the halo mass. For steady-state models, deviations from steady-state in the tracer distribution lead to an irreducible stochastic bias. This bias is small for satellite galaxies and dark matter particles, but as large as a factor of 2 for halo stars. This is consistent with the picture that satellite galaxies closely trace the underlying phase space distribution of dark matter particles, while halo stars are less phase-mixed. As a result, the use of only ~100 satellite galaxies can achieve a significantly higher accuracy than that achievable with a much larger sample of halo stars.
- Type
- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium S353: Galactic Dynamics in the Era of Large Surveys , June 2019 , pp. 109 - 112
- Copyright
- © International Astronomical Union 2020
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