Open AccessThe shapes of dark matter dominated dwarf spheroidal stellar density profiles
Author(s) -
Sigurdson Kris,
Turok Neil
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05710.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , dark matter , galaxy , cold dark matter , dwarf galaxy , astronomy
A Bayesian likelihood analysis of the stellar density profile shapes of several dark matter dominated Galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) has been completed. This analysis indicates that the inner power law, ρ∝ r −γ , of each of these profiles satisfies γ < 1.21 at greater than 99 per cent confidence, with a slight preference for γ∼ 0.7 . Speculating that this bound on the stellar profiles may be related to the inner power law of the underlying dark matter distribution reveals a statistical discrepancy with the values favoured by recent N ‐body simulations of cold dark matter (CDM), γ CDM ∼ 1.4 – 1.5 .