Angular momentum evolution in dark-matter haloes
Abstract
We have analysed high-resolution N-body simulations of dark-matter (DM) haloes, focusing specifically on the evolution of angular momentum. We find that not only is individual particle angular momentum not conserved, but the angular momentum of radial shells also varies over the age of the Universe by up to factors of a few. We find that torques from external structure are the most likely cause for this distribution shift. Since the model of adiabatic contraction that is often applied to model the effects of galaxy evolution on the DM density profile in a halo assumes angular momentum conservation, this variation implies that there is a fundamental limit on the possible accuracy of the adiabatic contraction model in modelling the response of DM haloes to the growth of galaxies.
Additional Information
© 2010 The Authors. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2010 RAS. Accepted 2010 October 5. Received 2010 October 4; in original form 2010 June 21. Article first published online: 25 Nov 2010. LGB acknowledges the support of the NSF Graduate Fellowship Program. AHGP and AJB are supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. AB is supported by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. All simulations were run with resources at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division.Attached Files
Published - Book2011p13090Mon_Not_R_Astron_Soc.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 23028
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110322-091233054
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Sherman Fairchild Foundation
- Created
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2011-03-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology and Physics