Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins
Investigating the spin parameter distribution of subhalos in two high-resolution isolated halo simulations, recent work by Onions et al. suggested that typical subhalo spins are consistently lower than the spin distribution found for field halos. To further examine this puzzle, we have analyzed simu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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American Astronomical Society
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42577/ |
| _version_ | 1848796517594300416 |
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| author | Wang, Yang Lin, Weipeng Pearce, Frazer R. Lux, Hanni Muldrew, Stuart I. Onions, Julian |
| author_facet | Wang, Yang Lin, Weipeng Pearce, Frazer R. Lux, Hanni Muldrew, Stuart I. Onions, Julian |
| author_sort | Wang, Yang |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Investigating the spin parameter distribution of subhalos in two high-resolution isolated halo simulations, recent work by Onions et al. suggested that typical subhalo spins are consistently lower than the spin distribution found for field halos. To further examine this puzzle, we have analyzed simulations of a cosmological volume with sufficient resolution to resolve a significant subhalo population. We confirm the result of Onions et al. and show that the typical spin of a subhalo decreases with decreasing mass and increasing proximity to the host halo center. We interpret this as the growing influence of tidal stripping in removing the outer layers, and hence the higher angular momentum particles, of the subhalos as they move within the host potential. Investigating the redshift dependence of this effect, we find that the typical subhalo spin is smaller with decreasing redshift. This indicates a temporal evolution, as expected in the tidal stripping scenario. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:49:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-42577 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:49:15Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Astronomical Society |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-425772020-05-04T17:04:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42577/ Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins Wang, Yang Lin, Weipeng Pearce, Frazer R. Lux, Hanni Muldrew, Stuart I. Onions, Julian Investigating the spin parameter distribution of subhalos in two high-resolution isolated halo simulations, recent work by Onions et al. suggested that typical subhalo spins are consistently lower than the spin distribution found for field halos. To further examine this puzzle, we have analyzed simulations of a cosmological volume with sufficient resolution to resolve a significant subhalo population. We confirm the result of Onions et al. and show that the typical spin of a subhalo decreases with decreasing mass and increasing proximity to the host halo center. We interpret this as the growing influence of tidal stripping in removing the outer layers, and hence the higher angular momentum particles, of the subhalos as they move within the host potential. Investigating the redshift dependence of this effect, we find that the typical subhalo spin is smaller with decreasing redshift. This indicates a temporal evolution, as expected in the tidal stripping scenario. American Astronomical Society 2015-03-10 Article PeerReviewed Wang, Yang, Lin, Weipeng, Pearce, Frazer R., Lux, Hanni, Muldrew, Stuart I. and Onions, Julian (2015) Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins. Astrophysical Journal, 801 (2). 93/1-93/10. ISSN 1538-4357 cosmology: theory dark matter galaxies: evolution galaxies: halos methods: numerical http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/801/2/93/meta doi:10.1088/0004-637X/801/2/93 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/801/2/93 |
| spellingShingle | cosmology: theory dark matter galaxies: evolution galaxies: halos methods: numerical Wang, Yang Lin, Weipeng Pearce, Frazer R. Lux, Hanni Muldrew, Stuart I. Onions, Julian Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| title | Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| title_full | Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| title_fullStr | Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| title_full_unstemmed | Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| title_short | Solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| title_sort | solving the puzzle of subhalo spins |
| topic | cosmology: theory dark matter galaxies: evolution galaxies: halos methods: numerical |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42577/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42577/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42577/ |