A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Ultra-diffuse, ultra-different: observed versus simulated ultra-diffuse galaxies live in fundamentally different haloes
Authors: Gannon, Jonah S.; Di Cintio, Arianna; Forbes, Duncan A.; García-Bethencourt, Guacimara; Brodie, Jean P.; Libeskind, Noam; Couch, Warrick J.; Hartke, Johanna
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume: 544
Issue: 4
First page : 3094
Last page: 3103
ISSN: 0035-8711
eISSN: 1365-2966
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1954
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1954
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/505703455
In this work, we compare galaxies from the NIHAO and HESTIA simulation suites to ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) with spectroscopically measured dynamical masses. For each observed UDG, we identify the simulated dark matter halo that best matches its dynamical mass. In general, observed UDGs are matched to simulated galaxies with lower stellar masses than they are observed to have. These simulated galaxies also have halo masses much less than would be expected given the observed UDG's stellar mass and the stellar mass─halo mass relationship. We use the recently established relation between globular cluster (GC) number and halo mass, which has been shown to be applicable to UDGs, to better constrain their observed halo masses. This method indicates that observed UDGs reside in relatively massive dark matter haloes. This creates a striking discrepancy: the simulated UDGs are matched to the dynamical masses of observed ones, but not their total halo masses. In other words, simulations can produce UDGs in haloes with the correct inner dynamics, but not with the massive haloes implied by GC counts. We explore several possible explanations for this tension, from both the observational and theoretical sides. We propose that the most likely resolution is that observed UDGs may have fundamentally different dark matter halo profiles than those produced in NIHAO and HESTIA. This highlights the need for a simulation that self-consistently produces galaxies of a stellar mass of in dark matter haloes that exhibit the full range of large dark matter cores to cuspy NFW-like haloes.
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Funding information in the publication:
JSG completed a significant portion of this paper during a FINCA visiting programme in 2025 February. He is grateful for their support. DAF, JPB, and WJC thank the ARC for financial support via DP220101863 and DP250101673. ADC kindly thanks the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) for the financial support during her visit to Swinburne University, through their Women Visiting Fellowship program, and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Univerasidades through grant CNS2023-144669, programa Consolidacion Investigadora.