Pith. sign in

Reconciling dwarf galaxies with LCDM cosmology: Simulating a realistic population of satellites around a Milky Way-mass galaxy

9 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

9 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Low-mass "dwarf" galaxies represent the most significant challenges to the cold dark matter (CDM) model of cosmological structure formation. Because these faint galaxies are (best) observed within the Local Group (LG) of the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31), understanding their formation in such an environment is critical. We present first results from the Latte Project: the Milky Way on FIRE (Feedback in Realistic Environments). This simulation models the formation of a MW-mass galaxy to z = 0 within LCDM cosmology, including dark matter, gas, and stars at unprecedented resolution: baryon particle mass of 7070 Msun with gas kernel/softening that adapts down to 1 pc (with a median of 25 - 60 pc at z = 0). Latte was simulated using the GIZMO code with a mesh-free method for accurate hydrodynamics and the FIRE-2 model for star formation and explicit feedback within a multi-phase interstellar medium. For the first time, Latte self-consistently resolves the spatial scales corresponding to half-light radii of dwarf galaxies that form around a MW-mass host down to Mstar > 10^5 Msun. Latte's population of dwarf galaxies agrees with the LG across a broad range of properties: (1) distributions of stellar masses and stellar velocity dispersions (dynamical masses), including their joint relation; (2) the mass-metallicity relation; and (3) a diverse range of star-formation histories, including their mass dependence. Thus, Latte produces a realistic population of dwarf galaxies at Mstar > 10^5 Msun that does not suffer from the "missing satellites" or "too big to fail" problems of small-scale structure formation. We conclude that baryonic physics can reconcile observed dwarf galaxies with standard LCDM cosmology.

years

2026 9

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 9

representative citing papers

OCCAM X. Neutron Capture Abundances with Keck/HIRES & Magellan/MIKE

astro-ph.GA · 2026-07-01 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

New high-resolution spectra yield abundances for 7 neutron-capture elements in open cluster stars, revealing flat Milky Way gradients for second-peak s- and r-process species and shallower slopes for first-peak s-process.

Halo mass functions in mixed cold and fuzzy dark matter models

astro-ph.CO · 2026-06-04 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Simulations show fuzzy dark matter fraction up to 0.3 suppresses low-mass halos in mixed DM models, and a redshift- and fraction-dependent suppression function maps CDM HMFs to MDM HMFs within 0.1-0.2 dex accuracy for z=1-4.

citing papers explorer

Showing 9 of 9 citing papers.