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arxiv: 2603.15860 · v2 · pith:SWBXLAAGnew · submitted 2026-03-16 · 🌌 astro-ph.GA · astro-ph.CO

A Third Galaxy Missing Dark Matter along a Trail of Galaxies in the NGC 1052 Field

classification 🌌 astro-ph.GA astro-ph.CO
keywords darkmattertrailgalaxiesmassdispersiondwarffield
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While most dwarf galaxies are strongly dark matter dominated, two remarkable objects in the NGC 1052 field, DF2 and DF4, appear to lack dark matter. DF2 and DF4 were recently found to be part of a trail of low luminosity galaxies that follow a linear relation between their position and radial velocity. If the other galaxies on this trail formed together with DF2 and DF4, e.g., from gas that was separated from dark matter through a 'bullet dwarf' collision, they may lack dark matter as well. Here we constrain the mass of DF9, the galaxy on the trail that most closely resembles DF2 and DF4. Using Keck/KCWI we find that DF9's stellar velocity dispersion is $6.5^{+3.9}_{-4.3}$ km s$^{-1}$. This is consistent with the $8.3^{+0.9}_{-1.4}$ km s$^{-1}$ dispersion that is expected from DF9's $1.4\times 10^8$ M$_\odot$ stellar mass alone, and we conclude that - like DF2 and DF4 - dark matter is not required to explain the kinematics of DF9. The dispersion is far below the $24\pm3$ km s$^{-1}$ expected if DF9 had a $1.4\times 10^{10}$ M$_\odot$ dark matter halo falling on the stellar mass-halo mass relation. As demonstrated in Appendix B, these results are not sensitive to the assumed distance of the trail. Our results are further evidence that the trail of low mass galaxies in the NGC 1052 field formed together in a unique galaxy formation channel, and are consistent with the prediction of the bullet dwarf scenario that other trail galaxies should show the same lack of dark matter as DF2 and DF4.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Extragalactic microlensing through Ultra Diffuse Galaxies

    astro-ph.GA 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Calculations indicate low microlensing rates through NGC1052-DF2 but O(1-10) events per year possible across the sky with LSST monitoring, potentially enabling independent IMF estimates in UDGs.

  2. A correlation predicting galaxies without dark matter

    astro-ph.GA 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Baryonic fraction in certain galaxies correlates with baryonic acceleration as approximately a_bar inverse, placing known dark-matter-deficient galaxies at the high-acceleration extreme and predicting low dark matter ...

  3. Tidal origin of dark-matter free dwarf galaxies in the NGC 1052 group

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Simulations of a tuned 1:1 head-on merger reproducing NGC 1052's E4 shape generate tidal dwarf galaxies with sizes matching the observed DM-free dwarfs.

  4. New Measurements of Distances to Galaxies in the NGC 1052 Field with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes: Testing the Bullet-Dwarf Origin of the Trail

    astro-ph.GA 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    SBF distances from HST place the trail dwarfs at ~20 Mpc, inconsistent with the NGC 1035 foreground, while DF2 is revised to 17.7 Mpc matching JWST TRGB at 17.6 Mpc.