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The stellar-mass--halo-mass (SMHM) relation is central to our understanding of galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter. However, its normalisation, slope, and scatter are highly uncertain at dwarf galaxy scales. In this paper, we present DarkLight, a new semi-empirical dwarf galaxy formation model designed to robustly predict the SMHM relation for the smallest galaxies. DarkLight harnesses a correlation between the mean star formation rate of dwarfs and their peak rotation speed -- the $\langle$SFR$\rangle$-$v_{\rm max}$ relation -- that we derive from simulations and observations. Given the sparsity of data for isolated dwarfs with $v_{\rm max} \lesssim 20$ km/s, we fit the $\langle$SFR$\rangle$-$v_{\rm max}$ relation to observational data for dwarfs above this velocity scale and to the high-resolution EDGE cosmological simulations below. Reionisation quenching is implemented via distinct $\langle$SFR$\rangle$-$v_{\rm max}$ relations before and after reionisation. We find that the SMHM scatter is small at reionisation, $\sim$0.2 dex, but rises to $\sim$0.5 dex ($1\sigma$) at a halo mass of $\sim$10$^9$ M$_\odot$ as star formation is quenched by reionisation but dark matter halo masses continue to grow. While we do not find a significant break in the slope of the SMHM relation, one can be introduced if reionisation occurs early ($z_{\rm quench} \gtrsim 5$). Finally, we find that dwarfs can be star forming today down to a halo mass of $\sim$2 $\times 10^9$ M$_\odot$. We predict that the lowest mass star forming dwarf irregulars in the nearby universe are the tip of the iceberg of a much larger population of quiescent isolated dwarfs., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures. Key results are summarized in Figures 3-6. To be submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome!

Scouring by supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries is the most accepted mechanism for the formation of the cores seen in giant elliptical galaxies. However, an additional mechanism is required to explain the largest observed cores. Gravitational wave (GW) recoil is expected to trigger further growth of the core, as subsequent heating from dynamical friction of the merged SMBH removes stars from the central regions. We model core formation in massive elliptical galaxies from both binary scouring and heating by GW recoil and examine their unique signatures. We aim to determine if the nature of cores in 3D space density can be attributed uniquely to either process and if the magnitude of the kick can be inferred. We perform $N$-body simulations of galactic mergers of multicomponent galaxies, based on the observed parameters of four massive elliptical galaxies with cores $> 0.5$ kpc. After binary scouring and hardening, the merged SMBH remnant is given a range of GW recoil kicks with $0.5$-$0.9$ of the escape speed of the galaxy. We find that binary scouring alone can form the cores of NGC 1600 and A2147-BCG, which are $< 1.3$ kpc in size. However, the $> 2$ kpc cores in NGC 6166 and A2261-BCG require heating from GW recoil kicks of $< 0.5$ of the galaxy escape speed. A unique feature of GW recoil heating is flatter cores in surface brightness, corresponding to truly flat cores in 3D space density. It also preferentially removes stars on low angular momentum orbits from the galactic nucleus., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We perform a combined analysis of stellar kinematics and line-of-sight accelerations of millisecond pulsars to investigate the mass contents of Omega Centauri. We consider multiple mass components: the visible photometric distribution, a central cluster of dark remnants, an intermediate-mass black hole, and a distribution of intermediate extension traced by the pulsars. By self-consistently incorporating multiple independent datasets, including the effects of different centers, we obtain significant constraints on these mass distributions. Our results strongly favor an extended central mass of ~ 2 - 3 x 10^5 Msun, emulating a cluster of heavy stellar remnants, over an IMBH, with a 3-sigma upper limit of 6 x 10^3 Msun on its mass. Pulsar timing observations provide significant constraints, favoring a central mass distribution that is ~ 20% more massive and extended. Notably, we observe a clear linear scaling between the pulsar distribution and stellar encounter rates, showing excellent agreement with the expectation from millisecond pulsar formation models and motivating a profile for their distribution, providing the first validation of its kind where positions are linked to their place of formation in globular clusters. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of this novel methodology in exploring the structure of star clusters, setting a promising precedent amid the advent of the rapidly growing number of observations and discoveries currently being experienced in this field.

We study feedback-driven cold dark matter core creation in the EDGE suite of radiation-hydrodynamical dwarf galaxy simulations. Understanding this process is crucial when using observed dwarf galaxies to constrain the particle nature of dark matter. While previous studies have shown the stellar-mass to halo-mass ratio $(M_{\star} / M_{200})$ determines the extent of core creation, we find that in low-mass dwarfs there is a crucial additional effect, namely the timing of star formation relative to reionisation. Sustained post-reionisation star formation decreases central dark matter density through potential fluctuations; conversely, pre-reionisation star formation is too short-lived to have such an effect. In fact, large stellar masses accrued prior to reionisation are a strong indicator of early collapse, and therefore indicative of an increased central dark matter density. We parameterise this differentiated effect by considering $M_{\star,\mathrm{post}}/M_{\star,\mathrm{pre}}$, where the numerator and denominator represent the amount of star formation after and before $z\sim6.5$, respectively. Our study covers the halo mass range $10^9 < M_{200} < 10^{10} M_\odot$ (stellar masses between $10^4 < M_{\star} < 10^8 M_\odot$), spanning both ultra-faint and classical dwarfs. In this regime, $M_{\star,\mathrm{post}}/M_{\star,\mathrm{pre}}$ correlates almost perfectly with the central dark matter density at $z=0$, even when including simulations with a substantially different variant of feedback and cooling. We provide fitting formulae to describe the newfound dependence., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 1 appendix. Comments are welcome

Folk wisdom dictates that a lower bound on the dark matter particle mass, $m$, can be obtained by demanding that the de Broglie wavelength in a given galaxy must be smaller than the virial radius of the galaxy, leading to $m\gtrsim 10^{-22}\text{ eV}$ when applied to typical dwarf galaxies. This lower limit has never been derived precisely or rigorously. We use stellar kinematical data for the Milky Way satellite galaxy Leo II to self-consistently reconstruct a statistical ensemble of dark matter wavefunctions and corresponding density profiles. By comparison to a data-driven, model-independent reconstruction, and using a variant of the maximum mean discrepancy as a statistical measure, we determine that a self-consistent description of dark matter in the local Universe requires $m>2.2 \times 10^{-21}\,\mathrm{eV}\;\mathrm{(CL>95\%)}$. This lower limit is free of any assumptions pertaining to cosmology, microphysics (including spin), or dynamics of dark matter, and only assumes that it is predominantly composed of a single bosonic particle species., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. The jaxsp library is available at https://github.com/timzimm/jaxsp

Nuclear Star Clusters (NSCs) are amongst the densest stellar systems in the Universe and are found at the centres of many bright spiral and elliptical galaxies, and up to ${\sim}$40% of dwarf galaxies. However, their formation mechanisms, and possible links to globular clusters (GCs), remain debated. This paper uses the EDGE simulations - a collection of zoom-in, cosmological simulations of isolated dwarf galaxies -- to present a new formation mechanism for NSCs. We find that, at a gas spatial and mass resolution of ${\sim}3\,$pc and ${\sim}161$ M$_\odot$, respectively, NSCs naturally emerge in a subset of our EDGE dwarfs with redshift-zero halo masses of $\rm{M}_{\rm{r}200\rm{c}} \sim 5 \times 10^9$ M$_\odot$. These dwarfs are quenched by reionisation, but retain a significant reservoir of gas that is unable to cool and form stars. Sometime after reionisation, the dwarfs then undergo a major (${\sim}$1:1) merger that excites rapid gas cooling, leading to a significant starburst. An NSC forms in this starburst that then quenches star formation thereafter. The result is a nucleated dwarf that has two stellar populations with distinct age: one pre-reionisation and one post-reionisation. Our mechanism is unique for two key reasons. Firstly, the low mass of the host dwarf means that NSCs, formed in this way, can accrete onto galaxies of almost all masses, potentially seeding the formation of NSCs everywhere. Secondly, our model predicts that NSCs should have at least two stellar populations with a large ($\gtrsim$1 billion year) age separation. This yields a predicted colour magnitude diagram for our nucleated dwarfs that has two distinct main sequence turnoffs. Several GCs orbiting the Milky Way, including Omega Centauri and M54, show exactly this behaviour, suggesting that they may, in fact, be accreted NSCs., Comment: Main text 12 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

We report the discovery of 23 globular cluster (GC) candidates around the relatively isolated dwarf galaxy IC 2574 within the Messier 81 (M81) group, at a distance of 3.86 Mpc. We use observations from the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to analyse the imaging in the F814W and F555W broadband filters. Our GC candidates have luminosities ranging from $-5.9 \geq M_V \geq -10.4$ and half-light radii of $1.4 \leq r_h \leq 11.5$ pc. We find the total number of GCs ($N_{\mathrm{GC}})=27\pm5$ after applying completeness corrections, which implies a specific frequency of $S_N = 4.0\pm0.8$, consistent with expectations based on its luminosity. The GC system appears to have a bimodal colour distribution, with 30% of the GC candidates having redder colours. We also find 5 objects with extremely blue colours that could be young star clusters linked to an intense star formation episode that occurred in IC 2574 $\sim$1 Gyr ago. We make an independent measurement of the halo mass of IC 2574 from its kinematic data, which is rare for low mass galaxies, and find log $M_{200} = 10.93 \pm 0.08$. We place the galaxy on the well-known GC system mass-halo mass relation and find that it agrees well with the observed near-linear relation. IC 2574 has a rich GC population for a dwarf galaxy, which includes an unusually bright $\omega$ Cen-like GC, making it an exciting nearby laboratory for probing the peculiar efficiency of forming massive GCs in dwarf galaxies., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The coalescence of the most massive black hole (MBH) binaries releases gravitational waves (GWs) within the detectable frequency range of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) $(10^{-9} - 10^{-6})$ Hz. The incoherent superposition of GWs from MBH mergers, the stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (GWB), can provide unique information on MBH parameters and the large-scale structure of the Universe. The recent evidence for a GWB reported by the PTAs opens an exciting new window onto MBHs and their host galaxies. However, the astrophysical interpretation of the GWB requires accurate estimations of MBH merger timescales for a statistically representative sample of galaxy mergers. This is numerically challenging; a high numerical resolution is required to avoid spurious relaxation and stochastic effects whilst a large number of simulations is needed to sample a cosmologically representative volume. Here, we present a new multi-mass modelling method to increase the central resolution of a galaxy model at a fixed particle number. We follow mergers of galaxies hosting central MBHs with the Fast Multiple Method code Griffin at two reference resolutions and with two refinement schemes. We show that both refinement schemes are effective at increasing central resolution, reducing spurious relaxation and stochastic effects. A particle number of $N\geq 10^{6}$ within a radius of 5 times the sphere of influence of the MBHs is required to reduce numerical scatter in the binary eccentricity and the coalescence timescale to <30$\%$; a resolution that can only be reached at present with the mass refinement scheme., Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We introduce a new method to calculate dark matter halo density profiles from simulations. Each particle is 'smeared' over its orbit to obtain a dynamical profile that is averaged over a dynamical time, in contrast to the traditional approach of binning particles based on their instantaneous positions. The dynamical and binned profiles are in good agreement, with the dynamical approach showing a significant reduction in Poisson noise in the innermost regions. We find that the inner cusps of the new dynamical profiles continue inward all the way to the softening radius, reproducing the central density profile of higher resolution simulations within the 95$\%$ confidence intervals, for haloes in virial equilibrium. Folding in dynamical information thus provides a new approach to improve the precision of dark matter density profiles at small radii, for minimal computational cost. Our technique makes two key assumptions: that the halo is in equilibrium (phase mixed), and that the potential is spherically symmetric. We discuss why the method is successful despite strong violations of spherical symmetry in the centres of haloes, and explore how substructures disturb equilibrium at large radii., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Minor changes to match published MNRAS version

Low-mass dwarf galaxies are expected to reside within dark matter haloes that have a pristine, `cuspy' density profile within their stellar half-light radii. This is because they form too few stars to significantly drive dark matter heating through supernova-driven outflows. Here, we study such simulated faint systems ($10^4 \leq M_{\star} \leq 2\times 10^6 \, M_\mathrm{\odot}$) drawn from high-resolution (3 pc) cosmological simulations from the `Engineering Dwarf Galaxies at the Edge of galaxy formation' (EDGE) project. We confirm that these objects have steep and rising inner dark matter density profiles at $z=0$, little affected by galaxy formation effects. But five dwarf galaxies from the suite also showcase a detectable HI reservoir ($M_{\mathrm{HI}}\approx 10^{5}-10^{6} \, M_\mathrm{\odot}$), analogous to the observed population of faint, HI-bearing dwarf galaxies. These reservoirs exhibit episodes of ordered rotation, opening windows for rotation curve analysis. Within actively star-forming dwarfs, stellar feedback easily disrupts the tenuous HI discs ($v_{\phi} \approx 10\, \mathrm{km} \, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$), making rotation short-lived ($\ll 150 \, \mathrm{Myr}$) and more challenging to interpret for dark matter inferences. In contrast, we highlight a long-lived ($\geq 500 \, \mathrm{Myr}$) and easy-to-interpret HI rotation curve extending to $\approx 2\, r_{1/2, \text{3D}}$ in a quiescent dwarf, that has not formed new stars since $z=4$. This stable gas disc is supported by an oblate dark matter halo shape that drives high-angular momentum gas flows. Our results strongly motivate further searches for HI in rotation curves in the observed population of HI-bearing low-mass dwarfs, that provide a key regime to disentangle the respective roles of dark matter microphysics and galaxy formation effects in driving dark matter heating., Comment: Matching published version in MNRAS, results unchanged. Now includes an inference of the dark matter profile from the characterised HI rotation curves

Leo T ($M_V = -8.0$) is both the faintest and the least massive galaxy known to contain neutral gas and to display signs of recent star formation. We analyse photometry and stellar spectra to identify member stars and to better understand the overall dynamics and stellar content of the galaxy and to compare the properties of its young and old stars. We use data from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the VLT. We supplement this information with spectroscopic data from the literature and with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry. Our analysis reveals two distinct populations of stars in Leo T. The first population, with an age of $\lesssim 500~\mathrm{Myr}$, includes three emission-line Be stars comprising 15% of the total number of young stars. The second population of stars is much older, with ages ranging from $>5~\mathrm{Gyr}$ to as high as $10~\mathrm{Gyr}$. We combine MUSE data with literature data to obtain an overall velocity dispersion of $\sigma_{v} = 7.07^{+1.29}_{-1.12}~\mathrm{km\ s^{-1}}$ for Leo T. When we divide the sample of stars into young and old populations, we find that they have distinct kinematics. Specifically, the young population has a velocity dispersion of $2.31^{+2.68}_{-1.65}\,\mathrm{km\ s^{-1}}$, contrasting with that of the old population, of $8.14^{+1.66}_{-1.38}\,\mathrm{km\ s^{-1}}$. The fact that the kinematics of the cold neutral gas is in good agreement with the kinematics of the young population suggests that the recent star formation in Leo T is linked with the cold neutral gas. We assess the existence of extended emission-line regions and find none to a surface brightness limit of~$< 1\times 10^{-20}\,\mathrm{erg}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}~\mathrm{arcsec}^{-2}$ which corresponds to an upper limit on star formation of $\sim 10^{-11}~\mathrm{M_\odot~yr^{-1}~pc^{-2}}$, implying that the star formation in Leo T has ended., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A on 04-08-2023. 17 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables

Aims. We use the stellar line-of-sight velocities of Antlia B (Ant B), a faint dwarf galaxy in the NGC 3109 association, to derive constraints on the fundamental properties of scalar field dark matter (SFDM), which was originally proposed to solve the small-scale problems faced by cold dark matter models. Methods. We used the first spectroscopic observations of Ant B, a distant (d $\sim$ 1.35 Mpc) faint dwarf ($M_\text{V} = -9.7$, $M_\star \sim 8\times10^5$M$_\odot$), from MUSE-Faint, a survey of ultra-faint dwarfs conducted using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer. By measuring the line-of-sight velocities of stars in the $1'\times 1'$ field of view, we identified 127 stars as members of Ant B, which enabled us to model its dark matter density profile with the Jeans modelling code GravSphere. We implemented a model for SFDM into GravSphere and used this to place constraints on the self-coupling strength of this model. Results. We find a virial mass of ${M_{200} \approx 1.66^{+2.51}_{-0.92}\times 10^9}$ $M_\odot$ and a concentration parameter of ${c_{200}\approx 17.38^{+6.06}_{-4.20}}$ for Ant B. These results are consistent with the mass-concentration relations in the literature. We constrain the characteristic length scale of the repulsive self-interaction $R_{\text{TF}}$ of the SFDM model to $R_{\text{TF}} \lesssim 180$ pc ($68\%$ confidence level), which translates to a self-coupling strength of $\frac{g}{m^2c^4}\lesssim 5.2 \times 10^{-20}$ eV$^{-1}$cm$^3$. The constraint on the characteristic length scale of the repulsive self-interaction is inconsistent with the value required to match observations of the cores of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, suggesting that the cored density profiles of those galaxies are not caused by SFDM., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A on 21-07-2023. 17 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables

Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) are commonly found in close proximity to the Milky Way and other massive spiral galaxies. As such, their projected stellar ellipticity and extended light distributions are often thought to owe to tidal forces. In this paper, we study the projected stellar ellipticities and faint stellar outskirts of tidally isolated ultra-faints drawn from the 'Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy Formation's Edge' (EDGE) cosmological simulation suite. Despite their tidal isolation, our simulated dwarfs exhibit a wide range of projected ellipticities ($0.03 < \varepsilon < 0.85$), with many possessing anisotropic extended stellar haloes that mimic tidal tails, but owe instead to late-time accretion of lower mass companions. Furthermore, we find a strong causal relationship between ellipticity and formation time of an UFD, which is robust to a wide variation in the feedback model. We show that the distribution of projected ellipticities in our suite of simulated EDGE dwarfs matches well with that of 21 Local Group dwarf galaxies. Given the ellipticity in EDGE arises from an ex-situ accretion origin, the agreement in shape indicates the ellipticities of some observed dwarfs may also originate from a similar non-tidal scenario. The orbital parameters of these observed dwarfs further support that they are not currently tidally disrupting. If the baryonic content in these galaxies is still tidally intact, then the same may be true for their dark matter content, making these galaxies in our Local Group pristine laboratories for testing dark matter and galaxy formation models., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; submitted to MNRAS

Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration (JASMINE) is a planned M-class science space mission by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. JASMINE has two main science goals. One is the Galactic archaeology with Galactic Center Survey, which aims to reveal the Milky Way's central core structure and formation history from Gaia-level (~25 $\mu$as) astrometry in the Near-Infrared (NIR) Hw-band (1.0-1.6 $\mu$m). The other is the Exoplanet Survey, which aims to discover transiting Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone from NIR time-series photometry of M dwarfs when the Galactic center is not accessible. We introduce the mission, review many science objectives, and present the instrument concept. JASMINE will be the first dedicated NIR astrometry space mission and provide precise astrometric information of the stars in the Galactic center, taking advantage of the significantly lower extinction in the NIR. The precise astrometry is obtained by taking many short-exposure images. Hence, the JASMINE Galactic center survey data will be valuable for studies of exoplanet transits, asteroseismology, variable stars and microlensing studies, including discovery of (intermediate mass) black holes. We highlight a swath of such potential science, and also describe synergies with other missions., Comment: 50 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

We probe the dynamical mass profiles of 10 galaxy clusters from the HIghest X-ray FLUx Galaxy Cluster Sample (HIFLUGCS) using galaxy kinematics. We numerically solve the spherical Jeans equation, and parameterize the dynamical mass profile and the galaxy velocity anisotropy profile using two general functions to ensure that our results are not biased towards any specific model. The mass-velocity anisotropy degeneracy is ameliorated by using two "virial shape parameters" that depend on the fourth moment of velocity distribution. The resulting velocity anisotropy estimates consistently show a nearly isotropic distribution in the inner regions, with an increasing radial anisotropy towards large radii. We compare our derived dynamical masses with those calculated from X-ray gas data assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, finding that massive and rich relaxed clusters generally present consistent mass measurements, while unrelaxed or low-richness clusters have systematically larger total mass than hydrostatic mass by an average of 50\%. This might help alleviate current tensions in the measurement of $\sigma_8$, but it also leads to cluster baryon fractions below the cosmic value. Finally, our approach probes accelerations as low as $10^{-11}$ m s$^{-2}$, comparable to the outskirts of individual late-type galaxies. We confirm that galaxy clusters deviate from the radial acceleration relation defined by galaxies., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. A&A accepted version

We use spectroscopic data for ${\sim}6,000$ Red Giant Branch (RGB) stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), together with proper motion data from \textit{Gaia} Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), to build a mass model of the SMC. We test our Jeans mass modelling method (\textsc{Binulator}+\textsc{GravSphere}) on mock data for an SMC-like dwarf undergoing severe tidal disruption, showing that we are able to successfully remove tidally unbound interlopers, recovering the Dark Matter density and stellar velocity anisotropy profiles within our 95\% confidence intervals. We then apply our method to real SMC data, finding that the stars of the cleaned sample are isotropic at all radii (at 95\% confidence), and that the inner Dark Matter density profile is dense, $\rho_{\rm DM}(150\,{\rm pc}) = 2.81_{-1.07}^{+0.72}\times 10^8 M_{\odot} \rm kpc^{-3} $, consistent with a $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cusp at least down to 400\,pc from the SMC's centre. Our model gives a new estimate of the SMC's total mass within 3\,kpc ($M_{\rm tot} \leq 3\,{\rm kpc})$ of $2.34\pm0.46 \times 10^9 M_{\odot}$. We also derive an astrophysical \textquote{$J$-factor} of $19.22\pm0.14$\, GeV$^2$\,cm$^{-5}$ and a \textquote{$D$-factor} of $18.80\pm0.03$\, GeV$^2$\,cm$^{-5}$, making the SMC a promising target for Dark Matter annihilation and decay searches. Finally, we combine our findings with literature measurements to test models in which Dark Matter is \textquote{heated up} by baryonic effects. We find good qualitative agreement with the Di Cintio et al. 2014 model but we deviate from the Lazar et al. 2020 model at high $M_*/M_{200} > 10^{-2}$. We provide a new, analytic, density profile that reproduces Dark Matter heating behaviour over the range $10^{-5} < M_*/M_{200} < 10^{-1}$., Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Collisionless Dark Matter Only (DMO) structure formation simulations predict that Dark Matter (DM) haloes are prolate in their centres and triaxial towards their outskirts. The addition of gas condensation transforms the central DM shape to be rounder and more oblate. It is not clear, however, whether such shape transformations occur in `ultra-faint' dwarfs, which have extremely low baryon fractions. We present the first study of the shape and velocity anisotropy of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that have gas mass fractions of $f_{\rm gas}(r 3\times10^9\,$M$_\odot$; $f_{\rm gas} > 10^{-4}$) become rounder and more oblate within $\sim 10$ half light radii. Finally, we find that most of our simulated dwarfs have significant radial velocity anisotropy that rises to $\tilde{\beta} > 0.5$ at $R \gtrsim 3 R_{\rm half}$. The one exception is a dwarf that forms a rotating gas/stellar disc because of a planar, major merger. Such strong anisotropy should be taken into account when building mass models of gas-poor ultra-faints., Comment: 16 pages and 11 figures (excluding appendices), accepted by MNRAS

We present a new suite of cosmological zoom-in hydrodynamical ($\approx 20\, \mathrm{pc}$ spatial resolution) simulations of Milky-Way mass galaxies to study how a varying mass ratio for a Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE) progenitor impacts the $z=0$ chemodynamics of halo stars. Using the genetic modification approach, we create five cosmological histories for a Milky-Way-mass dark matter halo ($M_{200} \approx 10^{12} \, M_\mathrm{\odot}$), incrementally increasing the stellar mass ratio of a $z\approx2$ merger from 1:25 to 1:2, while fixing the galaxy's final dynamical, stellar mass and large-scale environment. We find markedly different morphologies at $z=0$ following this change in early history, with a growing merger resulting in increasingly compact and bulge-dominated galaxies. Despite this structural diversity, all galaxies show a radially-biased population of inner halo stars like the Milky-Way's GSE which, surprisingly, has a similar magnitude, age, $\rm [Fe/H]$ and $\rm [\alpha/Fe]$ distribution whether the $z\approx2$ merger is more minor or major. This arises because a smaller ex-situ population at $z\approx2$ is compensated by a larger population formed in an earlier merger-driven starburst whose contribution to the GES can grow dynamically over time, with both populations strongly overlapping in the $\rm [Fe/H]-\rm [\alpha/Fe]$ plane. Our study demonstrates that multiple high-redshift histories can lead to similar $z=0$ chemodynamical features in the halo, highlighting the need for additional constraints to distinguish them, and the importance of considering the full spectrum of progenitors when interpreting $z=0$ data to reconstruct our Galaxy's past., Comment: Matching accepted version after minor changes

Andromeda (And) XXV has previously been reported as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) with little-to-no dark matter. However, the uncertainties on this result were significant. In this study, we double the number of member stars and re-derive the kinematics and mass of And XXV. We find that And XXV has a systemic velocity of $\nu_\mathrm{r}=-107.7\pm1.0 \mathrm{~km s}^{-1}$ and a velocity dispersion of $\sigma_\nu=4.5\pm1.0\mathrm{~km s}^{-1}$. With this better constrained velocity dispersion, we derive a mass contained within the half-light radius of $M(r< r_\mathrm{h})=6.9^{+3.2}_{-2.8}\times10^6\mathrm{~M}_\odot$. This mass corresponds to a mass-to-light ratio of $\mathrm{[M/L]}_\mathrm{r_\mathrm{h}}=37^{+17}_{-15}\mathrm{~M}_\odot/\mathrm{L}_\odot$, demonstrating, for the first time, that And XXV has an unambiguous dark matter component. We also measure the metallicity of And XXV to be $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}=-1.9\pm0.1$$\mathrm{~}$dex, which is in agreement with previous results. Finally, we extend the analysis of And XXV to include mass modelling using GravSphere. We find that And XXV has a low central dark matter density, $\rho_\mathrm{DM}(150\mathrm{pc})= 2.7^{+1.8}_{-1.6}\times10^7\mathrm{~M}_\odot\mathrm{kpc}^{-3}$, making And XXV a clear outlier when compared to other Local Group (LG) dSphs of the similar stellar mass. In a companion paper, we will explore whether some combination of dark matter cusp-core transformations and/or tides can explain And XXV's low density., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures (7 main, 1 appendix). Submitted to MNRAS

Feedback to the interstellar medium (ISM) from ionising radiation, stellar winds and supernovae is central to regulating star formation in galaxies. Due to their low mass ($M_{*} < 10^{9}$\,M$_\odot$), dwarf galaxies are particularly susceptible to such processes, making them ideal sites to study the detailed physics of feedback. In this perspective, we summarise the latest observational evidences for feedback from star forming regions and how this drives the formation of 'superbubbles' and galaxy-wide winds. We discuss the important role of external ionising radiation -- 'reionisation' -- for the smallest galaxies. And, we discuss the observational evidences that this feedback directly impacts galaxy properties such as their star formation histories, metal content, colours, sizes, morphologies and even their inner dark matter densities. We conclude with a look to the future, summarising the key questions that remain unanswered and listing some of the outstanding challenges for galaxy formation theories., Comment: Invited Perspective article, accepted for publication in Nature Astronomy

The Eridanus II (EriII) 'ultra-faint' dwarf has a large ($15\,\text{pc}$) and low mass ($4.3\times10^3\,\text{M}_\odot$) star cluster (SC) offset from its centre by $23\pm3\,\text{pc}$ in projection. Its size and offset are naturally explained if EriII has a central dark matter core, but such a core may be challenging to explain in a $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. In this paper, we revisit the survival and evolution of EriII's SC, focussing for the first time on its puzzlingly large ellipticity ($0.31^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$). We perform a suite of 960 direct $N$-body simulations of SCs, orbiting within a range of spherical background potentials fit to ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxy simulations. We find only two scenarios that come close to explaining EriII's SC. In the first, EriII has a low density dark matter core (of size $\sim70\,\text{pc}$ and density $\lesssim2\times10^8\,\text{M}_{\odot}\,\text{kpc}^{-3}$). In this model, the high ellipticity of EriII's SC is set at birth, with the lack of tidal forces in the core allowing its ellipticity to remain frozen in for long times. In the second, EriII's SC orbits in a partial core, with its high ellipticity owing to its imminent tidal destruction. However, this latter model struggles to reproduce the large size of EriII's SC, and it predicts substantial tidal tails around EriII's SC that should have already been seen in the data. This leads us to favour the cored model. We discuss potential caveats to these findings, and the implications of the cored model for galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures + appendices. Published with MNRAS. Comments welcome

[Abridged] Aims. The lowest-mass galaxies, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, promise unparalleled constraints on how feedback regulates galaxy formation, and on the small-scale matter power spectrum. Their inner dark-matter densities can also be used to constrain dark-matter models. In this paper, we present 201 new stellar line-of-sight velocities from the MUSE-Faint survey for the (ultra-)faint dwarf galaxies Antlia B, Leo T, Hydra II, and Grus 1. Combining these with literature data, we obtain the tightest constraints to date on their dark-matter halo masses and inner dark-matter densities. Methods. We use the Jeans equations implemented in CJAM to model the density profiles and constrain the presence of dark-matter cores and solitons (a prediction of fuzzy dark-matter models). Further modelling is done with GravSphere to test the influence of the choice of modelling tool. We calculate masses, concentrations, and circular velocities from the profiles, include results for Eridanus 2 from our previous work, and compare these properties to theoretical scaling relations, deriving constraints on tidal stripping in the process. Results. We find that dark-matter cores as large as those of more massive dwarf galaxies are ruled out for our galaxies (core radius $r_\mathrm{c} < 66$-$95\,\mathrm{pc}$ at the 68% confidence level). We constrain the soliton radii to $r_\mathrm{sol} < 13$-$112\,\mathrm{pc}$ (68% confidence level). We find that the galaxies are consistent with not having been significantly tidally stripped within their half-light radii. The virial masses and concentrations are sensitive to the choice of dynamical modelling tool: GravSphere produces results consistent with $M_{200} \sim 10^9\,M_\odot$, as expected from models in which ultra-faint dwarf galaxies are re-ionization fossils, while CJAM prefers haloes that are less massive., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables, excluding appendices. Submitted to A&A

We show how the interplay between feedback and mass-growth histories introduces scatter in the relationship between stellar and neutral gas properties of field faint dwarf galaxies ($M_{\star} \lessapprox 10^{6} M_{\odot}$). Across a suite of cosmological, high-resolution zoomed simulations, we find that dwarf galaxies of stellar masses $10^5 \leq M_{\star} \leq 10^{6} M_{\odot}$ are bimodal in their cold gas content, being either HI-rich or HI-deficient. This bimodality is generated through the coupling between (i) the modulation of HI contents by the background of ultraviolet radiation (UVB) at late times and (ii) the significant scatter in the stellar-mass-halo-mass relationship induced by reionization. Furthermore, our HI-rich dwarfs exhibit disturbed and time-variable neutral gas distributions primarily due to stellar feedback. Over the last four billion years, we observe order-of-magnitude changes around the median $M_{HI}$, factor-of-a-few variations in HI spatial extents, and spatial offsets between HI and stellar components regularly exceeding the galaxies' optical sizes. Time variability introduces further scatter in the $M_{\star}-M_{HI}$ relation and affects a galaxy's detectability in HI at any given time. These effects will need to be accounted for when interpreting observations of the population of faint, HI-bearing dwarfs by the combination of optical and radio wide, deep surveys., Comment: Matching MNRAS-accepted version after minor revisions. Results unchanged

Motivated by the observed bottom-light initial mass function (IMF) in faint dwarfs, we study how a metallicity-dependent IMF affects the feedback budget and observables of an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. We model the evolution of a low-mass ($\approx 8 \, \times \, 10^{8} \, \rm M_{\odot}$) dark matter halo with cosmological, zoomed hydrodynamical simulations capable of resolving individual supernovae explosions, which we complement with an empirically motivated subgrid prescription for systematic IMF variations. In this framework, at the low gas metallicities typical of faint dwarfs, the IMF of newborn stellar populations becomes top-heavy, increasing the efficiency of supernova and photoionization feedback in regulating star formation. This results in a 100-fold reduction of the final stellar mass of the dwarf compared to a canonical IMF, at fixed dynamical mass. The increase in the feedback budget is nonetheless met by increased metal production from more numerous massive stars, leading to nearly constant iron content at $z=0$. A metallicity-dependent IMF therefore provides a mechanism to produce low-mass ($\rm M_{\star}\sim 10^3 \rm M_{\odot}$), yet enriched ($\rm [Fe/H]\approx -2$) field dwarf galaxies, thus opening a self-consistent avenue to populate the plateau in $\rm [Fe/H]$ at the faintest end of the mass--metallicity relation., Comment: Matching MNRAS-accepted version. Results unchanged, added text discussion and further robustness test in Appendix

We use the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (NSC) to test the existence of a dark matter 'soliton core', as predicted in ultra-light dark matter (ULDM) models. Since the soliton core size is proportional to mDM^{-1}, while the core density grows as mDM^{2}, the NSC (dominant stellar component within about 3 pc) is sensitive to a specific window in the dark matter particle mass, mDM. We apply a spherical isotropic Jeans model to fit the NSC line-of-sight velocity dispersion data, assuming priors on the precisely measured Milky Way's supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the well-measured NSC density profile. We find that the current observational data reject the existence of a soliton core for a single ULDM particle with mass in the range 10^{-20.4} < mDM < 10^{-18.5} eV, assuming that the soliton core structure is not affected by the Milky Way's SMBH. We test our methodology on mock data, confirming that we are sensitive to the same range in ULDM mass as for the real data. Dynamical modelling of a larger region of the Galactic centre, including the nuclear stellar disc, promises tighter constraints over a broader range of mDM. We will consider this in future work., Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Andromeda XXI (And XXI) has been proposed as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy with a central dark matter density that is lower than expected in the Standard $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmology. In this work, we present dynamical observations for 77 member stars in this system, more than doubling previous studies to determine whether this galaxy is truly a low density outlier. We measure a systemic velocity of $v_r=-363.4\pm1.0\,{\rm kms}^{-1}$ and a velocity dispersion of $\sigma_v=6.1^{+1.0}_{-0.9}\,{\rm kms}^{-1}$, consistent with previous work and within $1\sigma$ of predictions made within the modified Newtonian dynamics framework. We also measure the metallicity of our member stars from their spectra, finding a mean value of ${\rm [Fe/H]}=-1.7\pm0.1$~dex. We model the dark matter density profile of And~XXI using an improved version of \GravSphere, finding a central density of $\rho_{\rm DM}({\rm 150 pc})=2.7_{-1.7}^{+2.7} \times 10^7 \,{\rm M_\odot\,kpc^{-3}}$ at 68\% confidence, and a density at two half light radii of $\rho_{\rm DM}({\rm 1.75 kpc})=0.9_{-0.2}^{+0.3} \times 10^5 \,{\rm M_\odot\,kpc^{-3}}$ at 68\% confidence. These are both a factor ${\sim}3-5$ lower than the densities expected from abundance matching in $\Lambda$CDM. We show that this cannot be explained by `dark matter heating' since And~XXI had too little star formation to significantly lower its inner dark matter density, while dark matter heating only acts on the profile inside the half light radius. However, And~XXI's low density can be accommodated within $\Lambda$CDM if it experienced extreme tidal stripping (losing $>95\%$ of its mass), or if it inhabits a low concentration halo on a plunging orbit that experienced repeated tidal shocks., Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 17 pages, 12 figures

In the standard Lambda cold dark matter paradigm, pure dark matter simulations predict dwarf galaxies should inhabit dark matter haloes with a centrally diverging density `cusp'. This is in conflict with observations that typically favour a constant density `core'. We investigate this `cusp-core problem' in `ultra-faint' dwarf galaxies simulated as part of the `Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy formation's Edge' (EDGE) project. We find, similarly to previous work, that gravitational potential fluctuations within the central region of the simulated dwarfs kinematically heat the dark matter particles, lowering the dwarfs' central dark matter density. However, these fluctuations are not exclusively caused by gas inflow/outflow, but also by impulsive heating from minor mergers. We use the genetic modification approach on one of our dwarf's initial conditions to show how a delayed assembly history leads to more late minor mergers and, correspondingly, more dark matter heating. This provides a mechanism by which even ultra-faint dwarfs ($M_* < 10^5\,\text{M}_{\odot}$), in which star formation was fully quenched at high redshift, can have their central dark matter density lowered over time. In contrast, we find that late major mergers can regenerate a central dark matter cusp, if the merging galaxy had sufficiently little star formation. The combination of these effects leads us to predict significant stochasticity in the central dark matter density slopes of the smallest dwarfs, driven by their unique star formation and mass assembly histories., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRAS

The low dark matter density in the Fornax dwarf galaxy is often interpreted as being due to the presence of a constant density `core', but it could also be explained by the effects of Galactic tides. The latter interpretation has been disfavoured because it is apparently inconsistent with the orbital parameters and star formation history of Fornax. We revisit these arguments with the help of the APOSTLE cosmological hydrodynamics simulations. We show that simulated dwarfs with similar properties to Fornax are able to form stars after infall, so that star formation is not necessarily a good tracer of infall time. We also examine the constraints on the pericentre of Fornax and point out that small pericentres (<50 kpc) are not currently ruled out by the data, allowing for Fornax to be tidally influenced on its current orbit. Furthermore, we find that some dwarfs with large orbital pericentres can be stripped prior to infall due to interactions with more massive galaxies. Tidal effects lead to a reduction in the dark matter density, while the profile remains cuspy. Navarro-Frenk-White profiles are consistent with the kinematic data within 3$\sigma$ in the innermost regions, while profiles with shallow cusps or cores provide a better fit. We predict that if the reduction of the dark matter density in Fornax occurs, at least in part, because of the action of Galactic tides, then tidal tails should be visible with a surface brightness limit of $\sim35-36$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$ over a survey area of $\gtrsim$100 deg$^2$., Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, accepted in MNRAS

Massive elliptical galaxies are typically observed to have central cores in their projected radial light profiles. Such cores have long been thought to form through `binary scouring' as supermassive black holes (SMBHs), brought in through mergers, form a hard binary and eject stars from the galactic centre. However, the most massive cores, like the ~3kpc core in A2261-BCG, remain challenging to explain in this way. In this paper, we run a suite of dry galaxy merger simulations to explore three different scenarios for central core formation in massive elliptical galaxies: `binary scouring', `tidal deposition' and `gravitational wave (GW) induced recoil'. Using the Griffin code, we self-consistently model the stars, dark matter and SMBHs in our merging galaxies, following the SMBH dynamics through to the formation of a hard binary. We find that we can only explain the large surface brightness core of A2261-BCG with a combination of a major merger that produces a small ~1kpc core through binary scouring, followed by the subsequent GW recoil of its SMBH that acts to grow the core size. We show that this same model can also explain the bright `knots' observed in the core region of A2261-BCG. Key predictions of this scenario are an offset SMBH surrounded by a compact cluster of bound stars and a non-divergent central density profile. We show that the bright `knots' observed in the core region of A2261-BCG are best explained as stalled perturbers resulting from minor mergers, though the brightest may also represent ejected SMBHs surrounded by a stellar cloak of bound stars., Comment: Accepted in MNRAS

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are excellent systems to probe the nature of fermionic dark matter due to their high observed dark matter phase-space density. In this work, we review, revise and improve upon previous phase-space considerations to obtain lower bounds on the mass of fermionic dark matter particles. The refinement in the results compared to previous works is realised particularly due to a significantly improved Jeans analysis of the galaxies. We discuss two methods to obtain phase-space bounds on the dark matter mass, one model-independent bound based on Pauli's principle, and the other derived from an application of Liouville's theorem. As benchmark examples for the latter case, we derive constraints for thermally decoupled particles and (non-)resonantly produced sterile neutrinos. Using the Pauli principle, we report a model-independent lower bound of $m \geq 0.18\,\mathrm{keV}$ at 68% CL and $m \geq 0.13\,\mathrm{keV}$ at 95% CL. For relativistically decoupled thermal relics, this bound is strengthened to $m \geq 0.59\,\mathrm{keV}$ at 68% CL and $m \geq 0.41\,\mathrm{keV}$ at 95% CL, whilst for non-resonantly produced sterile neutrinos the constraint is $m \geq 2.80\,\mathrm{keV}$ at 68% CL and $m \geq 1.74\,\mathrm{keV}$ at 95% CL. Finally, the phase-space bounds on resonantly produced sterile neutrinos are compared with complementary limits from X-ray, Lyman-$\alpha$ and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis observations., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Matches version to appear in MNRAS - minor clarifications added

We introduce a new method to mitigate numerical diffusion in adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) simulations of cosmological galaxy formation, and study its impact on a simulated dwarf galaxy as part of the 'EDGE' project. The target galaxy has a maximum circular velocity of 21 km/s but evolves in a region which is moving at up to 90 km/s relative to the hydrodynamic grid. In the absence of any mitigation, diffusion softens the filaments feeding our galaxy. As a result, gas is unphysically held in the circumgalactic medium around the galaxy for 320 Myr, delaying the onset of star formation until cooling and collapse eventually triggers an initial starburst at z=9. Using genetic modification, we produce 'velocity-zeroed' initial conditions in which the grid-relative streaming is strongly suppressed; by design, the change does not significantly modify the large scale structure or dark matter accretion history. The resulting simulation recovers a more physical, gradual onset of star formation starting at z=17. While the final stellar masses are nearly consistent ($4.8 \times 10^6\,M_\odot$ and $4.4\times 10^6\,M_\odot$ for unmodified and velocity-zeroed respectively), the dynamical and morphological structure of the z=0 dwarf galaxies are markedly different due to the contrasting histories. Our approach to diffusion suppression is suitable for any AMR zoom cosmological galaxy formation simulations, and is especially recommended for those of small galaxies at high redshift., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS following minor clarifications. Added an appendix on velocity correlation length

Using the cosmological zoom simulation VINTERGATAN, we present a new scenario for the onset of star formation at the metal-poor end of the low-[$\alpha$/Fe] sequence in a Milky Way-like galaxy. In this scenario, the galaxy is fueled by two distinct gas flows. One is enriched by outflows from massive galaxies, but not the other. While the former feeds the inner galactic region, the latter fuels an outer gas disk, inclined with respect to the main galactic plane, and with a significantly poorer chemical content. The first passage of the last major merger galaxy triggers tidal compression in the outer disk, which increases the gas density and eventually leads to star formation, at a metallicity 0.75 dex lower than the inner galaxy. This forms the first stars of the low-[$\alpha$/Fe] sequence. These in situ stars have halo-like kinematics, similarly to what is observed in the Milky Way, due to the inclination of the outer disk which eventually aligns with the inner one via gravitational torques. We show that this tilting disk scenario is likely to be common in Milky-Way like galaxies. This process implies that the low-[$\alpha$/Fe] sequence is populated in situ, simultaneously from two formation channels, in the inner and the outer galaxy, with distinct metallicities. This contrasts with purely sequential scenarios for the assembly of the Milky Way disk and could be tested observationally., Comment: MNRAS in press. Movies available at http://www.astro.lu.se/~florent/vintergatan.php

Using the VINTERGATAN cosmological zoom simulation, we explore the contributions of the in situ and accreted material, and the effect of galaxy interactions and mergers in the assembly of a Milky Way-like galaxy. We find that the initial growth phase of galaxy evolution, dominated by repeated major mergers, provides the necessary physical conditions for the assembly of a thick, kinematically hot disk populated by high-[$\alpha$/Fe] stars, formed both in situ and in accreted satellite galaxies. We find that the diversity of evolutionary tracks followed by the simulated galaxy and its progenitors leads to very little overlap of the in situ and accreted populations for any given chemical composition. At a given age, the spread in [$\alpha$/Fe] abundance ratio results from the diversity of physical conditions in VINTERGATAN and its satellites, with an enhancement in [$\alpha$/Fe] found in stars formed during starburst episodes. Later, the cessation of the merger activity promotes the in situ formation of stars in the low-[$\alpha$/Fe] regime, in a radially extended, thin and overall kinematically colder disk, thus establishing chemically bimodal thin and thick disks, in line with observations. We draw links between notable features in the [Fe/H] - [$\alpha$/Fe] plane with their physical causes, and propose a comprehensive formation scenario explaining self-consistently, in the cosmological context, the main observed properties of the Milky Way., Comment: MNRAS in press. Movies available at http://www.astro.lu.se/~florent/vintergatan.php

Spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way's stars have revealed spatial, chemical and kinematical structures that encode its history. In this work, we study their origins using a cosmological zoom simulation, VINTERGATAN, of a Milky Way-mass disc galaxy. We find that in connection to the last major merger at $z\sim 1.5$, cosmological accretion leads to the rapid formation of an outer, metal-poor, low-[$\alpha$/Fe] gas disc around the inner, metal-rich galaxy containing the old high-[$\alpha$/Fe] stars. This event leads to a bimodality in [$\alpha$/Fe] over a range of [Fe/H]. A detailed analysis of how the galaxy evolves since $z\sim 1$ is presented. We demonstrate the way in which inside-out growth shapes the radial surface density and metallicity profile and how radial migration preferentially relocates stars from the inner to the outer disc. Secular disc heating is found to give rise to increasing velocity dispersions and scaleheights with stellar age, which together with disc flaring explains several trends observed in the Milky Way, including shallower radial [Fe/H]-profiles above the midplane. We show how the galaxy formation scenario imprints non-trivial mappings between structural associations (i.e. thick and thin discs), velocity dispersions, $\alpha$-enhancements, and ages of stars, e.g. the most metal-poor stars in the low-[$\alpha$/Fe] sequence are found to have a scaleheight comparable to old high-[$\alpha$/Fe] stars. Finally, we illustrate how at low spatial resolution, comparable to the thickness of the galaxy, the proposed pathway to distinct sequences in [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] cannot be captured., Comment: 20 pages, MNRAS submitted, comments welcome. Movies available at http://www.astro.lu.se/~florent/vintergatan.php

We study how star formation is regulated in low-mass field dwarf galaxies ($10^5 \leq M_{\star} \leq 10^6 \, \text{M}_{\odot}$), using cosmological high-resolution ($3 \, \text{pc}$) hydrodynamical simulations. Cosmic reionization quenches star formation in all our simulated dwarfs, but three galaxies with final dynamical masses of $3 \times 10^{9} \,\text{M}_{\odot}$ are subsequently able to replenish their interstellar medium by slowly accreting gas. Two of these galaxies re-ignite and sustain star formation until the present day at an average rate of $10^{-5} \, \text{M}_{\odot} \, \text{yr}^{-1}$, highly reminiscent of observed low-mass star-forming dwarf irregulars such as Leo T. The resumption of star formation is delayed by several billion years due to residual feedback from stellar winds and Type Ia supernovae; even at $z=0$, the third galaxy remains in a temporary equilibrium with a large gas content but without any ongoing star formation. Using the "genetic modification'' approach, we create an alternative mass growth history for this gas-rich quiescent dwarf and show how a small $(0.2\,\mathrm{dex})$ increase in dynamical mass can overcome residual stellar feedback, re-igniting star formation. The interaction between feedback and mass build-up produces a diversity in the stellar ages and gas content of low-mass dwarfs, which will be probed by combining next-generation HI and imaging surveys., Comment: Minor revisions, matching published version in MNRAS. Results and conclusions unchanged

Due to their close proximity, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (SMC/LMC) provide natural laboratories for understanding how galaxies form and evolve. With the goal of determining the structure and dynamical state of the SMC, we present new spectroscopic data for $\sim$ 3000 SMC red giant branch stars observed using the AAOmega spectrograph at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We complement our data with further spectroscopic measurements from previous studies that used the same instrumental configuration and proper motions from the \textit{Gaia} Data Release 2 catalogue. Analysing the photometric and stellar kinematic data, we find that the SMC centre of mass presents a conspicuous offset from the velocity centre of its associated $\mbox{H\,{\sc i}}$ gas, suggesting that the SMC gas is likely to be far from dynamical equilibrium. Furthermore, we find evidence that the SMC is currently undergoing tidal disruption by the LMC within 2\,kpc of the centre of the SMC, and possibly all the way in to the very core. This is evidenced by a net outward motion of stars from the SMC centre along the direction towards the LMC and apparent tangential anisotropy at all radii. The latter is expected if the SMC is undergoing significiant tidal stripping, as we demonstrate using a suite of $N$-body simulations of the SMC/LMC system disrupting around the Milky Way. These results suggest that dynamical models for the SMC that assume a steady state will need to be revisited., Comment: Revised version submitted to MNRAS after referee report, 18 pages, 18 figures

We present an updated analysis of the gamma-ray flux from the directions of classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies, deriving new constraints on WIMP dark matter (DM) annihilation using a decade of Fermi-LAT data. Among the major novelties, we infer the dwarfs' J-factors by including new observations without imposing any a priori parametric profile for the DM distribution. While statistically compatible with results obtained from more conventional parameterisations, this procedure reduces the theoretical bias imposed on the data. Furthermore, we retain the full data-driven shape of the J-factors' empirical probability distributions when setting limits on DM, without imposing log-normality as is typically done. In conjunction with the data-driven J-factors, we use a new method for estimating the probability distribution function of the astrophysical background at the dwarf position, fully profiling over background uncertainties. We show that, for most classical dwarfs, the background systematic uncertainty dominates over the uncertainty on their J-factors. Raw distributions of J- and D-factors (the latter being the analogous of J-factors for decaying DM) are available upon request., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Matches published version in JCAP. Raw distributions of J- and D-factors are available upon request

The dwarf galaxy distribution surrounding M31 is significantly anisotropic in nature. Of the 30 dwarf galaxies in this distribution, 15 form a disc-like structure and 23 are contained within the hemisphere facing the Milky Way. Using a realistic local potential, we analyse the conditions required to produce and maintain these asymmetries. We find that some dwarf galaxies are required to have highly eccentric orbits in order to preserve the presence of the hemispherical asymmetry with an appropriately large radial dispersion. Under the assumption that the dwarf galaxies originate from a single association or accretion event, we find that the initial size and specific energy of that association must both be relatively large in order to produce the observed hemispherical asymmetry. However if the association was large in physical size, the very high-energy required would enable several dwarf galaxies to escape from the M31 and be captured by the Milky Way. Furthermore, we find that associations that result in this structure have total specific energies concentrated around $E = V_{esc}^{2} - V_{init}^{2} \sim 200^2$ -- $300^2\ \rm{km^2\ s^{-2}}$, implying that the initial velocity and initial position needed to produce the structure are strongly correlated. The overlap of initial conditions required to produce the radial dispersion, angular dispersion, and the planar structure is small and suggests that either they did not originate from a single accretion event, or that these asymmetric structures are short-lived., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRAS

We test a non-parametric higher-order Jeans analysis method, GravSphere, on 32 simulated dwarf galaxies comparable to classical Local Group dwarfs like Fornax. The galaxies are selected from the APOSTLE suite of cosmological hydrodynamics simulations with Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) models, allowing us to investigate cusps and cores in density distributions. We find that, for CDM dwarfs, the recovered enclosed mass profiles have a bias of no more than 10 per cent, with a 50 per cent scatter in the inner regions and a 20 per cent scatter near the half-light radius, consistent with standard mass estimators. The density profiles are also recovered with a bias of no more than 10 per cent and a scatter of 30 per cent in the inner regions. For SIDM dwarfs, the mass and density profiles are recovered within our 95 per cent confidence intervals, but are biased towards cuspy dark matter distributions. This is mainly due to a lack of sufficient constraints from the data. We explore the sources of scatter in the accuracy of the recovered profiles and suggest a $\chi^2$ statistic to separate successful models from biased ones. Finally, we show that the uncertainties on the mass profiles obtained with GravSphere are smaller than those for comparable Jeans methods, and that they can be further improved if stronger priors, motivated by cosmological simulations, are placed on the velocity anisotropy. We conclude that GravSphere is a promising Jeans-based approach for modelling dark matter distributions in dwarf galaxies., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. Accepted in MNRAS

We demonstrate how the least luminous galaxies in the Universe, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, are sensitive to their dynamical mass at the time of cosmic reionization. We select a low-mass ($\sim \text{1.5} \times 10^{9} \, \text{M}_{\odot}$) dark matter halo from a cosmological volume, and perform zoom hydrodynamical simulations with multiple alternative histories using "genetically modified" initial conditions. Earlier forming ultra-faints have higher stellar mass today, due to a longer period of star formation before their quenching by reionization. Our histories all converge to the same final dynamical mass, demonstrating the existence of extended scatter ($\geq$ 1 dex) in stellar masses at fixed halo mass due to the diversity of possible histories. One of our variants builds less than 2 % of its final dynamical mass before reionization, rapidly quenching in-situ star formation. The bulk of its final stellar mass is later grown by dry mergers, depositing stars in the galaxy's outskirts and hence expanding its effective radius. This mechanism constitutes a new formation scenario for highly diffuse ($\text{r}_{1 /2} \sim 820 \, \text{pc}$, $\sim 32 \, \text{mag arcsec}^2$), metal-poor ($\big[ \mathrm{Fe}\, / \mathrm{H} \big]= -2.9$), ultra-faint ($\mathcal{M}_V= -5.7$) dwarf galaxies within the reach of next-generation low surface brightness surveys., Comment: Minor edits to match the published ApJL version. Results unchanged

We introduce the "Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy formation's Edge" (EDGE) project to study the cosmological formation and evolution of the smallest galaxies in the Universe. In this first paper, we explore the effects of resolution and sub-grid physics on a single low mass halo ($M_{\rm halo}=10^{9}~M_\odot$), simulated to redshift $z=0$ at a mass and spatial resolution of $\sim 20~M_\odot$ and $\sim 3$ pc. We consider different star formation prescriptions, supernova feedback strengths and on-the-fly radiative transfer (RT). We show that RT changes the mode of galactic self-regulation at this halo mass, suppressing star formation by causing the interstellar and circumgalactic gas to remain predominantly warm ($\sim 10^4$ K) even before cosmic reionisation. By contrast, without RT, star formation regulation occurs only through starbursts and their associated vigorous galactic outflows. In spite of this difference, the entire simulation suite (with the exception of models without any feedback) matches observed dwarf galaxy sizes, velocity dispersions, $V$-band magnitudes and dynamical mass-to-light-ratios. This is because such structural scaling relations are predominantly set by the host dark matter halo, with the remaining model-to-model variation being smaller than the observational scatter. We find that only the stellar mass-metallicity relation differentiates the galaxy formation models. Explosive feedback ejects more metals from the dwarf, leading to a lower metallicity at a fixed stellar mass. We conclude that the stellar mass-metallicity relation of the very smallest galaxies provides a unique constraint on galaxy formation physics., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Minor changes to mach published MNRAS version

Astrophysical observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. In the coming decade, astrophysical observations will guide other experimental efforts, while simultaneously probing unique regions of dark matter parameter space. This white paper summarizes astrophysical observations that can constrain the fundamental physics of dark matter in the era of LSST. We describe how astrophysical observations will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational interactions with the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we highlight theoretical work and experimental/observational facilities that will complement LSST to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, Science Whitepaper for Astro 2020, more information at https://lsstdarkmatter.github.io

We present new FLAMES$+$GIRAFFE spectroscopy of 36 member stars in the isolated Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxy Tucana. We measure a systemic velocity for the system of $v_{\mathrm{Tuc}}=216.7_{-2.8}^{+2.9}$kms$^{-1}$, and a velocity dispersion of $\sigma_{\mathrm{v,Tuc}}=14.4_{-2.3}^{+2.8}$kms$^{-1}$. We also detect a rotation gradient of $\frac{dv_{r}}{d\chi}=7.6^{+4.2}_{-4.3}$ kms$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$, which reduces the systemic velocity to $v_{\mathrm{Tuc}}=215.2_{-2.7}^{+2.8}$ kms$^{-1}$ and the velocity dispersion to $\sigma_{v,\mathrm{Tuc}}=13.3_{-2.3}^{+2.7}$ kms$^{-1}$. We perform Jeans modelling of the density profile of Tucana using the line--of--sight velocities of the member stars. We find that it favours a high central density consistent with `pristine' subhalos in $\Lambda$CDM, and a massive dark matter halo ($\sim$$10^{10}$\,M$_\odot$) consistent with expectations from abundance matching. Tucana appears to be significantly more centrally dense than other isolated Local Group dwarfs, making it an ideal laboratory for testing dark matter models., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 17 pages, 13 figures. Updated to match journal version

Astrophysical and cosmological observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. Future observations with Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide necessary guidance for the experimental dark matter program. This white paper represents a community effort to summarize the science case for studying the fundamental physics of dark matter with LSST. We discuss how LSST will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational couplings to the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we discuss the ways that LSST will complement other experiments to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter. More information on the LSST dark matter effort can be found at https://lsstdarkmatter.github.io/ ., Comment: 96 pages, 22 figures, 1 table

High mass galaxies, with halo masses $M_{200} \ge 10^{10} M_{\odot}$, reveal a remarkable near-linear relation between their globular cluster (GC) system mass and their host galaxy halo mass. Extending this relation to the mass range of dwarf galaxies has been problematic due to the difficulty in measuring independent halo masses. Here we derive new halo masses based on stellar and HI gas kinematics for a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies with GC systems. We find that the GC system mass--halo mass relation for galaxies populated by GCs holds from halo masses of $M_{200} \sim 10^{14} M_{\odot}$ down to below $M_{200}$ $\sim 10^9 M_{\odot}$, although there is a substantial increase in scatter towards low masses. In particular, three well-studied ultra diffuse galaxies, with dwarf-like stellar masses, reveal a wide range in their GC-to-halo mass ratios. We compare our GC system--halo mass relation to the recent model of El Badry et al., finding that their fiducial model does not reproduce our data in the low mass regime. This may suggest that GC formation needs to be more efficient than assumed in their model, or it may be due to the onset of stochastic GC occupation in low mass halos. Finally, we briefly discuss the stellar mass-halo mass relation for our low mass galaxies with GCs, and we suggest some nearby dwarf galaxies for which searches for GCs may be fruitful., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

According to star formation histories (SFHs), Local Group dwarf galaxies can be broadly classified in two types: those forming most of their stars before $z=2$ (${\it fast}$) and those with more extended SFHs (${\it slow}$). The most precise SFHs are usually derived from deep but not very spatially extended photometric data; this might alter the ratio of old to young stars when age gradients are present. Here we correct for this effect and derive the mass formed in stars by $z=2$ for a sample of 16 Local Group dwarf galaxies. We explore early differences between ${\it fast}$ and ${\it slow}$ dwarfs, and evaluate the impact of internal feedback by supernovae (SN) on the baryonic and dark matter (DM) component of the dwarfs. ${\it Fast}$ dwarfs assembled more stellar mass at early times and have larger amounts of DM within the half-light radius than ${\it slow}$ dwarfs. By imposing that ${\it slow}$ dwarfs cannot have lost their gas by $z=2$, we constrain the maximum coupling efficiency of SN feedback to the gas and to the DM to be $\sim$10%. We find that internal feedback alone appears insufficient to quench the SFH of ${\it fast}$ dwarfs by gas deprivation, in particular for the fainter systems. Nonetheless, SN feedback can core the DM halo density profiles relatively easily, producing cores of the sizes of the half-light radius in ${\it fast}$ dwarfs by $z=2$ with very low efficiencies. Amongst the "classical" Milky Way satellites, we predict that the smallest cores should be found in Draco and Ursa Minor, while Sculptor and Fornax should host the largest ones., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We make a first attempt to find dwarf galaxies in eight \Fermi-LAT extended, unassociated, source fields using \Gaia\ DR2. We probe previously unexplored heliocentric distances of $d<20$~kpc with an extreme-deconvolution (XD) technique. We find no signature of a dwarf galaxy in any of these fields despite \Gaia's excellent astrometric accuracy. We estimate our detection limits by applying the XD method to mock data, obtaining a conservative limit on the stellar mass of $M_* < 10^4$~M$_{\sun}$ for $d < 20$\, kpc. Such a low stellar mass implies either a low-mass subhalo, or a massive stripped-down subhalo. We use an analytic model for stripped subhalos to argue that, given the sizes and fluxes of the \Fermi-LAT sources, we can reject the hypothesis that they owe to dark matter annihilation., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We apply the GC3 stream-finding method to RR Lyrae stars (RRLS) in the Catalina survey. We find two RRLS stream candidates at $>4\sigma$ confidence and another 12 at $>3.5\sigma$ confidence over the Galactocentric distance range $4 < D/{\rm kpc} < 26$. Of these, only two are associated with known globular clusters (NGC 1261 and Arp2). The remainder are candidate `orphan' streams, consistent with the idea that globular cluster streams are most visible close to dissolution. Our detections are likely a lower bound on the total number of dissolving globulars in the inner galaxy, since many globulars have few RRLS while only the brightest streams are visible over the Galactic RRLS background, particularly given the current lack of kinematical information. We make all of our candidate streams publicly available and provide a new GALSTREAMS Python library for the footprints of all known streams and overdensities in the Milky Way., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication at MNRAS. GALSTREAMS Milky Way Streams Footprint Library are available at https://github.com/cmateu/galstreams . All RRL data and code used in the paper are available at https://cmateu.github.io/Cecilia_Mateu_WebPage/CatalinaGC3_Streams.html

Massive black hole (MBH) binaries, formed as a result of galaxy mergers, are expected to harden by dynamical friction and three-body stellar scatterings, until emission of gravitational waves (GWs) leads to their final coalescence. According to recent simulations, MBH binaries can efficiently harden via stellar encounters only when the host geometry is triaxial, even if only modestly, as angular momentum diffusion allows an efficient repopulation of the binary loss cone. In this paper, we carry out a suite of N-body simulations of equal-mass galaxy collisions, varying the initial orbits and density profiles for the merging galaxies and running simulations both with and without central MBHs. We find that the presence of an MBH binary in the remnant makes the system nearly oblate, aligned with the galaxy merger plane, within a radius enclosing 100 MBH masses. We never find binary hosts to be prolate on any scale. The decaying MBHs slightly enhance the tangential anisotropy in the centre of the remnant due to angular momentum injection and the slingshot ejection of stars on nearly radial orbits. This latter effect results in about 1% of the remnant stars being expelled from the galactic nucleus. Finally, we do not find any strong connection between the remnant morphology and the binary hardening rate, which depends only on the inner density slope of the remnant galaxy. Our results suggest that MBH binaries are able to coalesce within a few Gyr, even if the binary is found to partially erase the merger-induced triaxiality from the remnant., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS