Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21742102c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #421.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We describe a new method that allows one to determine the mass and relative position (in radius and azimuth) of galactic companions purely from observed disturbances in outer gas disks. We demonstrate the validity of this method by applying it to local spirals with known optical companions, namely M51 and NGC 1512. These galaxies span the range from having a very low mass companion ( one-hundredth the mass of the primary galaxy) to a fairly massive companion ( one-third the mass of the primary galaxy). We show that we accurately reproduce the mass and relative position of the companions in these systems, without requiring any knowledge of the optical light from the satellites. This approach has broad implications for many fields of physics and astronomy -- for the indirect detection of dark matter, planetary dynamics, and for galaxy evolution in its use as a decipher for the dynamical impact of cold dark matter sub-structure on galactic disks. Here, we provide a proof of principle of the method by applying it to infer and quantitatively characterize optically visible galactic companions of local spirals, from analysis of observed disturbances in outer gas disks. These findings are significant because until now the detection of dwarf galaxies has primarily relied on the optical light emitted by these systems. Many dwarf galaxies have low light-to-mass ratios, and as such the faint end of this population may well remain undetected. Our method provides a new means of hunting for dark matter dominated dwarf galaxies. The statistical viability of this method could be further clarified by applying it to a large sample of spiral galaxies to determine the incidence of false positives.
Bigiel Frank
Blitz Leo
Chakrabarti Sukanya
Chang Paoti
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