Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2010-05-23
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
To appear in the conference proceeding: "First Stars and Galaxies: Challenges in the Next Decade" . Publisher: American Instit
Scientific paper
We investigate the nature of Ultra Faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies (UF dSphs) in a general cosmological context, simultaneously accounting for various "classical" dSphs and Milky Way (MW) properties, including their Metallicity Distribution Function (MDF). The model successfully reproduces both the observed [Fe/H]-Luminosity relation and the mean MDF of UFs. According to our results UFs are the living fossils of H2-cooling minihaloes formed at z>8.5, i.e. before the end of reionization. They are the oldest and the most dark matter-dominated (M/L > 100) dSphs in the MW system, with a total mass of M = 10^(7-8) Msun. The model allows to interpret the different shape of UFs and classical dSphs MDF, along with the frequency of extremely metal-poor stars in these objects. We discuss the "missing satellites problem" by comparing the UF star formation efficiencies with those derived for minihaloes in the Via Lactea simulation.
Ferrara Andrea
Salvadori Stefania
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