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Distribution Functions of Dark Matter Halos

ORAL

Abstract

The spherical NFW profile provides a good approximation to the density distributions of dark matter halos. In dynamical equilibrium, this density profile should correspond to a stationary distribution function of dark matter in phase space. We derive this distribution function and show that it is a good match to those obtained from N-body simulations. Additionally, we demonstrate a simple scaling relationship between R(E), the inversion of the potential energy, and the distribution function, and we show how this scaling can be used to well approximate the distribution function.

Publication: The research presented presented here is being prepared for a pair of papers, to be submitted in the next few weeks.

Presenters

  • Axel Gross

    University of Minnesota

Authors

  • Axel Gross

    University of Minnesota

  • Yong-Zhong Qian

    University of Minnesota

  • Zhaozhou Li

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem