The diversity and similarity of simulated cold dark matter haloes: Diversity and similarity of simulated CDM haloes
Open accessAbstract
We study the mass, velocity dispersion and anisotropy profiles of cold dark matter ( CDM) haloes using a suite of N-body simulations of unprecedented numerical resolution.The Aquarius Project follows the formation of six different galaxy-sized haloes simulated several times at varying numerical resolution, allowing numerical convergence to be assessed directly.The highest resolution simulation represents a single dark matter halo using 4.4 billion particles, of which 1.1 billion end up within the virial radius.Our analysis confirms a number of results claimed by earlier work, and clarifies a few issues where conflicting claims may be found in the recent literature.The mass profile of CDM haloes deviates slightly but systematically from the form proposed by Navarro, Frenk & White.The spherically averaged density profile becomes progressively shallower inwards and, at the innermost resolved radius, the logarithmic slope is γ ≡ -d ln ρ/d ln r 1. Asymptotic inner slopes as steep as the recently claimed ρ ∝ r -1.2 are clearly ruled out.The radial dependence of γ is well approximated by a power law, γ ∝ r α (the Einasto profile).The shape parameter, α, varies slightly but significantly from halo to halo, implying that the mass profiles of CDM haloes are not strictly universal: different haloes cannot, in general, be rescaled to look identical.Departures from similarity are also seen in velocity dispersion profiles and correlate with those in density profiles so as to preserve a power-law form for the spherically averaged pseudo-phase-space density, ρ/σ 3 ∝ r -1.875 .The index here is identical to that of Bertschinger's similarity solution for self-similar infall on to a point mass from an otherwise uniform Einstein-de Sitter universe.The origin of this striking behaviour is unclear, but its robustness suggests that it reflects a fundamental structural property of CDM haloes.Our conclusions are reliable down to radii below 0.4 per cent of the virial radius, providing well-defined predictions for halo structure when baryonic effects are neglected, and thus an instructive theoretical template against which the modifications induced by the baryonic components of real galaxies can be judged.
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The Einasto profile provides a marginally better fit to high-resolution N-body simulations than NFW (Navarro et al., 2010).
“The Einasto profile (Einasto, 1965) provides a marginally better fit to high-resolution N -body simulations than NFW (Navarro et al., 2010):”
From The rotation curve of the Milky Way: State of the art, the Keplerian decline debate, and implications for dark matter (2026) · cites this paper as Navarro et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Navarro, J. F., Ludlow, A., Springel, V., Wang, J., Vogelsberger, M., White, S. D. M., Jenkins, A., Frenk, C. S., & Helmi, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- Durham University (GB)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2009-12-24
- Volume
- 402
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 21-34
- ISSN
- 0035-8711 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2103100915
- Cited by
- 860
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 62 · 2015: 56 · 2014: 70 · 2013: 63 · 2012: 79
- FWCI
- 37.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/F002289/1, ST/F002300/1, ST/H008519/1)
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Keywords
- cold dark matter haloes, halo density profiles, Einasto profile, Navarro-Frenk-White profile, halo mass profiles, velocity dispersion profiles, phase space density, numerical convergence, Aquarius Project
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