Can Massive Dark Haloes Destroy the Disks of Dwarf Galaxies?

Abstract

Recent high-resolution simulations together with theoretical studies of the dynamical evolution of galactic disks have shown that contrary to wide-held beliefs a `live', dynamically responsive, dark halo surrounding a disk does not stabilize the disk against dynamical instabilities. We generalize Toomre's Q stability parameter for a disk-halo system and show that if a disk, which would be otherwise stable, is embedded in a halo, which is too massive and cold, the combined disk-halo system can become locally Jeans unstable. The good news is, on the other hand, that this will not happen in real dark haloes, which are in radial hydrostatic equilibrium. Even very low-mass disks are not prone to such dynamical instabilities.

9 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Proc. 6th Int. Heidelberg Conf. on dark matter in astro and particle physics, Sydney, Sept 24 - 28