Bibcode
DOI
Swaters, R. A.; Madore, B. F.; van den Bosch, Frank C.; Balcells, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 583, Issue 2, pp. 732-751.
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2
2003
Journal
Citations
360
Refereed citations
312
Description
We present high-resolution Hα rotation curves for a sample of 15
dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies. From these we derive limits
on the slopes of the central mass distributions, using both a direct
inversion of the rotation curves and detailed mass models. Assuming that
the density distributions of dark matter halos follow a power law at
small radii, ρ(r)~r-α, we find inner slopes in the
range 0<~α<~1 for most galaxies. Thus, even with the
relatively high spatial resolution of the Hα rotation curves
presented here, the inner slopes are poorly constrained. In general
halos with constant density cores (α=0) provide somewhat better
fits, but the majority of our galaxies (~75%) are also consistent with
α=1, as long as the R-band stellar mass-to-light ratios are
smaller than about 2. Halos with α=1.5, however, are ruled out in
virtually every case. In order to investigate the robustness of these
results we discuss and model several possible causes of systematic
errors, including noncircular motions, galaxy inclination, slit width,
seeing, and slit alignment errors. Taking the associated uncertainties
into account, we conclude that even for the ~25% of the cases where
α=1 seems inconsistent with the rotation curves, we cannot rule
out cusp slopes this steep. Inclusion of literature samples similar to
the one presented here leads to the same conclusion when the possibility
of systematic errors is taken into account. In the ongoing debate on
whether the rotation curves of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies
are consistent with predictions for a cold dark matter universe, we
argue that our sample and the literature samples discussed in this paper
provide insufficient evidence to rule out halos with α=1. At the
same time, we note that none of the galaxies in these samples require
halos with steep cusps, as most are equally well or better explained by
halos with constant density cores.