Dust in cold and warm dark matter in a suite of zoom-in simulations of Milky Way analogues
5 affiliations
- 1Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology , PO Box 218, Hawthorn VIC 3122 ,
- 2ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics (CDM) , Melbourne 3000 ,
- 3International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), M468, University of Western Australia , 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA 6009 ,
- 4School of Physics, The University of Sydney , NSW 2006 ,
- 5School of Physics and Astronomy , The University of Edinburgh ,
Abstract
We use a suite of hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations of Milky Way analogues to investigate how previously identified trends in dust properties of galaxies can be utilised to infer the underlying dark matter model. We use a sample of 24 comparison simulations comparing a cold dark matter (CDM) and 3.5 keV warm dark matter (WDM) particle, primarily using a dust-to-metals (DTM) ratio to post-process the dust in the simulation, with alternative methods explored. We find a preference for higher dust masses in CDM over WDM, with a median increase of 6.6 per cent in the CDM sample at redshift z = 0, and with a peak median difference of 25 per cent at z ≈ 0.25. Both CDM and WDM samples are highly concentrated, with approximately 90 per cent of the dust located in the inner region of the halo, though slightly higher in CDM. Contrary to previous work, we find that the Gini coefficient does not consistently show a difference in comparisons of dark matter models, with differences primarily driven by high sensitivity to the unique structure of individual haloes. Finally, we conduct an analysis of some common dust scaling relations, finding that the differences between the two samples in the dust-to-stellar mass and dust-to-SFR functions do not constitute a statistically significant difference at z = 0 with any dust production mechanism. However, at redshifts where the difference in dust mass is greatest, the alternative dust production methods show larger separations between CDM and WDM samples in total mass and scaling relations.
Related
- Dark matter density profiles of the Milky Way satellite population: Reconciling simulations and observations
- Comment on "Fermi-LAT Galactic Center Excess Morphology of Dark Matter in Simulations of the Milky Way Galaxy"
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- Analogues of the Milky Way–Sagittarius interaction in the TNG50: Effect on the Milky Way
- Kinematic analysis of the TNG50 Milky Way and Andromeda analogues
BibTeX
@article{ussing2026dust,
title = {{Dust in cold and warm dark matter in a suite of zoom-in simulations of Milky Way analogues}},
author = {Adam J Ussing and Robert A Mostoghiu Paun and Darren Croton and Alan Duffy and Chris Power and Celine Boehm},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag2054},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2054/9004105},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dust in cold and warm dark matter in a suite of zoom-in simulations of Milky Way analogues
AU - Adam J Ussing
AU - Robert A Mostoghiu Paun
AU - Darren Croton
AU - Alan Duffy
AU - Chris Power
AU - Celine Boehm
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stag2054
UR - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2054/9004105
AB - We use a suite of hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations of Milky Way analogues to investigate how previously identified trends in dust properties of galaxies can be utilised to infer the underlying dark matter model. We use a sample of 24 comparison simulations comparing a cold dark matter (CDM) and 3.5 keV warm dark matter (WDM) particle, primarily using a dust-to-metals (DTM) ratio to post-process the dust in the simulation, with alternative methods explored. We find a preference for higher dust masses in CDM over WDM, with a median increase of 6.6 per cent in the CDM sample at redshift z = 0, and with a peak median difference of 25 per cent at z ≈ 0.25. Both CDM and WDM samples are highly concentrated, with approximately 90 per cent of the dust located in the inner region of the halo, though slightly higher in CDM. Contrary to previous work, we find that the Gini coefficient does not consistently show a difference in comparisons of dark matter models, with differences primarily driven by high sensitivity to the unique structure of individual haloes. Finally, we conduct an analysis of some common dust scaling relations, finding that the differences between the two samples in the dust-to-stellar mass and dust-to-SFR functions do not constitute a statistically significant difference at z = 0 with any dust production mechanism. However, at redshifts where the difference in dust mass is greatest, the alternative dust production methods show larger separations between CDM and WDM samples in total mass and scaling relations.
SN - 0035-8711
SN - 1365-2966
ER -