The degeneracy of M33 mass modeling and its physical implications

Abstract

The Local Group galaxy M33 exhibits a regular spiral structure and is close enough to permit high resolution analysis of its kinematics, making it an ideal candidate for rotation curve studies of its inner regions. Previous studies have claimed the galaxy has a dark matter halo with an Navarro-Frenk-White profile, based on statistical comparisons with a small number of other profiles. We apply a Bayesian method from our previous paper to place the dark matter density profile in the context of a continuous, and more general, parameter space. For a wide range of initial assumptions we find that models with inner log slope γin < 0.9 are strongly excluded by the kinematics of the galaxy unless the mass-to-light ratio of the stellar components in the 3.6 μm band satisfies Υ3.6 ≤ 2. Such a high Υ3.6 is inconsistent with current modeling of the stellar population of M33. This suggests that M33 is a galaxy whose dark matter halo has not been significantly modified by feedback. We discuss possible explanations of this result, including ram pressure stripping during earlier interactions with M31.