Properties of voids in the local volume

Abstract

Current explanation of the overabundance of dark matter subhalos in the Local Group (LG) indicates that there may be a limit on the mass of a halo, which can host a galaxy. This idea can be tested using voids in the distribution of galaxies: at some level small voids should not contain any (even dwarf) galaxies. We use observational samples complete to MB = −12 with distances less than 8 Mpc to construct the void function (VF): the distribution of sizes of voids empty of any galaxies. There are ~30 voids with sizes ranging from 1 to 5 Mpc. We also study the distribution of dark matter halos in very high resolution simulations of the LCDM model. The theoretical VF matches the observations remarkably well only if we use halos with circular velocities larger than 45 ± 10 km/s. This agrees with the Local Group predictions. Small voids look quite similar to their giant cousins: the density has a minimum at the center of a void and it increases as we get closer to the border. Thus, both the Local Group data and the nearby voids indicate that isolated halos below 45±10 km/s must not host galaxies and that small (few Mpc) voids are truly dark.