The behaviour of shape and velocity anisotropy in dark matter haloes

Abstract

Dark matter haloes from cosmological N-body simulations typically have triaxial shapes and anisotropic velocity distributions. Recently it has been shown that the velocity anisotropy, β, of cosmological haloes and major merger remnants depend on direction in such a way that β is largest along the major axis and smallest along the minor axis. In this work we use a wide range of non-cosmological N-body simulations to examine halo shapes and direction-dependence of velocity anisotropy profiles. For each of our simulated haloes we define 48 cones pointing in different directions, and from the particles inside each cone we compute velocity anisotropy profiles. We find that elongated haloes can have very distinct velocity anisotropies. We group the behaviour of haloes into three different categories, that range from spherically symmetric profiles to a much more complex behaviour, where significant differences are found for β along the major and minor axes. We encourage future studies of velocity anisotropies in haloes from cosmological simulations to calculate β-profiles in cones, since it reveals information, which is hidden from a spherically averaged profile. Finally, we show that spherically averaged profiles often obey a linear relation between β and the logarithmic density slope in the inner parts of haloes, but this relation is not necessarily obeyed, when properties are calculated in cones. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.