Dark matter in elliptical galaxies

Abstract

Latest evidences from separated analysis of the dark matter (DM) content of central and halo regions of elliptical galaxies show that these systems lie fairly within the ΛCDM framework. Their DM properties show a large scatter around typical scaling relations of dark haloes, but this seems to be a consequence of the complicated variety of the physical processes acting during their evolution, rather than the intrinsic properties of their parent haloes. Hence, it seems currently important to carefully account for the baryon physics, including the stellar population properties, and its role in shaping the DM distribution around galaxies. This would possibly explain the large variance of the inferred density parameters which leave still rooms for different families of DM density profiles (from cuspy to cored profiles).