NFW Halo Models

The models for NGC 7252 were built with a truncated isothermal dark matter halo. Isothermal halos are motivated by thermodynamic arguments, but are used primarily for empirical reasons.

We would like to see if our truncation radii constraints hold if we replace the isothermal halos with cosmologically motivated Navarro, Frenk and White halo models.

However, due to the loose, extended structure of NFW halos, we were unable to create tidal tails that continued to exist after the merger remnant had relaxed. Since NGC 7252 is a relaxed merger remnant, this is troubling. (simulations by Mihos and Bush)