Baryons and Their Halos

Abstract

Galaxies are composed of baryonic stars and gas embedded in dark matter halos. Here I briefly review two aspects of the connection between baryons and their halos. (1) The observed baryon content of galaxies falls short of the cosmic baryon fraction by an amount that varies systematically with mass. Where these missing baryons now reside is unclear. (2) The characteristic acceleration in disk galaxies correlates strongly with their baryonic mass surface density. This implies a close coupling between the gravitational dynamics, which is presumably dominated by dark matter, and the purely baryonic components of galaxies.