Estimating the Dark Halo Mass from the Relative Thickness of Stellar Disks

Abstract

We analyze the relationship between the mass of a spherical component and the minimum possible thickness of stable stellar disks. This relationship for real galaxies allows the lower limit on the dark halo mass to be estimated (the thinner the stable stellar disk is, the more massive the dark halo must be). In our analysis, we use both theoretical relations and numerical N-body simulations of the dynamical evolution of thin disks in the presence of spherical components with different density profiles and different masses. We conclude that the theoretical relationship between the thickness of disk galaxies and the mass of their spherical components is a lower envelope for the model data points. We recommend using this theoretical relationship to estimate the lower limit for the dark halo mass in galaxies. The estimate obtained turns out to be weak. Even for the thinnest galaxies, the dark halo mass within four exponential disk scale lengths must be more than one stellar disk mass.