On the Origin of Low-Surface-Brightness Galaxies

Abstract

We reconsider the problem of the origin of Low-Surface-Brightness (LSB) galaxies within the standard Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmological model ($Ω=1, h=0.5$). Taking into account the effect of substructure on the collapse times of low overdensity peaks, we show that the abundance of these peaks is larger than previously expected because of the dragging caused by dynamical friction induced by the presence of small-scale substructure. The number density of these shallow, low-density peaks turns out to be in good agreement with the observed overdensity of the blue LSB galaxies found during recent surveys.