Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 56 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let describe the halo and let . The cosmic baryon fraction is , so the specified settled fraction gives . The specific angular momentum constraint at the disk edge isTo infer an actual circular speed one must specify the disk's radial mass distribution: enclosed mass does not determine a disc rotation curve. Introduce a finite geometry coefficient by . A rounded, centrally concentrated disk permits a monopole estimate at its outer edge; it is an explicit approximation, not the spherical shell theorem applied exactly to a razor-thin disk. Ignore the force of the unsettled baryons as well as the dark matter within the disk. Using , the angular-momentum estimate of a self-gravitating galactic disk givesAn exact disk answer cannot be fixed by total disk mass alone; the dependence on records that missing input.
For the numerical virial radius of a dark-matter halo, adopt mean density times the critical density at the formation epoch. This conventional definition givesThe supplied expansion law gives , and hence . Taking yieldsThe corresponding virial mass of a dark-matter halo is , and . Other overdensity conventions give at fixed .
Interpret the wavelength separation as an observed-frame local mean near the redshift in question. Since Lyman-alpha absorption appears at , the incidence isAssume one counted absorption system per intercepted disk, no unrelated forest systems or missed absorbers, unity neutral covering fraction, and a locally slowly varying population. Let be the proper interception cross-section and the comoving number density. The proper density is , and the proper line element along the light path is . Thus the absorber incidence and comoving number density relation isFor a thin circular disk, the projected area is . Isotropically oriented normals have , so the random-orientation absorbing-disk cross-section is . ConsequentlyIf all disks are taken face-on instead, . Generally the random-orientation result scales as and is divided by the neutral covering fraction. The finite mean redshift spacing is sizable, so a precision inference would integrate the incidence over the actual redshift interval rather than identify it with one local value.
There is also a halo abundance mass-budget bound on this formal result. The present mean matter density for these parameters is . Distinct haloes of this mass cannot have , even if every matter particle belonged to them. Yet the inferred random-orientation population hasEven the face-on estimate exceeds this bound by about twenty-one. The numerical incidence result is conditional; the supplied population assumptions are not cosmologically consistent under this standard virial and compact-disk estimate. A larger neutral-gas absorption radius, a different absorber population, or different physical inputs are needed. For example, random orientations would require an absorbing radius at least about merely to reach the all-matter upper bound, much larger than the calculated centrifugal radius. This check does not change the algebraic answer, but prevents treating it as a realizable population.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 346 3 Solution 2026-09-28
The definition of the virial radius of a dark-matter halo immediately gives the virial mass of a dark-matter haloIn an Einstein-de Sitter universe, spherical collapse gives , conventionally rounded to about .
For the Navarro--Frenk--White profile, put . Direct integration givesUsing and therefore yieldsAt small radius the bracket is , so , consistent with the central cusp. At large radius it is , so the mass diverges logarithmically unless the halo is truncated.
The primordial free streaming of warm dark matter erases small-scale density fluctuations and lowers the central phase-space density, tending to replace the smallest, earliest cold-dark-matter cusps by shallower central profiles or cores.
Since , the spherical potential that vanishes at infinity isIndeed, , and normalization at requiresThe circular speed is consequentlyIt rises as near the centre, peaks at , and then declines approximately as . Increasing the concentration of a dark-matter halo moves the peak inward in units of and raises it relative to . Thus an NFW curve can be fairly broad but is not exactly a flat galaxy rotation curve; stellar and gas contributions matter when comparing with an observed galaxy rotation curve.
Lower-mass haloes typically collapse earlier, when the cosmic background density is larger. Their characteristic inner densities are consequently larger relative to the present virial density, producing the mass-concentration relation of dark-matter haloes in which concentration decreases weakly with mass.
For a mass smaller by ,and . HenceA halo of roughly and kiloparsec scale naturally hosts a dwarf galaxy, possibly an extremely faint one if star formation is inefficient.