The Impact of Baryonic Physics on the Structure of Dark Matter Halos: the View from the FIRE Cosmological Simulations

Understand

We study the distribution of cold dark matter (CDM) in cosmological simulations from the FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) project, for $M_{\ast}\sim10^{4-11}\,M_{\odot}$ galaxies in $M_{\rm h}\sim10^{9-12}\,M_{\odot}$ halos.

• FIRE incorporates explicit stellar feedback in the multi-phase ISM, with energetics from stellar population models.
• We find that stellar feedback, without "fine-tuned" parameters, greatly alleviates small-scale problems in CDM.
• Feedback causes bursts of star formation and outflows, altering the DM distribution.