Unraveling the interplay between SIDM and baryons in MW halos: defining where baryons dictate heat transfer

Understand

We present a new set of cosmological zoom-in simulations of a MW-like galaxy which for the first time include elastic velocity-dependent self interacting dark matter (SIDM) and IllustrisTNG physics.

• With these simulations we investigate the interaction between SIDM and baryons and its effects on the galaxy evolution process.
• We also introduce a novel set of modified DMO simulations which can reasonably replicate the effects of fully realized hydrodynamics on the DM halo while simplifying the analysis and lowering the computational cost.
• We find that baryons change the thermal structure of the central region of the halo to a greater extent than the SIDM scatterings for MW-like galaxies.