Abstract
The faintness of satellite systems in galaxy groups has contributed to the
widely discussed "missing satellite" and "too big to fail" issues. Using
techniques based on Tremaine & Richstone (1977), we show that there is no
problem with the luminosity function computed from modern codes per se, but
that the gap between first and second brightest systems is too big given
the luminosity function, that the same large gap is found in modern, large
scale baryonic $Łambda$CDM simulations such as EAGLE and IllustrisTNG, is even
greater in dark matter only simulations, and finally, that this is most likely
due to gravitationally induced merging caused by classical dynamical friction.
Quantitatively the gap is larger in the computed simulations than in the
randomized ones by $1.79 1.04$, $1.51 0.93$, $3.43 1.44$ and $3.33
1.35$ magnitudes in the EAGLE, IllustrisTNG, and dark matter only
simulations of EAGLE and IllustrisTNG respectively. Furthermore the anomalous
gaps in the simulated systems are even larger than in the real data by over
half a magnitude and are still larger in the dark matter only simulations.
Briefly stated, $Łambda$CDM does not have a problem with an absence of "too
big to fail" galaxies. Statistically significant large gaps between first and
second brightest galaxies are to be expected.
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