# Baryonic Dark Matter: Limits from HST and ISO

## 1 Introduction

Low mass stars and sub-stellar mass brown dwarfs provide the only objects which are known to exist in potentially interesting numbers which might make up a substantial part of the dark matter required in galactic halos by dynamical arguments. <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Although very old white dwarf stellar remnants have been considered, contraints from the combination of an artificially contrived initial mass function, and over-production of all of luminosity, helium, and later supernovae by their progenitors, exclude them as astrophysically plausible. 

The number of stars as a function of mass, corrected for stellar evolutionary and chemical abundance effects – the Initial Mass Function (IMF) – is one of the two key functions defining the evolution of galaxies and the distribution of (baryonic) matter. (The star formation history is the other.) There is no ab initio understanding of either of these two functions. One therefore may speculate on arbitrarily complex variations, but ultimately must be guided by observations. Recent observations indicate an unexpected but now well-established similarity in the IMF over the full range of astrophysical sites in which it can be determined directly or indirectly.

The IMF of high-mass stars – those which would be the progenitors of any putative population of 0.5M very old white dwarf stellar remnants – has been determined recently, from HST observations in Local Group galaxies and HIPPARCOS observations in the Solar Neighbourhood. In spite of the wide range of local chemical abundances and star formation rates, the Local Group (Massey 1998) and Solar Neighbourhood (Brown 1998) IMFs are not distinguishable. In more extreme environments only indirect analyses are possible. Nonetheless, even in extreme starburst galaxies (Leitherer 1998) the derived high-mass IMF is standard. Thus, the high-mass IMF does not seem to be a (strong) function of the local star formation rate. Since chemical element creation yields from supernovae are progenitor-mass dependent, one may also determine the IMF of the first stars to form in the Milky Way from the element ratio pattern in surviving old low-mass stars. Here again, the evidence (Wyse 1998) is consistent with a standard IMF. Thus, the high-mass IMF does not seem to be a (strong) function of the chemical abundance of the gas from which it forms, over some 2-3 orders of magnitude.

Given the short lifetimes of high-mass stars, their IMF can be relevant to the dark matter problem only indirectly, through their low-mass remnants. Most of the mass in the observed standard IMF is locked up in long-lived low-mass stars, all of which ever formed still exist as stars today. Thus, the low mass IMF can be determined directly, for stars above the minimum mass for hydrogen burning. For even lower mass stars, which rapidly cool and fade to extremely low luminosity, recent surveys have also provided direct determinations. But only locally, given the intrinsic low luminosities. Nonetheless, recent near and mid infra-red surveys (Lada, Lada, & Meunch 1998) in regions of recent or continuing star formation determine the low mass stellar IMF to be adequately described by the standard KTG field IMF (Kroupa, Tout & Gilmore 1993). The KTG IMF, which continues to be uncertain, predominately due to very small number statistics (Reid 1998), but possibly due to real small-amplitude variability (Scalo 1998), is a representation of the local field stars: thus it represents a time-averaged IMF over the history of the local disk, for solar abundance stars. The implication is that the low mass IMF has not shown (strong) variations at high abundances over cosmic time, in agreement with the conclusions for high-mass stars above. Importantly, the KTG mass function shows a flattening at low masses, below about 0.2M, such that the total mass is dominated by hydrogen-burning stars. This unimportance of brown dwarfs for the mass budget seems well established at high abundances, being supported by the ongoing field brown dwarf identification programs from the DENIS large area IR survey (Tinney (1998) private communication).

All these constraints leave open one window of opportunity for compact baryonic dark matter: low masses, low chemical abundances and old ages. Primordial chemical abundance, ie H+He, is the expected value if the as-yet unidentified baryons required to exist by standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis arguments form compact objects at early times. This requirement is almost unavoidable, for compact objects, since the dark matter seems to be found exclusively in galactic halos, and not galactic disks (eg Gilmore 1989). Thus, it must have been locked into a non-dissipative form early. <sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2An obvious explanation, that the missing baryons remain distributed in a (possibly chemically-enriched) inter-galactic medium, is a natural though as-yet unproven explanation for the fate of the baryons not found in galaxies and clusters today if they exist in a non-compact form.

We now consider, in turn, observational limits on the number of compact, low-mass, low-abundance baryonic objects in the Milky Way halo, in other Local Group galaxies, and in more distant galaxies.

## 2 The IMF in Galactic Globular Clusters

HST has revolutionised determinations of the relative numbers of stars as a function of lumnosity - the Luminosity Function (LF) – in Galactic globular clusters. While conversion of an observed luminosity function into an IMF remains very model-dependent (d’Antona 1998), differential comparisons of observed luminosity functions between clusters of not dis-similar chemical abundances is a very robust check on possible variations.

Cool (1998) has reviewed the extensive recent results, justifying the general conclusion that, considering the range of chemical abundances, internal cluster structural parameters, and differing Galactic orbits, any differences between cluster luminosity functions are certainly not large. In particular, in a beautiful experiment by Piotto, Cool & King (1997), four globular clusters with similar chemical abundances were studied with HST. Three had indistinguishable luminosity functions, the fourth a substantial deficit of low mass stars. The deficit cluster is on an orbit close to the Galactic disk, providing an explanation for the lost low-mass stars as being tidally removed from the parent, following the normal internal dynamical process of mass segregation inside the cluster. Under this interpretation, all the clusters had a universal luminosity – and hence mass – function, corresponding to the present day luminosity function of the three similar clusters.

It is worth emphasising here that the only detected difference between the clusters corresponds to even fewer low mass stars in one case – ie, even less relevance to baryonic dark matter. Nonetheless, if the IMF can vary down, it could vary up. It is also possible, at least in principle, that the three similar clusters are all stripped of low mass stars to the same extent, and the true IMF is indeed dominated by now lost low-mass stars. The next step is therefore to confirm the tidal stripping argument for the variable luminosity function. Elson etal (1999) determined HST luminosity functions for several other clusters, and combined them with extant published data. The results are shown in Figure 1 here.

Clear differences between the cluster luminosity functions are evident. To quantify these, and determine any dependance on the Galactic tidal field, the distance of each observed function from the dotted line in Figure 1 was measured. Figure 2 illustrates the clear dependance of this deficit on logarithmic distance from the Galactic plane, which is a measure of the tidal field. The relationship is remarkably good, given that the present position of a cluster is only a single estimate of its full orbital and tidal history. The resulting logarithmic distance dependance is convincing evidence that internal mass segregation and tidal stripping generate the observed differences between cluster luminosity functions. No case is seen in which an excess of low-mass stars is apparent in the data.

That is, to at least first order, the metal poor globular clusters provide evidence for an invariant IMF, which has too few low mass stars to be of relevance to the dark matter problem.

## 3 The IMF in Globular Clusters in other galaxies

The work reviewed above provides clear evidence for an approximately universal IMF at low masses in old galactic globular clusters. Might the IMF change with time? with chemical abundance? with parent galaxy type? To answer these (and related) questions, a large HST study (project 7307, PI: G. Gilmore) is underway, to provide information comparable to that available for Galactic globular clusters on 8 globular clusters in the LMC. These clusters span a much wider range in age and chemical abundance than is available in the Galaxy.

A foretaste of the many results of this study is shown in Figure 3, which presents luminosity functions for 3 LMC clusters, covering a very wide age range. Overplotted are expected luminosity functions for three different IMF slopes. The better fitting slope corresponds to that of the KTG solar neighbourhood function over the relevant mass range.

Even from these preliminary data, it is apparent that the luminosity functions are, to first order, similar to each other and to the luminosity function of the Milky Way Galaxy. That is, there is no clear evidence to support any variability in the IMF in globular clusters as a function of chemical abundance (over a range of 2dex), as a function of time (over a range of 12Gyr), or as a function of location (from old halos to modern disks).

## 4 The IMF of field stars in other galaxies

There is no dark matter in globular clusters. Even so, the common distance and very similar chemical abundances of all their stars makes them the most suitable places where accurate determinations of stellar luminosity functions can be made. What one really would like of course is to know the stellar luminosity function in the field halo, where dark matter is predominant. There the implied mass:light ratios are so high that extreme luminosity functions are required to provide baryonic dark matter.

In the Galactic halo, direct HST searches by many authors all agree on the relevant star count data (see, eg, Gilmore (1997) for a review). The interpretation is also (fairly) common, that direct HST data exclude low mass hydrogen-burning stars as candidates for the dark halo of the Milky Way. Substellar mass objects (brown dwarfs) are excluded by the microlensing data. Given the difficulty in understanding the microlensing data, however, one would like some independent confirmation.

The ideal case is provided by the dSph galaxy UMi. This Milky Way satellite galaxy is sufficiently far from the Sun that all its stars are at essentially the same distance, but close enough for one to see to low masses directly. Its stellar population is approximately a single age and has a narrow chemical abundance range, with both being similar to that of the Galactic globular cluster M92.

Most importantly, UMi has an extremely high mass:light ratio of about 60 (Hargreaves, Gilmore, Irwin & Carter 1994). Thus, any explanation of dark matter involving low-mass stars implies a very steep luminosity function in UMi, compared to M92. This comparison has been made in HST project 7419 (PI: R.F.G. Wyse). Preliminary results, based on a sub-part of the data only, are shown in Figure 4, taken from Feltzing, Gilmore & Wyse (1999). It is evident that the luminosity functions of UMi – perhaps the lowest stellar density system known, and yet with the highest dark-matter dominance – and M92 – among the most dense stellar systems, with no dark matter, are not very different. This provides direct evidence that the stellar luminosity function does not vary between two environments which differ in mass:light ratio by a factor of 30 or so. That is, the stars do not dominate the mass in UMi.

## 5 The Dark Halos of Spiral Galaxies: ISO observations

The strongest direct evidence for local dark-matter dominance is in the outer parts of spiral galaxies, where extended gas rotation curves imply a very extended mass distribution. The various HST studies of field stars, and the gravitational microlensing surveys, study a pencil-beam through this halo in the Milky Way. These observations can be complemented by direct observations of the halos of external galaxies with known rotation curves. In this case, any observation samples a column through the entire dark halo. It is well known that such studies see no extended luminosity, hence the name ‘dark’. However, low mass stars are of very low optical luminosity, so that the direct optical limits are not a strong limit on the mass in such a population.

Low mass hydrogen burning stars are however very red, and relatively luminous in the mid-infrared. The Infrared Space Observatory provided the ideal mid-infrared imaging system, ISOCAM. Gilmore & Unavane (1999) utilised this to observe four edge-on spiral galaxies, and, after considerable data reduction and some modelling described in that reference, were able to derive strict limits excluding hydrogen burning stars of any mass from dominance of the mass in the dark halos of these galaxies. Their results are summarised in Figure 5.

## 6 Summary

Recent HST observations show remarkable evidence that the stellar initial mass function is surprisingly universal. The IMF shows no dependence on chemical abundance over a factor of 100; no dependence on formation epoch, over 12Gyr; no dependence on type or luminosity of parent galaxy; no dependence on local stellar density; no dependence on the total local mass content. To an excellent approximation, any old stellar population has always a mass:light ratio of a few, 2-3 in usual visual light solar units. The observed mass:light ratios of a few tens and higher seen in dwarf galaxies, and outer spiral halos, are not generated by a varying number of low mass stars.

The Gilmore & Unavane ISO results effectively exclude hydrogen-burning stars of any mass from generating the dark matter implied by spiral galaxy rotation curves. Their limits may be combined with those of the microlensing groups studying dark matter in our own Galaxy, which exclude very low mass objects. The resulting limits are combined in Figure 6. Clearly, the mass range which is populated by normal compact baryonic objects does not provide the dark matter in normal galaxies.

## 7 Conclusion

Low mass stars do not provide a substantial part of the answer to the dark matter problem. A large fraction of the total Universal baryon content which is derived from Big Bang nucleosynthesis models is apparently not inside galaxies, or in the identified intra-cluster medium. It is plausibly waiting discovery in the warm Inter-Galactic Medium (IGM). The dark matter content of the Milky Way, and its satellite galaxies, is apparently some other dark stuff. The future is bright for particle physicists.