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Paper: Heating of Galaxy Disks by Dark Satellites
Volume: 327, Satellites and Tidal Streams
Page: 125
Authors: Benson, A.J.; Lacey, C.G.; Frenk, C.S.; Cole, S.; Baugh, C.M.
Abstract: We develop an analytic model to calculate the rate at which galaxy disks are heated by dark matter substructures orbiting in their halos. Applying these calculations within a model for the growth of disk galaxies in a Λ-dominated cold dark matter universe, we predict the distribution of disk scale heights, and find that 25% of bright galaxies should have a scale height in excess of 10% of their radial scale length (the height corresponding to the Milky Way's thin disk), if substructure is the only source of heating. Including the heating due to gravitational scattering of stars by molecular clouds increases this fraction to 63%.
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