2015ApJ...810...99R

The cold dark matter (CDM) model has two unsolved issues: simulations overpredict the satellite abundance around the Milky Way (MW) and it disagrees with observations of the central densities of dwarf galaxies which prefer constant density (core) profiles. One alternative explanation known as the scalar field dark matter (SFDM) model, assumes that dark matter is a scalar field of mass (∼10^–22 eV/c²); this model can reduce the overabundance issue due to the lack of halo formation below a mass scale of ∼10⁸M_☉ and successfully fits the density distribution in dwarfs. One of the attractive features of the model is predicting core profiles in halos, although the determination of the core sizes is set by fitting the observational data. We perform N-body simulations to explore the influence of tidal forces over a stellar distribution embedded in an SFDM halo orbiting a MW-like SFDM host halo with a disk. Our simulations intend to test the viability of SFDM as an alternative model by comparing the tidal effects that result in this paradigm with those obtained in the CDM for similar mass halos. We found that galaxies in subhalos with core profiles and high central densities survive for 10 Gyr. The same occurs for galaxies in low density subhalos located far from the host disk influence, whereas satellites in low density DM halos and in tight orbits can eventually be stripped of stars. We conclude that SFDM shows consistency with results from the CDM for dwarf galaxies, but naturally offer a possibility to solve the missing satellite problem.