Abstract
We examine the effects of mass resolution and force softening on the density
profiles of cold dark matter halos that form within cosmological N-body
simulations. As we increase the mass and force resolution, we resolve
progenitor halos that collapse at higher redshifts and have very high
densities. At our highest resolution we have nearly 3 million particles within
the virial radius, several orders of magnitude more than previously used and we
can resolve more than one thousand surviving dark matter halos within this
single virialised system. The halo profiles become steeper in the central
regions and we may not have achieved convergence to a unique slope within the
inner 10% of the virialised region. Results from two very high resolution halo
simulations yield steep inner density profiles, $\rho(r)r^-1.4$. The
abundance and properties of arcs formed within this potential will be different
from calculations based on lower resolution simulations. The kinematics of
disks within such a steep potential may prove problematic for the CDM model
when compared with the observed properties of halos on galactic scales.
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