Constraining the shape of dark matter haloes using only starlight

We present a new technique to constrain the gravitational potential of a galaxy from the observed stellar mass surface density alone under a number of assumptions. It uses the classical Eddington inversion method to compute the phase-space distribution function (DF) needed for stars to reside in a given gravitational potential. In essence, each potential defines a set of density profiles, and it is the expansion of the observed profile in this database that provides the DF. If the required DF becomes negative, then the potential is inconsistent with the observed stars and can be discarded. It is particularly well suited for analyzing low-mass low surface brightness galaxies, where photometric but not spectroscopic data can be obtained. The recently discovered low surface brightness galaxy Nube was used to showcase its application. For Nube’s observed stellar core to be reproduced with a non-negative DF, cuspy NFW (Navarro, Frenk, and White) potentials are highly disfavored compared with potentials that have cores (Schuster-Plummer or ρ230). The method assumes the stellar system to have spherical symmetry and isotropic velocity distribution; however, we discuss simple extensions that relax the need for isotropy and may help to drop the spherical symmetry assumption.