We show that the observed luminosity function, radial distribution and
velocity dispersion distribution of the very faint Milky Way satellites
can be quantitatively well matched by predictions from cosmological
simulations that are based on a canonical population of dark matter
sub-halos, if the stellar content of these sub-halos is regulated by the
suppression of gas cooling through photo-heating after re-ionization.
While this approach to resolving the 'missing satellite' discrepancy has
been well established qualitatively, recent developments have permitted a
considerably more quantitative and rigorous treatment: the census of Milky
Way satellite galaxies has recently been greatly expanded with discoveries
of many new satellites, some nearly 100-times fainter than the previously
known ones. They have all been characterized photometrically and stellar
velocity dispersions exist for most. A recent quantification of SDSS's
efficiency and limitations in finding these new objects has shown that for
most of them the maximal volume in which they could have been found is
much smaller than the 'virial volume' of the MW halo. Starting with a
semi-analytic model for the population of dark matter sub-halos, we model
their possible stellar content by applying previously published
prescriptions about star-formation efficiencies before and after
re-ionization and by presuming that star-formation seizes once the small
halos become satellites. We then apply the known observational detection
function to this set of mock Milky Way satellites and compare them to the
observations. Within these detection limitations the observed luminosity
distribution can also be well matched over $Delta$MV approx 10 for
plausible choices of the star-formation suppression. The distribution of
stellar velocity dispersions can be well matched too. This present
approach appears to be the first successful attempt at modeling the
apparent number discrepancy between expected sub-halos and satellite
galaxies, with such quantitative detail and with a rigorous accounting of
the observational selection effects.
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