Satellite galaxies are predicted to generate gravitational density wakes as they orbit within the dark matter (DM) halos of their hosts, causing their orbits to decay over time. The recent infall of ...the Milky Way's (MW) most massive satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), affords us the unique opportunity to study this process in action. In this work, we present high-resolution (mdm = 4 × 104M ) N-body simulations of the MW-LMC interaction over the past 2 Gyr. We quantify the impact of the LMC's passage on the density and kinematics of the MW's DM halo and the observability of these structures in the MW's stellar halo. The LMC is found to generate a pronounced wake, which we decompose in Transient and Collective responses, in both the DM and stellar halos. The wake leads to overdensities and distinct kinematic patterns that should be observable with ongoing and future surveys. Specifically, the Collective response will result in redshifted radial velocities of stars in the north and blueshifts in the south, at distances >45 kpc. The Transient response traces the orbital path of the LMC through the halo (50-200 kpc), resulting in a stellar overdensity with a distinct, tangential kinematic pattern that persists to the present day. The detection of the MW's halo response will constrain the infall mass of the LMC, its orbital trajectory, and the mass of the MW, and it may inform us about the nature of the DM particle itself.
ABSTRACT
We analyse an N-body simulation of the interaction of the Milky Way (MW) with a Sagittarius-like dSph (Sgr), looking for signatures which may be attributed to its orbital history in the ...phase space volume around the Sun in light of Gaia DR2 discoveries. The repeated impacts of Sgr excite coupled vertical and radial oscillations in the disc which qualitatively, and to a large degree quantitatively are able to reproduce many features in the 6D Gaia DR2 samples, from the median VR, Vϕ, V$z$ velocity maps to the local δρ($v$$z$, $z$) phase-space spiral which is a manifestation of the global disc response to coupled oscillations within a given volume. The patterns in the large-scale velocity field are well described by tightly wound spirals and vertical corrugations excited from Sgr’s impacts. We show that the last pericentric passage of Sgr resets the formation of the local present-day δρ($v$$z$, $z$) spiral and situate its formation around 500-800 Myr. As expected δρ(vz, $z$) grows in size and decreases in woundedness as a function of radius in both the Gaia DR2 data and simulations. This is the first N-body model able to explain so many of the features in the data on different scales. We demonstrate how to use the full extent of the Galactic disc to date perturbations dating from Myr to Gyr, probe the underlying potential and constrain the mass-loss history of Sgr. δρ(vz, $z$) looks the same in all stellar populations age bins down to the youngest ages which rules out a bar buckling origin.
Abstract
Indications of disequilibrium throughout the Milky Way (MW) highlight the need for compact, flexible, non-parametric descriptions of phase–space distributions of galaxies. We present a new ...representation of the current dark matter (DM) distribution and potential derived from
N
-body simulations of the MW and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) system using basis function expansions (BFEs). We incorporate methods to maximize the physical signal in the representation. As a result, the simulations of 10
8
DM particles representing the distorted MW(MW+LMC) system can be described by ∼236(2067) coefficients. We find that the LMC induces asymmetric perturbations (odd
l, m
) to the MW’s halo, which are inconsistent with oblate, prolate, or triaxial halos. Furthermore, the energy in high order even modes (
l
,
m
> 2) is similar to average triaxial halos found in cosmological simulations. As such, the response of the MW’s halo to the LMC must be accounted for in order to recover the imprints of its assembly history. The LMC causes the outer halo (>30 kpc) to shift from the disk center of mass (COM) by ∼15–25 kpc at present day, manifesting as a dipole in the BFE and in the radial velocities of halo stars. The shift depends on the LMC’s infall mass, the distortion of the LMC’s halo and the MW halo response.Within 30 kpc, halo tracers are expected to orbit the COM of the MW’s disk, regardless of LMC infall mass. The LMC’s halo is also distorted by MW tides; we discuss the implications for its mass loss and the subsequent effects on current Magellanic satellites.
In a companion paper by Koposov et al., RR Lyrae from Gaia Data Release 2 are used to demonstrate that stars in the Orphan stream have velocity vectors significantly misaligned with the stream track, ...suggesting that it has received a large gravitational perturbation from a satellite of the Milky Way. We argue that such a mismatch cannot arise due to any realistic static Milky Way potential and then explore the perturbative effects of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We find that the LMC can produce precisely, the observed motion-track mismatch and we therefore use the Orphan stream to measure the mass of the Cloud. We simultaneously fit the Milky Way and LMC potentials and infer that a total LMC mass of |$1.38^{+0.27}_{-0.24} \times 10^{11}\, \rm {M_\odot}$| is required to bend the Orphan stream, showing for the first time that the LMC has a large and measurable effect on structures orbiting the Milky Way. This has far-reaching consequences for any technique which assumes that tracers are orbiting a static Milky Way. Furthermore, we measure the Milky Way mass within 50 kpc to be |$3.80^{+0.14}_{-0.11}\times 10^{11} \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$|. Finally, we use these results to predict that, due to the reflex motion of the Milky Way in response to the LMC, the outskirts of the Milky Way’s stellar halo should exhibit a bulk, upwards motion.
We present cosmological N-body resimulations of the assembly of the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in rich clusters. At z = 2, we populate dark matter subhaloes with self-gravitating stellar ...systems whose abundance and structure match observed high-redshift galaxies. By z = 0, mergers have built much larger galaxies at cluster centre. Their dark matter density profiles are shallower than in corresponding dark-matter-only simulations, but their total mass density profiles (stars + dark matter) are quite similar. Differences are found only at radii where the effects of central black holes may be significant. Dark matter density slopes shallower than γ = 1.0 occur for r/r
200 < 0.015, close to the half-light radii of the BCGs. Our experiments support earlier suggestions that NFW-like profiles are an attractor for the hierarchical growth of structure in collisionless systems – total mass density profiles asymptote to the solution found in dark-matter-only simulations over the radial range where mergers produce significant mixing between stars and dark matter. Simulated dark matter fractions are substantially higher in BCGs than in field ellipticals, reaching 80 per cent within the half-light radius. We also estimate that supermassive black hole mergers should create BCG cores as large as r
c ∼ 3 kpc. The good agreement of all these properties with recent observational studies of BCG structure suggests that dissipational processes have not played a dominant role in the assembly of the observed systems.
Abstract
We use astrometry, broad-band photometry, and variability information from the Data Release 2 of ESA’s Gaia mission (GDR2) to identify members of the Orphan Stream (OS) across the whole sky. ...The stream is traced above and below the celestial equator and in both Galactic hemispheres, thus increasing its visible length to ∼210° equivalent to ∼150 kpc in physical extent. Taking advantage of the large number of RR Lyrae stars in the OS, we extract accurate distances and proper motions across the entire stretch of the tidal debris studied. As delineated by the GDR2 RR Lyrae, the stream exhibits two prominent twists in its shape on the sky which are accompanied by changes in the tangential motion. We complement the RR Lyrae maps with those created using GDR2 Red Giants and the DECam Legacy Survey Main Sequence Turn-Off stars. The behaviour of the OS track on the sky is consistent across all three tracers employed. We detect a strong non-zero motion in the across-stream direction for a substantial portion of the stream. Such a misalignment between the debris track and the streaming velocity cannot be reproduced in a static gravitational potential and signals an interaction with a massive perturber.
We study the formation and evolution of brightest cluster galaxies starting from a z = 2 population of quiescent ellipticals and following them to z = 0. To this end, we use a suite of nine ...high-resolution dark matter only simulations of galaxy clusters in a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) universe. We develop a scheme in which simulation particles are weighted to generate realistic and dynamically stable stellar density profiles at z = 2. Our initial conditions assign a stellar mass to every identified dark halo as expected from abundance matching; assuming that there exists a one-to-one relation between the visible properties of galaxies and their host haloes. We set the sizes of the luminous components according to the observed relations for z ∼ 2 massive quiescent galaxies. We study the evolution of the mass-size relation, the fate of satellite galaxies and the mass aggregation of the cluster central. From z = 2, these galaxies grow on average in size by a factor of 5 to 10 and in galaxy mass by 2 to 3. The stellar mass of our simulated BCGs grow by a factor of ∼2.1 in the range 0.3 < z < 1.0, consistent with observations, and by a factor of ∼1.4 in the range 0.0 < z < 0.3. Furthermore, the non-central galaxies evolve on to the present-day mass-size relation by z = 0. Assuming passively evolving stellar populations, we present surface brightness profiles for our cluster centrals which resemble those observed for the cDs in similar mass clusters both at z = 0 and at z = 1. This demonstrates that the ΛCDM cosmology does indeed predict minor and major mergers to occur in galaxy clusters with the frequency and mass ratio distribution required to explain the observed growth in size of passive galaxies since z = 2. Our experiment shows that brightest cluster galaxies could, in principle, form through dissipationless mergers of quiescent massive z = 2 galaxies, without substantial additional star formation.
Abstract
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) will induce a dynamical friction (DF) wake on infall to the Milky Way (MW). The MW’s stellar halo will respond to the gravity of the LMC and the dark matter ...(DM) wake, forming a stellar counterpart to the DM wake. This provides a novel opportunity to constrain the properties of the DM particle. We present a suite of high-resolution, windtunnel-style simulations of the LMC's DF wake that compare the structure, kinematics, and stellar tracer response of the DM wake in cold DM (CDM), with and without self-gravity, versus fuzzy DM (FDM) with
m
a
= 10
−23
eV. We conclude that the self-gravity of the DM wake cannot be ignored. Its inclusion raises the wake’s density by ∼10%, and holds the wake together over larger distances (∼50 kpc) than if self-gravity is ignored. The DM wake’s mass is comparable to the LMC’s infall mass, meaning the DM wake is a significant perturber to the dynamics of MW halo tracers. An FDM wake is more granular in structure and is ∼20% dynamically colder than a CDM wake, but with comparable density. The granularity of an FDM wake increases the stars’ kinematic response at the percent level compared to CDM, providing a possible avenue of distinguishing a CDM versus FDM wake. This underscores the need for kinematic measurements of stars in the stellar halo at distances of 70–100 kpc.
ABSTRACT
We study the late-time evolution of the central regions of two Milky Way (MW)-like simulations of galaxies formed in a cosmological context, one hosting a fast bar and the other a slow one. ...We find that bar length, Rb, measurements fluctuate on a dynamical time-scale by up to 100 per cent, depending on the spiral structure strength and measurement threshold. The bar amplitude oscillates by about 15 per cent, correlating with Rb. The Tremaine–Weinberg method estimates of the bars’ instantaneous pattern speeds show variations around the mean of up to $\sim \!20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, typically anticorrelating with the bar length and strength. Through power spectrum analyses, we establish that these bar pulsations, with a period in the range ∼60–200 Myr, result from its interaction with multiple spiral modes, which are coupled with the bar. Because of the presence of odd spiral modes, the two bar halves typically do not connect at exactly the same time to a spiral arm, and their individual lengths can be significantly offset. We estimated that in about 50 per cent of bar measurements in MW-mass external galaxies, the bar lengths of SBab-type galaxies are overestimated by $\sim \!15{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ and those of SBbc types by $\sim \!55{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. Consequently, bars longer than their corotation radius reported in the literature, dubbed ‘ultrafast bars’, may simply correspond to the largest biases. Given that the Scutum–Centaurus arm is likely connected to the near half of the MW bar, recent direct measurements may be overestimating its length by 1–1.5 kpc, while its present pattern speed may be 5–10 $\rm km\ s^{-1}\ kpc^{-1}$ smaller than its time-averaged value.
We provide an updated assessment of the power of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to search for thermally produced dark matter at the TeV scale, via the associated gamma-ray signal from ...pair-annihilating dark matter particles in the region around the Galactic centre. We find that CTA will open a new window of discovery potential, significantly extending the range of robustly testable models given a standard cuspy profile of the dark matter density distribution. Importantly, even for a cored profile, the projected sensitivity of CTA will be sufficient to probe various well-motivated models of thermally produced dark matter at the TeV scale. This is due to CTA's unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolutions, and the planned observational strategy. The survey of the inner Galaxy will cover a much larger region than corresponding previous observational campaigns with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. CTA will map with unprecedented precision the large-scale diffuse emission in high-energy gamma rays, constituting a background for dark matter searches for which we adopt state-of-the-art models based on current data. Throughout our analysis, we use up-to-date event reconstruction Monte Carlo tools developed by the CTA consortium, and pay special attention to quantifying the level of instrumental systematic uncertainties, as well as background template systematic errors, required to probe thermally produced dark matter at these energies.
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