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Register a new userSimulations of the Magellanic Stream in a First Infall Scenario
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Authors
Gurtina Besla
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Recent high precision proper motions from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) suggest that the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively) are either on their first passage or on an eccentric long period (>6 Gyr) orbit about the Milky Way (MW). This differs markedly from the canonical picture in which the Clouds travel on a quasi-periodic orbit about the MW (period of ~2 Gyr). Without a short period orbit about the MW, the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a young (1-2 Gyr old) coherent stream of HI gas that trails the Clouds ~150 degrees across the sky, can no longer be attributed to stripping by MW tides and/or ram pressure stripping by MW halo gas. We propose an alternative formation mechanism in which material is removed by LMC tides acting on the SMC before the system is accreted by the MW. We demonstrate the feasibility and generality of this scenario using an N-body/SPH simulation with cosmologically motivated initial conditions constrained by the observations. Under these conditions we demonstrate that it is possible to explain the origin of the Magellanic Stream in a first infall scenario. This picture is generically applicable to any gas-rich dwarf galaxy pair infalling towards a massive host or interacting in isolation.
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Extending for over 200 degrees across the sky, the Magellanic Stream together with its Leading Arm is the most spectacular example of a gaseous stream in the local Universe. The Stream is an interwoven tail of filaments trailing the Magellanic Clouds as they orbit the Milky Way. Thought to be created by tidal forces, ram pressure, and halo interactions, the Stream is a benchmark for dynamical models of the Magellanic System, a case study for gas accretion and dwarf-galaxy accretion onto galaxies, a probe of the outer halo, and the bearer of more gas mass than all other Galactic high velocity clouds combined. If it survives to reach the Galactic disk, it may maintain or even elevate the Galactic star-formation rate. In this white paper, we emphasize the Streams importance for many areas of Galactic astronomy, summarize key unanswered questions, and identify future observations and simulations needed to resolve them. We stress the importance of ultraviolet, optical, and radio spectroscopy, and the need for computational models that capture full particle and radiation treatments within an MHD environment.
The dominant gaseous structure in the Galactic halo is the Magellanic Stream, an extended network of neutral and ionized filaments surrounding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), the two most massive satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Recent observations indicate that the Clouds are on their first passage around our Galaxy, the Stream is made up of gas stripped from both the LMC and the SMC, and the majority of this gas is ionized. While it has long been suspected that tidal forces and ram-pressure stripping contributed to the Streams formation, a full understanding of its origins has defied modelers for decades. Several recent developments, including the discovery of dwarf galaxies associated with the Magellanic Group, the high mass of the LMC, the detection of highly ionized gas toward stars in the LMC and the predictions of cosmological simulations all support the existence of a halo of warm ionized gas around the LMC at a temperature of $sim5times10^{5};mathrm{K}$. Here we show that by including this Magellanic Corona in hydrodynamic simulations of the Magellanic Clouds falling onto the Galaxy, we can simultaneously reproduce the Stream and its Leading Arm. Our simulations explain the Streams filamentary structure, spatial extent, radial velocity gradient, and total ionized gas mass. We predict that the Magellanic Corona will be unambiguously observable via high-ionization absorption lines in the ultraviolet spectra of background quasars lying near the LMC. This prediction is directly testable with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope.
We present a model for the formation of the Magellanic Stream (MS) due to ram pressure stripping. We model the history of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds in the recent cosmological past in a static Milky Way potential with diffuse halo gas, using observationally motivated orbits for the Magellanic Clouds derived from HST proper motions within the potential of the Milky Way. This model is able to reproduce the trailing arm but does not reproduce the leading arm feature, which is common for models of the stream formation that include ram pressure stripping effects. Our model produces a good match to observations (including the densities and line-of-sight velocities of the stream, as well as the positions and velocities of the satellites at present day) when we include a diffuse halo component for the Milky Way. From analyzing our grid of models, we find that there is a direct correlation between the observed stream length in our simulations and the mass of the Milky Way. For the observed MS length, the inferred Milky Way mass is $1.5 pm 0.3 times 10^{12}$ $M_odot$, which agrees closely with other independent measures of the Milky Way mass. We also discuss the MS in the context of HI streams in galaxy clusters, and find that the MS lies on the low-mass end of a continuum from Hickson groups to the Virgo cluster. As a tracer of the dynamical mass in the outer halo, the MS is a particularly valuable probe of the Milky Ways potential.
The Magellanic Clouds are surrounded by an extended network of gaseous structures. Chief among these is the Magellanic Stream, an interwoven tail of filaments trailing the Clouds in their orbit around the Milky Way. When considered in tandem with its Leading Arm, the Stream stretches over 200 degrees on the sky. Thought to represent the result of tidal interactions between the Clouds and ram-pressure forces exerted by the Galactic corona, its kinematic properties reflect the dynamical history of the closest pair of dwarf galaxies to the Milky Way. The Stream is a benchmark for hydrodynamical simulations of accreting gas and cloud/corona interactions. If the Stream survives these interactions and arrives safely in the Galactic disk, its cargo of over a billion solar masses of gas has the potential to maintain or elevate the Galactic star formation rate. In this article, we review the current state of knowledge of the Stream, including its chemical composition, physical conditions, origin, and fate. We also review the dynamics of the Magellanic System, including the proper motions and orbital history of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the first-passage and second-passage scenarios, and the evidence for a Magellanic Group of galaxies.
We present a study of the discrete clouds and filaments in the Magellanic Stream using a new high-resolution survey of neutral hydrogen (HI) conducted with H75 array of the Australia Telescope Compact Array, complemented by single-dish data from the Parkes Galactic All-Sky Survey (GASS). From the individual and combined datasets, we have compiled a catalog of 251 clouds and list their basic parameters, including a morphological description useful for identifying cloud interactions. We find an unexpectedly large number of head-tail clouds in the region. The implication for the formation mechanism and evolution is discussed. The filaments appear to originate entirely from the Small Magellanic Cloud and extend into the northern end of the Magellanic Bridge.
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