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1. Orientations of Dark Matter Halos in FIRE-2 Milky Way–mass Galaxies

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acea79  

   Baptista, Jay ; Sanderson, Robyn ; Huber, Dan ; Wetzel, Andrew ; Sameie, Omid ; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael ; Bailin, Jeremy ; Hopkins, Philip F. ; Faucher-Giguere, Claude-André ; Chakrabarti, Sukanya ; et al ( November 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   The shape and orientation of dark matter (DM) halos are sensitive to the microphysics of the DM particles, yet in many mass models, the symmetry axes of the Milky Way’s DM halo are often assumed to be aligned with the symmetry axes of the stellar disk. This is well motivated for the inner DM halo, but not for the outer halo. We use zoomed-in cosmological baryonic simulations from the Latte suite of FIRE-2 Milky Way–mass galaxies to explore the evolution of the DM halo’s orientation with radius and time, with or without a major merger with a Large Magellanic Cloud analog, and when varying the DM model. In three of the four cold DM halos we examine, the orientation of the halo minor axis diverges from the stellar disk vector by more than 20° beyond about 30 galactocentric kpc, reaching a maximum of 30°–90°, depending on the individual halo’s formation history. In identical simulations using a model of self-interacting DM withσ= 1 cm²g⁻¹, the halo remains aligned with the stellar disk out to ∼200–400 kpc. Interactions with massive satellites (M≳ 4 × 10¹⁰M_⊙at pericenter;M≳ 3.3 × 10¹⁰M_⊙at infall) affect the orientation of the halo significantly, aligning the halo’s major axis with the satellite galaxy from the disk to the virial radius. The relative orientation of the halo and disk beyond 30 kpc is a potential diagnostic of self-interacting DM, if the effects of massive satellites can be accounted for.

    

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2. S 5: Probing the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds potentials with the 6D map of the Orphan–Chenab stream

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad551  

   Koposov, Sergey E. ; Erkal, Denis ; Li, Ting S. ; Da Costa, Gary S. ; Cullinane, Lara R. ; Ji, Alexander P. ; Kuehn, Kyler ; Lewis, Geraint F. ; Pace, Andrew B. ; Shipp, Nora ; et al ( February 2023 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   We present a 6D map of the Orphan–Chenab (OC) stream by combining the data from Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S5) and Gaia. We reconstruct the proper motion, radial velocity, distance, on-sky track, and stellar density along the stream with spline models. The stream has a total luminosity of MV = −8.2 and metallicity of [Fe/H] = −1.9, similar to classical Milky Way (MW) satellites like Draco. The stream shows drastic changes in its physical width varying from 200 pc to 1 kpc, but a constant line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 5 $\mathrm{km\, s^{-1}}$. Despite the large apparent variation in the stellar number density along the stream, the flow rate of stars along the stream is remarkably constant. We model the 6D stream track by a Lagrange-point stripping method with a flexible MW potential in the presence of a moving extended Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This allows us to constrain the mass profile of the MW within the distance range 15.6 < r < 55.5 kpc, with the best measured enclosed mass of $(2.85\pm 0.1)\times 10^{11}\, \mathrm{\, M_\odot }$ within 32.4 kpc. Our stream measurements are highly sensitive to the LMC mass profile with the most precise measurement of its enclosed mass made at 32.8 kpc, $(7.02\pm 0.9)\times 10^{10}\, {\rm M}_\odot$. We also detect that the LMC dark matter halo extends to at least 53 kpc. The fitting of the OC stream allows us to constrain the past LMC trajectory and the degree of dynamical friction it experienced. We demonstrate that the stars in the OC stream show large energy and angular momentum spreads caused by LMC perturbation.

    

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3. The Clustering of Orbital Poles Induced by the LMC: Hints for the Origin of Planes of Satellites

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac2c05  

   Garavito-Camargo, Nicolás ; Patel, Ekta ; Besla, Gurtina ; Price-Whelan, Adrian M. ; Gómez, Facundo A. ; Laporte, Chervin F. ; Johnston, Kathryn V. ( December 2021 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract A significant fraction of Milky Way (MW) satellites exhibit phase-space properties consistent with a coherent orbital plane. Using tailored N -body simulations of a spherical MW halo that recently captured a massive (1.8 × 10 11 M ⊙ ) LMC-like satellite, we identify the physical mechanisms that may enhance the clustering of orbital poles of objects orbiting the MW. The LMC deviates the orbital poles of MW dark matter particles from the present-day random distribution. Instead, the orbital poles of particles beyond R ≈ 50 kpc cluster near the present-day orbital pole of the LMC along a sinusoidal pattern across the sky. The density of orbital poles is enhanced near the LMC by a factor δ ρ max = 30% (50%) with respect to underdense regions and δ ρ iso = 15% (30%) relative to the isolated MW simulation (no LMC) between 50 and 150 kpc (150–300 kpc). The clustering appears after the LMC’s pericenter (≈50 Myr ago, 49 kpc) and lasts for at least 1 Gyr. Clustering occurs because of three effects: (1) the LMC shifts the velocity and position of the central density of the MW’s halo and disk; (2) the dark matter dynamical friction wake and collective response induced by the LMC change the kinematics of particles; (3) observations of particles selected within spatial planes suffer from a bias, such that measuring orbital poles in a great circle in the sky enhances the probability of their orbital poles being clustered. This scenario should be ubiquitous in hosts that recently captured a massive satellite (at least ≈1:10 mass ratio), causing the clustering of orbital poles of halo tracers. 

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4. A Comprehensive Perturbative Formalism for Phase Mixing in Perturbed Disks. II. Phase Spirals in an Inhomogeneous Disk Galaxy with a Nonresponsive Dark Matter Halo

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acd641  

   Banik, Uddipan ; van den Bosch, Frank C. ; Weinberg, Martin D. ( July 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We develop a linear perturbative formalism to compute the response of an inhomogeneous stellar disk embedded in a nonresponsive dark matter (DM) halo to various perturbations like bars, spiral arms, and encounters with satellite galaxies. Without self-gravity to reinforce it, the response of a Fourier mode phase mixes away due to an intrinsic spread in the vertical (Ω_z), radial (Ω_r), and azimuthal (Ω_ϕ) frequencies, triggering local phase-space spirals. The detailed galactic potential dictates the shape of phase spirals: phase mixing occurs more slowly and thus phase spirals are more loosely wound in the outer disk and in the presence of an ambient DM halo. Collisional diffusion due to scattering of stars by structures like giant molecular clouds causes superexponential damping of the phase spiral amplitude. Thez–v_zphase spiral is one-armed (two-armed) for vertically antisymmetric (symmetric) bending (breathing) modes. Only transient perturbations with timescales (τ_P) comparable to the vertical oscillation period (τ_z∼ 1/Ω_z) can trigger vertical phase spirals. Each (n,l,m) mode of the response to impulsive (τ_P<τ= 1/(nΩ_z+lΩ_r+mΩ_ϕ)) perturbations is power-law (∼τ_P/τ) suppressed, but that to adiabatic (τ_P>τ) perturbations is exponentially weak ($\sim \exp \left[-{\left({\tau }_{\mathrm{P}}/\tau \right)}^{\alpha }\right]$) except for resonant (τ→ ∞ ) modes. Slower (τ_P>τ_z) perturbations, e.g., distant encounters with satellite galaxies, induce stronger bending modes. Sagittarius (Sgr) dominates the solar neighborhood response of the Milky Way (MW) disk to satellite encounters. Thus, if the Gaia phase spiral was triggered by a MW satellite, Sgr is the leading contender. However, the survival of the phase spiral against collisional damping necessitates an impact ∼0.6–0.7 Gyr ago.

    

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5. Dark and luminous satellites of LMC-mass galaxies in the FIRE simulations

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2457  

   Jahn, Ethan D ; Sales, Laura V ; Wetzel, Andrew ; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael ; Chan, T K ; El-Badry, Kareem ; Lazar, Alexandres ; Bullock, James S ( November 2019 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT Within lambda cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM), dwarf galaxies like the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are expected to host numerous dark matter subhaloes, several of which should host faint dwarf companions. Recent Gaia proper motions confirm new members of the LMC system in addition to the previously known SMC, including two classical dwarf galaxies ($M_\ast$$\gt 10^5$ M$_{\odot }$; Carina and Fornax) as well as several ultrafaint dwarfs (Car2, Car3, Hor1, and Hyd1). We use the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations to study the dark and luminous (down to ultrafaint masses, $M_\ast$$\sim$6$\times 10^ {3}$ M$_{\odot }$) substructure population of isolated LMC-mass hosts ($M_{\text{200m}}$ = 1–3$\times 10^ {11}$ M$_{\odot }$) and place the Gaia  + DES results in a cosmological context. By comparing number counts of subhaloes in simulations with and without baryons, we find that, within 0.2 $r_{\text{200m}}$, LMC-mass hosts deplete $\sim$30 per cent of their substructure, significantly lower than the $\sim$70 per cent of substructure depleted by Milky Way (MW) mass hosts. For our highest resolution runs ($m_\text{bary}$  = 880 M$_{\odot }$), $\sim 5\!-\!10$ subhaloes form galaxies with $M_\ast$$\ge 10^{4}$ M$_{\odot }$ , in agreement with the seven observationally inferred pre-infall LMC companions. However, we find steeper simulated luminosity functions than observed, hinting at observation incompleteness at the faint end. The predicted DM content for classical satellites in FIRE agrees with observed estimates for Carina and Fornax, supporting the case for an LMC association. We predict that tidal stripping within the LMC potential lowers the inner dark matter density of ultrafaint companions of the LMC. Thus, in addition to their orbital consistency, the low densities of dwarfs Car2, Hyd1, and Hyd2 reinforce their likelihood of Magellanic association. 

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