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Understanding the evolution of satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW) and M31 requires modelling their orbital histories across cosmic time. Many works that model satellite orbits incorrectly assume or approximate that the host halo gravitational potential is fixed in time and is spherically symmetric or axisymmetric. We rigorously benchmark the accuracy of such models against the FIRE-2 cosmological baryonic simulations of MW/M31-mass haloes. When a typical surviving satellite fell in ($3.4\!-\!9.7\, \rm {Gyr}$ ago), the host halo mass and radius were typically 26–86 per cent of their values today, respectively. Most of this mass growth of the host occurred at small distances, $r\lesssim 50\, \rm {kpc}$, opposite to dark matter only simulations, which experience almost no growth at small radii. We fit a near-exact axisymmetric gravitational potential to each host at z = 0 and backward integrate the orbits of satellites in this static potential, comparing against the true orbit histories in the simulations. Orbital energy and angular momentum are not well conserved throughout an orbital history, varying by 25 per cent from their current values already $1.6\!-\!4.7\, \rm {Gyr}$ ago. Most orbital properties are minimally biased, ≲10 per cent, when averaged across the satellite population as a whole. However, for a single satellite, the uncertainties are large: recent orbital properties, like the most recent pericentre distance, typically are ≈20 per cent uncertain, while earlier events, like the minimum pericentre or the infall time, are ≈40–80 per cent uncertain. Furthermore, these biases and uncertainties are lower limits, given that we use near-exact host mass profiles at z = 0.

 

The dwarf galaxy Triangulum (M33) presents an interesting testbed for studying stellar halo formation: it is sufficiently massive so as to have likely accreted smaller satellites, but also lies within the regime where feedback and other “in situ” formation mechanisms are expected to play a role. In this work, we analyze the line-of-sight kinematics of stars across M33 from the TREX survey, with a view to understanding the origin of its halo. We split our sample into two broad populations of varying age, comprising 2032 “old” red giant branch stars and 671 “intermediate-age” asymptotic giant branch and carbon stars. We find decisive evidence for two distinct kinematic components in both the old and intermediate-age populations: a low-dispersion (∼22 km s⁻¹) disk-like component corotating with M33's Higas and a significantly higher-dispersion component (∼50–60 km s⁻¹) that does not rotate in the same plane as the gas and is thus interpreted as M33's stellar halo. While kinematically similar, the fraction of stars associated with the halo component differs significantly between the two populations: this is consistently ∼10% for the intermediate-age population, but decreases from ∼34% to ∼10% as a function of radius for the old population. We additionally find evidence that the intermediate-age halo population is systematically offset from the systemic velocity of M33 by ∼25 km s⁻¹, with a preferred central LOS velocity of ∼ − 155 km s⁻¹. This is the first detection and characterization of an intermediate-age halo in M33, and suggests in situ formation mechanisms, as well as potentially tidal interactions, have helped shaped it.

 

The orbits of satellite galaxies encode rich information about their histories. We investigate the orbital dynamics and histories of satellite galaxies around Milky Way (MW)-mass host galaxies using the FIRE-2 cosmological simulations, which, as previous works have shown, produce satellite mass functions and spatial distributions that broadly agree with observations. We first examine trends in orbital dynamics at z = 0, including total velocity, specific angular momentum, and specific total energy: the time of infall into the MW-mass halo primarily determines these orbital properties. We then examine orbital histories, focusing on the lookback time of first infall into a host halo and pericentre distances, times, and counts. Roughly 37 per cent of galaxies with $M_{\rm star}\lesssim 10^7\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$ were ‘pre-processed’ as a satellite in a lower-mass group, typically $\approx 2.7\, {\rm Gyr}$ before falling into the MW-mass halo. Half of all satellites at z = 0 experienced multiple pericentres about their MW-mass host. Remarkably, for most (67 per cent) of these satellites, their most recent pericentre was not their minimum pericentre: the minimum typically was ∼40 per cent smaller and occurred $\sim 6\, {\rm Gyr}$ earlier. These satellites with growing pericentres appear to have multiple origins: for about half, their specific angular momentum gradually increased over time, while for the other half, most rapidly increased near their first apocentre, suggesting that a combination of a time-dependent MW-mass halo potential and dynamical perturbations in the outer halo caused these satellites’ pericentres to grow. Our results highlight the limitations of idealized, static orbit modelling, especially for pericentre histories.

 

We report the discovery of an ultrafaint dwarf in the constellation of Pegasus. Pegasus V (Peg V)/Andromeda XXXIV was initially identified in the public imaging data release of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and confirmed with deep imaging from Gemini/GMOS-N. The colour–magnitude diagram shows a sparse red giant branch (RGB) population and a strong overdensity of blue horizontal branch stars. We measure a distance to Peg V of $D=692^{+33}_{-31}$ kpc, making it a distant satellite of Andromeda with MV = −6.3 ± 0.2 and a half-light radius of rhalf = 89 ± 41 pc. It is located ∼260 kpc from Andromeda in the outskirts of its halo. The RGB is well fitted by a metal-poor isochrone with [Fe/H] = −3.2, suggesting it is very metal poor. This, combined with its blue horizontal branch, could imply that it is a reionization fossil. This is the first detection of an ultrafaint dwarf outside the deep Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey area, and points to a rich, faint satellite population in the outskirts of our nearest neighbour.

 

The star formation and gas content of satellite galaxies around the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) are depleted relative to more isolated galaxies in the Local Group (LG) at fixed stellar mass. We explore the environmental regulation of gas content and quenching of star formation in z = 0 galaxies at $M_{*}=10^{5\!-\!10}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$ around 14 MW-mass hosts from the Feedback In Realistic Environments 2 (FIRE-2) simulations. Lower mass satellites ($M_{*}\lesssim 10^7\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) are mostly quiescent and higher mass satellites ($M_{*}\gtrsim 10^8\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) are mostly star forming, with intermediate-mass satellites ($M_{*}\approx 10^{7\!-\!8}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$) split roughly equally between quiescent and star forming. Hosts with more gas in their circumgalactic medium have a higher quiescent fraction of massive satellites ($M_{*}=10^{8\!-\!9}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$). We find no significant dependence on isolated versus paired (LG-like) host environments, and the quiescent fractions of satellites around MW-mass and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)-mass hosts from the FIRE-2 simulations are remarkably similar. Environmental effects that lead to quenching can also occur as pre-processing in low-mass groups prior to MW infall. Lower mass satellites typically quenched before MW infall as central galaxies or rapidly during infall into a low-mass group or a MW-mass galaxy. Most intermediate- to high-mass quiescent satellites have experienced ≥1–2 pericentre passages (≈2.5–5 Gyr) within a MW-mass halo. Most galaxies with $M_{*}\gtrsim 10^{6.5}\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$ did not quench before falling into a host, indicating a possible upper mass limit for isolated quenching. The simulations reproduce the average trend in the LG quiescent fraction across the full range of satellite stellar masses. Though the simulations are consistent with the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) survey’s quiescent fraction at $M_{*}\gtrsim 10^8\, \rm {M}_{\odot }$, they do not generally reproduce SAGA’s turnover at lower masses.

 

We introduce the DESI LOW-ZSecondary Target Survey, which combines the wide-area capabilities of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) with an efficient, low-redshift target selection method. Our selection consists of a set of color and surface brightness cuts, combined with modern machine-learning methods, to target low-redshift dwarf galaxies (z< 0.03) between 19 <r< 21 with high completeness. We employ a convolutional neural network (CNN) to select high-priority targets. The LOW-Zsurvey has already obtained over 22,000 redshifts of dwarf galaxies (M_*< 10⁹M_⊙), comparable to the number of dwarf galaxies discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR8 and GAMA. As a spare fiber survey, LOW-Zcurrently receives fiber allocation for just ∼50% of its targets. However, we estimate that our selection is highly complete: for galaxies atz< 0.03 within our magnitude limits, we achieve better than 95% completeness with ∼1% efficiency using catalog-level photometric cuts. We also demonstrate that our CNN selectionsz< 0.03 galaxies from the photometric cuts subsample at least 10 times more efficiently while maintaining high completeness. The full 5 yr DESI program will expand the LOW-Zsample, densely mapping the low-redshift Universe, providing an unprecedented sample of dwarf galaxies, and providing critical information about how to pursue effective and efficient low-redshift surveys.

 

ABSTRACT We examine the prevalence, longevity, and causes of planes of satellite dwarf galaxies, as observed in the Local Group. We use 14 Milky Way/Andromeda-(MW/M31) mass host galaxies from the Feedback In Realistic Environments-2 simulations. We select the 14 most massive satellites by stellar mass within $d_\mathrm{host}\le 300\mathrm{\, kpc}$ of each host and correct for incompleteness from the foreground galactic disc when comparing to the MW. We find that MW-like planes as spatially thin and/or kinematically coherent as observed are uncommon, but they do exist in our simulations. Spatially thin planes occur in 1–2 per cent of snapshots during z = 0−0.2, and kinematically coherent planes occur in 5 per cent of snapshots. These planes are generally transient, surviving for <500 Myr. However, if we select hosts with a Large Magellanic Cloud-like satellite near first pericentre, the fraction of snapshots with MW-like planes increases dramatically to 7–16 per cent, with lifetimes of  0.7–1 Gyr, likely because of group accretion of satellites. We find that M31’s satellite distribution is much more common: M31’s satellites lie within ∼1σ of the simulation median for every plane metric we consider. We find no significant difference in average satellite planarity for isolated hosts versus hosts in LG-like pairs. Baryonic and dark matter-only simulations exhibit similar levels of planarity, even though baryonic subhaloes are less centrally concentrated within their host haloes. We conclude that planes of satellites are not a strong challenge to ΛCDM cosmology. 

We present initial results from a large spectroscopic survey of stars throughout M33's stellar disk. We analyze a sample of 1667 red giant branch (RGB) stars extending to projected distances of ∼11 kpc from M33's center (∼18 kpc, or ∼10 scale lengths, in the plane of the disk). The line-of-sight velocities of RGB stars show the presence of two kinematical components. One component is consistent with rotation in the plane of M33's Hidisk and has a velocity dispersion (∼19 km s⁻¹), consistent with that observed in a comparison sample of younger stars, while the second component has a significantly higher velocity dispersion. A two-component fit to the RGB velocity distribution finds that the high-dispersion component has a velocity dispersion of${59.3}_{-2.5}^{+2.6}$km s⁻¹and rotates very slowly in the plane of the disk (consistent with no rotation at the <1.5σlevel), which favors interpreting it as a stellar halo rather than a thick disk population. A spatial analysis indicates that the fraction of RGB stars in the high-velocity-dispersion component decreases with increasing radius over the range covered by the spectroscopic sample. Our spectroscopic sample establishes that a significant high-velocity-dispersion component is present in M33's RGB population from near M33's center to at least the radius where M33's Hidisk begins to warp at 30′ (∼7.5 kpc) in the plane of the disk. This is the first detection and spatial characterization of a kinematically hot stellar component throughout M33's inner regions.

 

Abstract We measure homogeneous distances to M31 and 38 associated stellar systems (−16.8 ≤ M V ≤ −6.0), using time-series observations of RR Lyrae stars taken as part of the Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Survey of M31 Satellites. From >700 orbits of new/archival Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging, we identify >4700 RR Lyrae stars and determine their periods and mean magnitudes to a typical precision of 0.01 day and 0.04 mag. Based on period–Wesenheit–metallicity relationships consistent with the Gaia eDR3 distance scale, we uniformly measure heliocentric and M31-centric distances to a typical precision of ∼20 kpc (3%) and ∼10 kpc (8%), respectively. We revise the 3D structure of the M31 galactic ecosystem and: (i) confirm a highly anisotropic spatial distribution such that ∼80% of M31's satellites reside on the near side of M31; this feature is not easily explained by observational effects; (ii) affirm the thin (rms 7–23 kpc) planar “arc” of satellites that comprises roughly half (15) of the galaxies within 300 kpc from M31; (iii) reassess the physical proximity of notable associations such as the NGC 147/185 pair and M33/AND xxii ; and (iv) illustrate challenges in tip-of-the-red-giant branch distances for galaxies with M V > − 9.5, which can be biased by up to 35%. We emphasize the importance of RR Lyrae for accurate distances to faint galaxies that should be discovered by upcoming facilities (e.g., Rubin Observatory). We provide updated luminosities and sizes for our sample. Our distances will serve as the basis for future investigation of the star formation and orbital histories of the entire known M31 satellite system.