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Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) are commonly found in close proximity to the Milky Way and other massive spiral galaxies. As such, their projected stellar ellipticity and extended light distributions are often thought to owe to tidal forces. In this paper, we study the projected stellar ellipticities and faint stellar outskirts of tidally isolated ultra-faints drawn from the 'Engineering Dwarfs at Galaxy Formation's Edge' (EDGE) cosmological simulation suite. Despite their tidal isolation, our simulated dwarfs exhibit a wide range of projected ellipticities (0.03 < ε < 0.85), with many possessing anisotropic extended stellar haloes that mimic tidal tails, but owe instead to late-time accretion of lower mass companions. Furthermore, we find a strong causal relationship between ellipticity and formation time of a UFD, which is robust to a wide variation in the feedback model. We show that the distribution of projected ellipticities in our suite of simulated EDGE dwarfs matches well with a sample of 19 Local Group dwarf galaxies and a sample of 11 isolated dwarf galaxies. Given ellipticity in EDGE arises from an ex-situ accretion origin, the agreement in shape indicates the ellipticities of some observed dwarfs may also originate from a non-tidal scenario. The orbital parameters of these observed dwarfs further support that they are not currently tidally disrupting. If the baryonic content in these galaxies is still tidally intact, then the same may be true for their dark matter content, making these galaxies in our Local Group pristine laboratories for testing dark matter and galaxy formation models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (NSC) to test the existence of a dark matter 'soliton core', as predicted in ultra-light dark matter (ULDM) models. Since the soliton core size is proportional to |$m_{\rm DM}^{-1}$|⁠ , while the core density grows as |$m_{\rm DM}^{2}$|⁠ , the NSC (dominant stellar component within ∼3 pc) is sensitive to a specific window in the dark matter particle mass, m DM. We apply a spherical isotropic Jeans model to fit the NSC line-of-sight velocity dispersion data, assuming priors on the precisely measured Milky Way's supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the well-measured NSC density profile. We find that the current observational data reject the existence of a soliton core for a single ULDM particle with mass in the range 10−20.4 eV ≲ m DM ≲ 10−18.5 eV, assuming that the soliton core structure is not affected by the Milky Way's SMBH. We test our methodology on mock data, confirming that we are sensitive to the same range in ULDM mass as for the real data. Dynamical modelling of a larger region of the Galactic centre, including the nuclear stellar disc, promises tighter constraints over a broader range of m DM. We will consider this in future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the cosmological zoom simulation VINTERGATAN, we present a new scenario for the onset of star formation at the metal-poor end of the low-[α/Fe] sequence in a Milky Way-like galaxy. In this scenario, the galaxy is fuelled by two distinct gas flows. One is enriched by outflows from massive galaxies, but not the other. While the former feeds the inner galactic region, the latter fuels an outer gas disc, inclined with respect to the main galactic plane, and with a significantly poorer chemical content. The first passage of the last major merger galaxy triggers tidal compression in the outer disc, which increases the gas density and eventually leads to star formation, at a metallicity 0.75 dex lower than the inner galaxy. This forms the first stars of the low-[α/Fe] sequence. These in situ stars have halo-like kinematics, similar to what is observed in the Milky Way, due to the inclination of the outer disc that eventually aligns with the inner one via gravitational torques. We show that this tilting disc scenario is likely to be common in Milky Way-like galaxies. This process implies that the low-[α/Fe] sequence is populated in situ , simultaneously from two formation channels, in the inner and the outer galaxy, with distinct metallicities. This contrasts with purely sequential scenarios for the assembly of the Milky Way disc and could be tested observationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way's stars have revealed spatial, chemical, and kinematical structures that encode its history. In this work, we study their origins using a cosmological zoom simulation, VINTERGATAN, of a Milky Way-mass disc galaxy. We find that in connection to the last major merger at z ∼ 1.5, cosmological accretion leads to the rapid formation of an outer, metal-poor, low-[α/Fe] gas disc around the inner, metal-rich galaxy containing the old high-[α/Fe] stars. This event leads to a bimodality in [α/Fe] over a range of [Fe/H]. A detailed analysis of how the galaxy evolves since z ∼ 1 is presented. We demonstrate the way in which inside-out growth shapes the radial surface density and metallicity profile and how radial migration preferentially relocates stars from the inner disc to the outer disc. Secular disc heating is found to give rise to increasing velocity dispersions and scale heights with stellar age, which together with disc flaring explains several trends observed in the Milky Way, including shallower radial [Fe/H] profiles above the mid-plane. We show how the galaxy formation scenario imprints non-trivial mappings between structural associations (i.e. thick and thin discs), velocity dispersions, α-enhancements, and ages of stars; e.g. the most metal-poor stars in the low-[α/Fe] sequence are found to have a scale height comparable to old high-[α/Fe] stars. Finally, we illustrate how at low spatial resolution, comparable to the thickness of the galaxy, the proposed pathway to distinct sequences in [α/Fe]–[Fe/H] cannot be captured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the VINTERGATAN cosmological zoom simulation, we explore the contributions of the in situ and accreted material, and the effect of galaxy interactions and mergers in the assembly of a Milky Way-like galaxy. We find that the initial growth phase of galaxy evolution, dominated by repeated major mergers, provides the necessary physical conditions for the assembly of a thick, kinematically hot disc populated by high-[α/Fe] stars, formed both in situ and in accreted satellite galaxies. We find that the diversity of evolutionary tracks followed by the simulated galaxy and its progenitors leads to very little overlap of the in situ and accreted populations for any given chemical composition. At a given age, the spread in [α/Fe] abundance ratio results from the diversity of physical conditions in VINTERGATAN and its satellites, with an enhancement in [α/Fe] found in stars formed during starburst episodes. Later, the cessation of the merger activity promotes the in situ formation of stars in the low-[α/Fe] regime, in a radially extended, thin and overall kinematically colder disc, thus establishing chemically bimodal thin and thick discs, in line with observations. We draw links between notable features in the [Fe/H]-[α/Fe] plane with their physical causes, and propose a comprehensive formation scenario explaining self-consistently, in the cosmological context, the main observed properties of the Milky Way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their close proximity, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC) provide natural laboratories for understanding how galaxies form and evolve. With the goal of determining the structure and dynamical state of the SMC, we present new spectroscopic data for ∼3000 SMC red giant branch stars observed using the AAOmega spectrograph at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We complement our data with further spectroscopic measurements from previous studies that used the same instrumental configuration as well as proper motions from the Gaia Data Release 2 catalogue. Analysing the photometric and stellar kinematic data, we find that the SMC centre of mass presents a conspicuous offset from the velocity centre of its associated H  i gas, suggesting that the SMC gas is likely to be far from dynamical equilibrium. Furthermore, we find evidence that the SMC is currently undergoing tidal disruption by the LMC within 2 kpc of the centre of the SMC, and possibly all the way into the very core. This is revealed by a net outward motion of stars from the SMC centre along the direction towards the LMC and an apparent tangential anisotropy at all radii. The latter is expected if the SMC is undergoing significant tidal stripping, as we demonstrate using a suite of N -body simulations of the SMC/LMC system disrupting around the Milky Way. Our results suggest that dynamical models for the SMC that assume a steady state will need to be revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dwarf galaxy distribution surrounding M31 is significantly anisotropic in nature. Of the 30 dwarf galaxies in this distribution, 15 form a disc-like structure and 23 are contained within the hemisphere facing the Milky Way. Using a realistic local potential, we analyse the conditions required to produce and maintain these asymmetries. We find that some dwarf galaxies are required to have highly eccentric orbits in order to preserve the presence of the hemispherical asymmetry with an appropriately large radial dispersion. Under the assumption that the dwarf galaxies originate from a single association or accretion event, we find that the initial size and specific energy of that association must both be relatively large in order to produce the observed hemispherical asymmetry. However if the association was large in physical size, the very high-energy required would enable several dwarf galaxies to escape from the M31 and be captured by the Milky Way. Furthermore, we find that associations that result in this structure have total specific energies concentrated around |$E = V_{\rm esc}^{2} - V_{\rm init}^{2} \sim 200^2$| – |$300^2\ \rm {km^2\ s^{-2}}$|⁠ , implying that the initial velocity and initial position needed to produce the structure are strongly correlated. The overlap of initial conditions required to produce the radial dispersion, angular dispersion, and the planar structure is small and suggests that either they did not originate from a single accretion event, or that these asymmetric structures are short-lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We make the first attempt to find dwarf galaxies in eight Fermi -LAT extended, unassociated, source fields using Gaia DR2. After probing previously unexplored heliocentric distances of d < 20 kpc with an extreme-deconvolution (XD) technique, we find no sign of a dwarf galaxy in any of these fields despite Gaia 's excellent astrometric accuracy. Our detection limits are estimated by applying the XD method to mock data, obtaining a conservative limit on the stellar mass of M * < 104 M⊙ for d < 20 kpc. Such a low stellar mass implies either a low-mass subhalo or a massive stripped-down subhalo. We use an analytic model for stripped subhaloes to argue that, given the sizes and fluxes of the Fermi -LAT sources, we can reject the hypothesis that they owe to dark matter annihilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply the GC3 stream-finding method to RR Lyrae stars (RRLSs) in the Catalina survey. We find 2 RRLS stream candidates at >4σ confidence and another 12 at >3.5σ confidence over the Galactocentric distance range 4 < D/kpc < 26. Of these, only two are associated with known globular clusters (NGC 1261 and Arp2). The remainder are candidate 'orphan' streams, consistent with the idea that globular cluster streams are most visible close to dissolution. Our detections are likely a lower bound on the total number of dissolving globulars in the inner galaxy, since many globulars have fewRRLSs, while only the brightest streams are visible over the Galactic RRLS background, particularly given the current lack of kinematical information. We make all of our candidate streams publicly available and provide a new galstreams PYTHON library for the footprints of all known streams and overdensities in the Milky Way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Milky Way is expected to host an accreted disc of stars and dark matter. This forms as massive ≳1 : 10 mergers are preferentially dragged towards the disc plane by dynamical friction and then tidally shredded. The accreted disc likely contributes only a tiny fraction of the Milky Way's thin and thick stellar disc. However, it is interesting because (i) its associated ‘dark disc’ has important implications for experiments hoping to detect a dark matter particle in the laboratory; and (ii) the presence or absence of such a disc constrains the merger history of our Galaxy. In this work, we develop a chemodynamical template to hunt for the accreted disc. We apply our template to the high-resolution spectroscopic sample from Ruchti et al., finding at present no evidence for accreted disc stars. Our results are consistent with a quiescent Milky Way with no ≳1 : 10 mergers since the disc formed and a correspondingly light ‘dark disc’. However, we caution that while our method can robustly identify accreted stars, our incomplete stellar sample makes it more challenging to definitively rule them out. Larger unbiased stellar samples will be required for this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT Uniquely among the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, Fornax hosts globular clusters. It remains a puzzle as to why dynamical friction has not yet dragged any of Fornax's five globular clusters to the centre, and also why there is no evidence that any similar star cluster has been in the past (for Fornax or any other tidally undisrupted dSph). We set up a suite of 2800 N-body simulations that sample the full range of globular cluster orbits and mass models consistent with all existing observational constraints for Fornax. In agreement with previous work, we find that if Fornax has a large dark matter core, then its globular clusters remain close to their currently observed locations for long times. Furthermore, we find previously unreported behaviour for clusters that start inside the core region. These are pushed out of the core and gain orbital energy, a process we call 'dynamical buoyancy'. Thus, a cored mass distribution in Fornax will naturally lead to a shell-like globular cluster distribution near the core radius, independent of the initial conditions. By contrast, cold dark matter-type cusped mass distributions lead to the rapid infall of at least one cluster within Δ t = 1-2 Gyr, except when picking unlikely initial conditions for the cluster orbits (∼2 per cent probability), and almost all clusters within Δ t = 10 Gyr. Alternatively, if Fornax has only a weakly cusped mass distribution, then dynamical friction is much reduced. While over Δ t = 10 Gyr this still leads to the infall of one to four clusters from their present orbits, the infall of any cluster within Δ t = 1-2 Gyr is much less likely (with probability 0-70 per cent, depending on Δ t and the strength of the cusp). Such a solution to the timing problem requires (in addition to a shallow dark matter cusp) that in the past the globular clusters were somewhat further from Fornax than today; they most likely did not form within Fornax, but were accreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We revisit systematics in determining the local dark matter density ρdm from the vertical motion of stars in the solar neighbourhood. Using a simulation of a Milky Way like galaxy, we determine the data quality required to detect ρdm at its expected local value. We introduce a new method for recovering ρdm that uses moments of the Jeans equations, combined with a Markov chain Monte Carlo technique, to marginalize over the unknown parameters. Given sufficiently good data, we show that our method can recover the correct local dark matter density even in the face of disc inhomogeneities, non-isothermal tracers and a non-separable distribution function. We illustrate the power of our technique by applying it to Hipparcos data. We first make the assumption that the A- and F-star tracer populations are isothermal. This recovers ρdm= 0.003+0.009− 0.007 M⊙ pc−3 (ρdm= 0.11+0.34− 0.27 GeV cm−3, with 90 per cent confidence), consistent with previous determinations. However, the vertical dispersion profile of these tracers is poorly known. If we assume instead a non-isothermal profile similar to that of the blue disc stars from SDSS DR-7 recently measured, we obtain a fit with a very similar χ2 value, but with ρdm= 0.033+0.008− 0.009 M⊙ pc−3 (ρdm= 1.25+0.30− 0.34 GeV cm−3 with 90 per cent confidence). This highlights that it is vital to measure the vertical dispersion profile of the tracers to recover an unbiased estimate of ρdm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]