When was the Large Magellanic Cloud accreted onto the Galaxy ?
Kenji Bekki

TL;DR
This study uses N-body simulations to analyze the stellar debris from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to determine its accretion timing onto the Milky Way, suggesting it occurred over 4 billion years ago based on stellar structures.
Contribution
It provides a novel method to constrain the LMC's accretion history by examining the structure and kinematics of stripped stellar debris in the Galactic halo.
Findings
Stars stripped from the LMC form different structures depending on accretion time.
Accretion over 4 Gyr ago results in a polar ring or thick disk of debris.
Recent accretion (~2 Gyr ago) produces stellar streams at 50-120 kpc.
Abstract
Using fully self-consistent N-body models for the dynamical evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in the Galaxy, we show that if the LMC initially has an extended old stellar halo before its commencement of tidal interaction with the Galaxy, physical properties of the stars stripped from the LMC stellar halo can have fossil information as to when and where the LMC was accreted onto the Galaxy for the first time. If the epoch of the first LMC accretion onto the Galaxy from outside its viriral radius is more than ~4 Gyr ago (i.e., at least two pericenter passages), the stars stripped from the stellar halo of the LMC can form an irregular polar ring or a thick disk with a size of ~100 kpc and rotational kinematics. On the other hand, if the LMC was first accreted onto the Galaxy quite recently (~ 2 Gyr ago), the stripped stars form shorter leading and trailing stellar stream at…
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