Andromeda II as a merger remnant

TL;DR

This study uses N-body simulations to propose that the prolate rotation observed in Andromeda II resulted from a past merger of two disky dwarf galaxies, offering insights into dwarf galaxy formation.

Contribution

It introduces a merger-based evolutionary model for And II's prolate rotation, contrasting with the tidal stirring scenario, and highlights prolate rotation as a merger indicator.

Findings

Merger remnant forms a stable triaxial galaxy with rotation around the longest axis.

Stars from the two dwarfs show different surface density profiles but similar kinematics.

Tidal stirring produces less significant rotation around the longest axis.

Abstract

Using N-body simulations we study the origin of prolate rotation recently detected in the kinematic data for And II, a dSph satellite of M31. We propose an evolutionary model for the origin of And II involving a merger between two disky dwarf galaxies whose structural parameters differ only in their disk scale lengths. The dwarfs are placed on a radial orbit towards each other with their angular momenta inclined by 45 deg to the orbital plane and by 90 deg with respect to each other. After 5 Gyr of evolution the merger remnant forms a stable triaxial galaxy with rotation only around the longest axis. The origin of this rotation is naturally explained as due to the symmetry of the initial configuration which leads to the conservation of angular momentum components along the direction of the merger. The stars originating from the two dwarfs show significantly different surface density profiles while having very similar kinematics in agreement with the properties of separate stellar populations in And II. We also study an alternative scenario for the formation of And II, via tidal stirring of a disky dwarf galaxy. While intrinsic rotation occurs naturally in this model as a remnant of the initial rotation of the disk, it is mostly around the shortest axis of the stellar component. The rotation around the longest axis is induced only occasionally and remains much smaller that the system's velocity dispersion. We conclude that although tidal origin of the velocity distribution in And II cannot be excluded, it is much more naturally explained within the scenario involving a past merger event. Thus, in principle, the presence of prolate rotation in dSph galaxies of the Local Group and beyond may be used as an indicator of major mergers in their history or even as a way to distinguish between the two scenarios of their formation.