Accretion History of the Milky Way Dark Matter Halo and the Origin of its Angular Momentum

TL;DR

This paper models the dark matter accretion history of the Milky Way, explaining its angular momentum and the formation of the Magellanic Stream through gravitational interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking dark matter inflow to the Milky Way's angular momentum and the Magellanic Stream formation.

Findings

Dark matter inflow explains the Milky Way's angular momentum direction.

Model reproduces the Magellanic Stream around the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Growth history aligns with observed galactic features.

Abstract

The flow of dark matter into the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud in a model for the gravitational field of the neighboring galaxies yields a growth history for the dark matter halo of the Milky Way that ends up with angular momentum roughly in the observed direction, and it produces a dark matter stream around the Large Magellanic Cloud that resembles the Magellanic Stream.