The Role of Baryons in Creating Statistically Significant Planes of Satellites around Milky Way-Mass Galaxies
Sheehan H. Ahmed, Alyson M. Brooks, Charlotte R. Christensen

TL;DR
This study examines how baryonic physics affects the formation and significance of satellite galaxy planes around Milky Way-like galaxies, revealing that baryons influence satellite survival and distribution, but simulated planes are less significant than observed ones.
Contribution
It demonstrates that baryonic physics alters satellite populations and their planar arrangements, challenging the reliability of dark matter-only simulations for studying satellite planes.
Findings
Baryonic physics changes satellite membership in planes.
Satellites are less radially concentrated with baryons.
Simulated planes are less statistically significant than observed.
Abstract
We investigate whether the inclusion of baryonic physics influences the formation of thin, coherently rotating planes of satellites such as those seen around the Milky Way and Andromeda. For four Milky Way-mass simulations, each run both as dark matter-only and with baryons included, we are able to identify a planar configuration that significantly maximizes the number of plane satellite members. The maximum plane member satellites are consistently different between the dark matter-only and baryonic versions of the same run due to the fact that satellites are both more likely to be destroyed and to infall later in the baryonic runs. Hence, studying satellite planes in dark matter-only simulations is misleading, because they will be composed of different satellite members than those that would exist if baryons were included. Additionally, the destruction of satellites in the baryonic…
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