A Gaia DR 2 and VLT/FLAMES search for new satellites of the LMC

TL;DR

This study combines Gaia DR2 and VLT/FLAMES data to identify and analyze four distant dwarf galaxy candidates near the LMC, determining their properties and potential origins, and estimating the LMC's dark matter mass.

Contribution

It provides the first combined astrometric and spectroscopic analysis of these four dwarf galaxy candidates, revealing their properties and possible association with the LMC.

Findings

All four systems likely contain member stars.

Phx II is confirmed as a dwarf galaxy with high velocity dispersion.

The LMC's dark matter mass is estimated at approximately 1.9 x 10^{11} solar masses.

Abstract

A wealth of tiny galaxies populates the surroundings of the Milky Way. Some of these objects might have their origin as former satellites of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Examples of the importance of understanding how many systems are genuine satellites of the MW or the LMC are the implications that the number and mass function of satellites have for dark matter theories and the treatment of baryonic physics in simulations of structure formation. Here we aim at deriving the bulk motions and estimates of the internal velocity dispersion and metallicity properties in four recently discovered distant southern dwarf galaxy candidates, Columba I, Reticulum III, Phoenix II and Horologium II. We combine Gaia DR2 astrometric measurements, photometry and new FLAMES spectroscopic data in the region of the CaII triplet lines; such combination is essential for finding potential member stars in these low luminosity systems. We find very likely member stars in all four satellites and are able to determine (or place limits on) the systems bulk motions and average internal properties. The systems are found to be very metal-poor, in agreement with dwarf galaxies and dwarf galaxy candidates of similar luminosity. The only system that we can place firmly in the category of dwarf galaxies is Phx II, given its resolved large velocity dispersion ($9.5_{-4.4}^{+6.8}$ km/s) and intrinsic metallicity spread (0.33 dex). Also for Col I we measure a clear metallicity spread. The orbital pole of Phx II is well constrained and close to that of the LMC, suggesting a prior association. The uncertainty on the orbital poles of the other systems are presently very large, so that an association cannot be excluded, apart from Col I. Using the numbers of potential former satellites of the LMC identified here and in the literature, we obtain for the LMC a dark matter mass of M$_{200}=1.9_{-0.9}^{+1.3}\times10^{11}$ M$_\odot$.