# The effect of Large Magellanic Cloud on the satellite galaxy population   in Milky Way analogous Galaxies

**Authors:** Dali Zhang, Yu Luo, Xi Kang

arXiv: 1904.04296 · 2019-05-21

## TL;DR

This study examines how the presence of a massive satellite galaxy like the LMC influences the satellite galaxy population in Milky Way-like galaxies using simulations and semi-analytical models.

## Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical model combined with Millennium-II Simulation to analyze the impact of massive satellites on satellite populations in MW analogs.

## Key findings

- MW analogs with massive satellites have twice as many satellites.
- Satellites are more concentrated along the line connecting the galaxy and the massive satellite.
- LMC has brought in approximately 14.7 satellites at accretion.

## Abstract

Observational work have shown that the two brightest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW), the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), are rare amongst MW analogues. It is then interesting to know whether the presence of massive satellite has any effect on the whole satellite population in MW analogues. In this article, we investigate this problem using a semi-analytical model combined with the Millennium-II Simulation. MW-analogous galaxies are defined to have similar stellar mass or dark matter halo mass to the MW. We find that, in the first case, the halo mass is larger and there are, on average, twice as many satellites in Milky Way analogs if there is a massive satellite galaxy in the system. This is mainly from the halo formation bias. The difference is smaller if MW analogues are selected using halo mass. We also find that the satellites distribution is slightly asymmetric, being more concentrated on the line connecting the central galaxy and the massive satellite and that, on average, LMC have brought in 14.7 satellite galaxies with $M_{r}<0$ at its accretion, among which 4.5 satellites are still within a distance of 50kpc from the LMC. Considering other satellites, we predict that thereare 7.8 satellites with 50kpc of the LMC. By comparing our model with the early data of Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA), a survey to observe satellite galaxies around 100 Milky Way analogues, we find that SAGA has more bright satellites and less faint satellites than our model predictions. A future comparison with the final SAGA data is needed.

## Full text

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## Figures

10 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1904.04296/full.md

## References

62 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1904.04296/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1904.04296