Quantifying the impact of the Large Magellanic Cloud on the structure of the Milky Way's dark matter halo using Basis Function Expansions

TL;DR

This paper uses Basis Function Expansions to model the Milky Way's dark matter halo influenced by the Large Magellanic Cloud, revealing asymmetric perturbations and halo shifts crucial for understanding galaxy assembly history.

Contribution

It introduces a non-parametric BFE-based method to accurately describe the MW-LMC system's dark matter distribution from N-body simulations, capturing complex perturbations.

Findings

LMC induces asymmetric perturbations in the MW halo.

Outer halo shifts by 15-25 kpc due to LMC influence.

High-order modes resemble cosmological triaxial halos.

Abstract

Indications of disequilibrium throughout the Milky Way (MW) highlight the need for compact,flexible, non-parametric descriptions of phase--space distributions of galaxies. We present a new representation of the current Dark Matter (DM) distribution and potential derived from N-body simulations of the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) system using Basis Function Expansions (BFEs). We incorporate methods to maximize the physical signal in the representation. As a result, the simulations of $10^8$ DM particles representing the MW--LMC system can be described by 354 coefficients. We find that the LMC induces asymmetric perturbations (odd l, m) to the MW's halo, which are not well-described by oblate, prolate, or triaxial halos. Furthermore, the energy in high-order even modes (l,m $\geq$ 2) is similar to average triaxial halos found in cosmological simulations. As such, the response of the MW's halo to the LMC must be accounted for in order to recover the imprints of its assembly history. The LMC causes the outer halo ($\geq$ 30 kpc) to shift from the disk center of mass (COM) by $\sim$15-25 kpc at present day, manifesting as a dipole in the BFE and in the radial velocities of halo stars. The shift depends on the LMC's infall mass, the distortion of the LMC's halo and the MW halo response. Within 30 kpc, halo tracers are expected to orbit the COM of the MW's disk, regardless of LMC infall mass. The LMC's halo is also distorted by MW tides, we discuss the implications for its mass loss and the subsequent effects on current Magellanic satellites.