Kinematics of the Local Group gas and galaxies in the Hestia simulations

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to analyze the kinematic behavior of gas and galaxies in the Local Group, revealing natural velocity patterns consistent with observations and enhancing understanding of LG assembly.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulation-based analysis of LG gas and galaxy kinematics from multiple observational perspectives, aligning with observed velocity dipoles.

Findings

Velocity dipole naturally emerges in simulations near the barycentre.

Gas and galaxies stream towards the LG barycentre, mimicking observed patterns.

Simulation results support a streaming scenario for LG assembly.

Abstract

We investigate the kinematic properties of gas and galaxies in the Local Group (LG) using high-resolution simulations performed by the {\sc Hestia} (High-resolution Environmental Simulations of The Immediate Area) collaboration. Our simulations include the correct cosmography surrounding LG-like regions consisting of two main spiral galaxies of $\sim 10^{12}$~M$_\odot$, their satellites and minor isolated galaxies, all sharing the same large-scale motion within a volume of a few Mpc. We characterise the gas and galaxy kinematics within the simulated LGs, from the perspective of the Sun, to compare with observed trends from recent HST/COS absorption-line observations and LG galaxy data. To analyse the velocity pattern of LG gas and galaxies seen in the observational data, we build sky maps from the local standard of rest, and the galactic and local group barycentre frames. Our findings show that the establishment of a radial velocity dipole at low/high latitudes, near the preferred barycentre direction, is a natural outcome of simulation kinematics for material {\it outside} the Milky Way virial radius after removing galaxy rotation when the two main LG galaxies are approaching. Our results favour a scenario where gas and galaxies stream towards the LG barycentre producing a velocity dipole resembling observations. While our study shows in a qualitative way the global matter kinematics in the LG as part of its on-going assembly, quantitative estimates of gas-flow rates and physical conditions of the LG gas have to await a more detailed modeling of the ionization conditions, which will be presented in a follow-up paper.