Could the Magellanic Clouds be tidal dwarves expelled from a past-merger event occurring in Andromeda?

Abstract

The Magellanic Clouds are often considered as outliers in the satellite system of the Milky Way because they are irregular and gas-rich galaxies. From their large relative motion, they are likely from their first pass near the Milky Way, possibly originating from another region of the Local Group or its outskirts. M31 could have been in a merger stage in its past and we investigate whether or not the Large Magellanic Cloud could have been a tidal dwarf expelled during this event. Such an hypothesis is tested in the frame of present-day measurements and uncertainties of the relative motions of LMC and M31. Our method is to trace back the LMC trajectory using several thousands of different configurations that sample the corresponding parameter space. We find several configurations that let LMC at 50 kpc from M31, 4.3 to 8 Gyrs ago, depending on the adopted shape of the Milky Way halo. For all configurations, the LMC velocity at such a location is invariably slightly larger than the escape velocity at such a radius. The preferred solutions correspond to a spherical to prolate Milky Way halo, predicting a transversal motion of M31 of less than 107 km/s and down to values that are close to zero. We conclude that from present-day measurements, Magellanic Clouds could well be tidal dwarves expelled from a former merger events occurring in M31.

accepted as a Letter to Astrophysical Journal, 10 October, 2010

References in corpus (12)

• Are the Magellanic Clouds on their First Passage about the Milky Way?
• Is the SMC Bound to the LMC? The HST Proper Motion of the SMC
• The orbital poles of Milky Way satellite galaxies: a rotationally supported disc-of-satellites
• The Shape of the Gravitational Potential in Cold Dark Matter Halos
• M31 Transverse Velocity and Local Group Mass from Satellite Kinematics
• Does M31 result from an ancient major merger?
• The Extended Star Formation History of the Andromeda Spheroid at 35 Kpc on the Minor Axis
• Implications of Recent Measurements of the Milky Way Rotation for the Orbit of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Dwarf Satellites of M31 and the Galaxy
• Revisiting the Role of M31 in the Dynamical History of the Magellanic Clouds
• Orbit of the Large Magellanic Cloud in a Dynamical Model for the Local Group
• Tracing the Magellanic Clouds Back in Time

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions I: HST/WFC3 data and Orbit Implications
• The VPOS: a vast polar structure of satellite galaxies, globular clusters and streams around the Milky Way
• The VMC Survey - I. Strategy and First Data
• Small scale problems of the $\Lambda$CDM model: a short review
• The dark matter crisis: falsification of the current standard model of cosmology
• Dwarf Galaxy Planes: the discovery of symmetric structures in the Local Group
• The rotationally stabilized VPOS and predicted proper motions of the Milky Way satellite galaxies
• Co-orbiting satellite galaxy structures are still in conflict with the distribution of primordial dwarf galaxies
• The vast thin plane of M31 co-rotating dwarfs: an additional fossil signature of the M31 merger and of its considerable impact in the whole Local Group
• Does M31 result from an ancient major merger?
• The Magellanic Stream System: I. Ram-pressure tails and the relics of the collision between the Magellanic Clouds
• Reproducing properties of MW dSphs as descendants of DM-free TDGs
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): In Search of Milky-Way Magellanic Cloud Analogues
• Does the dwarf galaxy system of the Milky Way originate from Andromeda?
• Birth, life and survival of Tidal Dwarf Galaxies
• Toward a Complete Understanding of the Magellanic Stream Formation
• Perseus I and the NGC 3109 association in the context of the Local Group dwarf galaxy structures
• Renegade Subhaloes in the Local Group
• Metallicity distribution functions of the old populations of the Magellanic Clouds from RR Lyrae stars
• On the Effect of the Large Magellanic Cloud on the Orbital Poles of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies
• A Study of the Properties and Dynamics of the Disk of Satellites in a Milky-Way-like Galaxy System
• Could M31 come from a major merger and eject the LMC away?
• The Formation of Large Galactic Disks: Revival or Survival?
• The orbital dynamics of the LMC and SMC about the Milky Way