The Effect of Drag from the Galactic Hot Halo on the Magellanic Stream and Leading Arm

Abstract

We study the effect of drag induced by the Galactic hot halo on the two neutral hydrogen (HI) cloud complexes associated with the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds: the Magellanic Stream (MS) and the Leading Arm (LA). In particular, we adopt the numerical models of previous studies and re-simulate the tidal formation of the MS and LA with the inclusion of a drag term. We find that the drag has three effects which, although model-dependent, may bring the tidal formation scenario into better agreement with observations: correcting the LA kinematics, reproducing the MS column density gradient, and enhancing the formation of MS bifurcation. We furthermore propose a two-stage mechanism by which the bifurcation forms. In general, the inclusion of drag has a variety of both positive and negative effects on the global properties of the MS and LA, including their on-sky positions, kinematics, radial distances, and column densities. We also provide an argument which suggests that ram pressure stripping and tidal stripping are mutually exclusive candidates for the formation of the MS and LA.

13 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in PASA

References in corpus (8)

• X-ray coronae in simulations of disc galaxy formation
• The Source of Ionization along the Magellanic Stream
• Constraining the orbital history of the Magellanic Clouds: A new bound scenario suggested by the tidal origin of the Magellanic Stream
• The many streams of the Magellanic Stream
• An Interaction of a Magellanic Leading Arm High Velocity Cloud with the Milky Way Disk
• The scattered debris of the Magellanic Stream
• Origin of structural and kinematical properties of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Magellanic impact: Collision between the outer Galactic HI disk and the leading arms of the Magellanic stream

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• The Magellanic Stream: Circumnavigating the Galaxy
• GASKAP -- The Galactic ASKAP Survey
• The COS/UVES Absorption Survey of the Magellanic Stream: I. One-Tenth Solar Abundances along the Body of the Stream
• PAndAS in the mist: The stellar and gaseous mass within the halos of M31 and M33
• Models of Tidally Induced Gas Filaments in the Magellanic Stream
• The Magellanic System: the puzzle of the leading gas stream
• The Magellanic Stream and Debris Clouds
• Recent Star Formation in the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Stream
• The high-velocity cloud complex Galactic Center Negative as seen by EBHIS and GASS. I. Cloud catalog and global properties
• The influences of the Magellanic Clouds on the Galaxy: Pole shift, warp, and star formation history
• The Diffuse Ionized Gas Halo of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Chemical Composition of Young Stars in the Leading Arm of the Magellanic System
• Investigating the Baryon Cycle in Interacting Dwarfs with the Very Large Array and Pan-STARRS
• A Primeval Magellanic Stream and Others