On the mass of the Local Group

Abstract

We use recent proper motion measurements of the tangential velocity of M31, along with its radial velocity and distance, to derive the likelihood of the sum of halo masses of the Milky Way and M31. This is done using a sample halo pairs in the Bolshoi cosmological simulation of $\Lambda$CDM cosmology selected to match properties and environment of the Local Group. The resulting likelihood gives estimate of the sum of masses of $M_{\mathrm{MW},200}+M_{M31,200}=$ $2.40_{-1.05}^{+1.95}\times 10^{12}{M}_{\odot }$ ($90\%$ confidence interval). This estimate is consistent with individual mass estimates for the Milky Way and M31 and is consistent, albeit somewhat on the low side, with the mass estimated using the timing argument. We show that although the timing argument is unbiased on average for all pairs, for pairs constrained to have radial and tangential velocities similar to that of the Local Group the argument overestimates the sum of masses by a factor of $1.6$. Using similar technique we estimate the total dark matter mass enclosed within $1$ Mpc from the Local Group barycenter to be $M_{\mathrm{LG}}(r<1\mathrm{Mpc})=4.2_{-2.0}^{+3.4}\times 10^{12}{M}_{\odot }$ ($90\%$ confidence interval).

8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

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