A Formation Scenario for the Disk of Satellites: Accretion of Satellites during Mergers

Abstract

The Disk of Satellites (DoS) observed in the Andromeda galaxy is a thin and extended group of satellites, nearly perpendicular to the disk plane, that share a common direction of rotation about the centre of Andromeda. Although a DoS is also observed in the Milky Way galaxy, the prevalance of such structures in more distant galaxies remains controversial. Explanations for the formation of such DoSs vary widely from filamentary infall, or flattening due to the potential field from large scale structure, to galaxy interactions in a Mondian paradigm. Here we present an alternative scenario -- during a merger, a galaxy may bring its own satellite population when merging with another galaxy. We demonstrate how, under the correct circumstances, during the coalescence of the two galaxies, the satellite population can be spread into an extended, flattened structure, with a common direction of rotation about the merger remnant. We investigate the key parameters of the interaction, and the satellite population, that are required to form a DoS in this scenario.

Accepted to ApJ, 16th November 2015, 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• The large-scale structure of the halo of the Andromeda galaxy II. Hierarchical structure in the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey
• A 2-3 billion year old major merger paradigm for the Andromeda galaxy and its outskirts
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: First detection of a transition in spin orientation with respect to cosmic filaments in the stellar kinematics of galaxies
• The multiplicity and anisotropy of galactic satellite accretion
• The coherent motion of Cen A dwarf satellite galaxies remains a challenge for $\Lambda$CDM cosmology
• Alignments between galaxies, satellite systems and haloes
• Evolution of galactic planes of satellites in the EAGLE simulation
• Simulated ΛCDM analogues of the thin Plane of Satellites around the Andromeda galaxy are not kinematically coherent structures
• Caught in the rhythm: how satellites settle into a plane around their central galaxy
• The Lopsidedness of Satellite Galaxy Systems in $\Lambda$CDM simulations
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• Considerations on how to investigate planes of satellite galaxies
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• The potential role of NGC 205 in generating Andromeda's vast thin co-rotating plane of satellite galaxies
• The satellite galaxy plane of NGC 4490 in light of ΛCDM - Sparsity of similarly extreme analogs and a possible role of satellite pairs
• The shape alignment of satellite galaxies in galaxy pairs in SDSS
• The imprint of galaxy mergers on satellite planes in a cosmological context
• An LBT view of the co-rotating group of galaxies around NGC 2750: Deep imaging and new satellite candidates
• The long-term stability of the Vast Polar Structure and its connection to a possible previous passage of the LMC