The 3D kinematics of stellar substructures in the periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

We report the 3D kinematics of 27 Mira-like stars in the northern, eastern and southern periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), based on Gaia proper motions and a dedicated spectroscopic follow-up. Low-resolution spectra were obtained for more than 40 Mira-like candidates, selected to trace known substructures in the LMC periphery. Radial velocities and stellar parameters were derived for all stars. Gaia data release 3 astrometry and photometry were used to discard outliers, derive periods for those stars with available light curves, and determine their photometric chemical types. The 3D motion of the stars in the reference frame of the LMC revealed that most of the stars, in all directions, have velocities consistent with being part of the LMC disk population, out of equilibrium in the radial and vertical directions. A suite of N-body simulations was used to constrain the most likely past interaction history between the Clouds given the phase-space distribution of our targets. Model realizations in which the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) had three pericentric passages around the LMC best resemble the observations. The interaction history of those model realizations has a recent SMC pericentric passage ($\sim$320 Myr ago), preceded by an SMC crossing of the LMC disk at $\sim$0.97 Gyr ago, having a radial crossing distance of only $\sim$4.5 kpc. The previous disk crossing of the SMC was found to occur at $\sim$1.78 Gyr ago, with a much larger radial crossing distance of $\sim$10 kpc.

arXiv commentSubmitted to MNRAS. 19 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (52)

• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• Gaia Data Release 3: Summary of the content and survey properties
• galpy: A Python Library for Galactic Dynamics
• A distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud that is precise to one per cent
• New Understanding of Large Magellanic Cloud Structure, Dynamics and Orbit from Carbon Star Kinematics
• AGAMA: Action-based galaxy modelling architecture
• Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions I: HST/WFC3 data and Orbit Implications
• A Spectroscopic Study of the Ancient Milky Way: F- and G-Type Stars in the Third Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The ASAS-SN Catalog of Variable Stars I: The Serendipitous Survey
• Magellanic Cloud Structure from Near-IR Surveys I: The Viewing Angles of the LMC
• The Role of Dwarf Galaxy Interactions in Shaping the Magellanic System and Implications for Magellanic Irregulars
• Gaia Data Release 3 Properties and validation of the radial velocities
• The total mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud from its perturbation on the Orphan stream
• A New Look at the Kinematics of Neutral Hydrogen in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions II: The Large Magellanic Cloud Rotation Field in Three Dimensions
• Simulations of the Magellanic Stream in a First Infall Scenario
• The Araucaria Project. The distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud from late-type eclipsing binaries
• The Tidal Origin of the Magellanic Stream and the Possibility of a Stellar Counterpart
• Hunting for the Dark Matter Wake Induced by the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Spectroscopic Survey of Red Giants in the SMC. I: Kinematics
• A Population of Accreted SMC Stars in the LMC
• The VMC Survey. XXV. The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from Classical Cepheids
• Center-to-Limb Variation of Solar 3-D Hydrodynamical Simulations
• Clouds, Streams and Bridges. Redrawing the blueprint of the Magellanic System with Gaia DR1
• SMASHing the LMC: A Tidally-induced Warp in the Outer LMC and a Large-scale Reddening Map
• Final Targeting Strategy for the SDSS-IV APOGEE-2S Survey
• A 10 kpc stellar substructure at the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud: perturbed outer disk or evidence for tidal stripping?
• The slight spin of the old stellar halo
• A collection of model stellar spectra for spectral types B to early-M
• A new method to identify subclasses among AGB stars using Gaia and 2MASS photometry
• The synchronised dance of the Magellanic Clouds' star formation history
• Revealing the tidal scars of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Substructures and tidal distortions in the Magellanic stellar periphery
• The recent LMC-SMC collision: Timing and impact parameter constraints from comparison of Gaia LMC disk kinematics and N-body simulations
• On the dynamics of the Small Magellanic Cloud through high-resolution ASKAP HI observations
• Clouds in Arms
• The So-Called "Bar" in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Large Magellanic Cloud stellar content with SMASH: I. Assessing the stability of the Magellanic spiral arms
• The VMC survey -- XLI. Stellar proper motions within the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Magellanic Mayhem: Metallicities and Motions
• A SkyMapper view of the Large Magellanic Cloud: The dynamics of stellar populations
• Kinematic analysis of the Large Magellanic Cloud using Gaia DR3
• Carbon-Rich Mira Variables: Radial Velocities and Distances
• Stellar substructures in the periphery of the Magellanic Clouds with the VISTA Hemisphere Survey from the red clump and other tracers
• The Magellanic Edges Survey I. Description and First Results
• Period-luminosity diagram of long period variables in the Magellanic Clouds. New aspects revealed from Gaia Data Release 2
• The Magellanic Edges Survey III. Kinematics of the disturbed LMC outskirts
• Tidally stripped halo stars from the Large Magellanic Cloud in the Galactic North
• Phase Dependent Spectroscopy of Mira Variable Stars
• The Magellanic Edges Survey IV. Complex tidal debris in the SMC outskirts
• Kinematical Analysis of Substructure in the Southern Periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Discovery of NES, an extended tidal structure in the North-East of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The VMC survey -- LIV. The internal kinematics of the LMC with new VISTA observations
• Following the tidal trail: a history of modeling the Magellanic Stream
• Hubble Space Telescope proper motions of Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters -- II. Kinematic structure of young and intermediate-age clusters
• The orbital dynamics of the LMC and SMC about the Milky Way