Some Implications of the Anisotropic Distribution of Satellite Galaxies

Abstract

We examine a possible connection between the anisotropic distribution of satellite galaxies around giant spiral galaxies and the evolution of satellite systems. The observed polar anisotropy (Zaritsky et al.1997) is either imprinted by initial conditions or develops from an initially symmetric distribution. We attempt to discriminate between these two possibilities by exploring the implications of the latter one. From the observed distribution of satellite galaxies relative to the primary galaxy's disk, we derive constrains on the orbital inclinations of the current satellite population. Using this derived inclination limit and assuming that the initial population had no preferred orbital inclination, we estimate the size of the hypothesized original population. We find that our best-fit models imply a population of destroyed (or inhibited) satellites whose combined luminosity (assuming the same M/L as for the observed satellites) is between 18% and 103% of the current disk luminosity.

Accepted for publication in PASP (11 pages)

Cited by in corpus (16)

• The great disk of Milky-Way satellites and cosmological sub-structures
• The Anisotropic Distribution of Galactic Satellites
• The Magellanic Stream, High-Velocity Clouds and the Sculptor Group
• Anisotropy in the Distribution of Satellite Galaxy Orbits
• The Observed and Predicted Spatial Distribution of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies
• The Abundance and Radial Distribution of Satellite Galaxies
• Rotation of Halo Populations in the Milky Way and M31
• The Velocity Function of Galaxies
• Effects of dynamical evolution on the distribution of substructures
• Satellite decay in flattened dark matter haloes
• Dynamical friction in flattened systems: A numerical test of Binney's approach
• Accretion of the Magellanic system onto the Galaxy
• Are rotating planes of satellite galaxies ubiquitous?
• The Clustering of Orbital Poles Induced by the LMC: Hints for the Origin of Planes of Satellites
• The peculiar velocities of satellites of external disk galaxies
• Box- and peanut-shaped bulges. III. A new class of bulges: Thick Boxy Bulges