Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 423, Issue 4, Pages 3727-3739Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21176.x
Keywords
methods: analytical; methods: data analysis; methods: numerical; Galaxy: disc; Galaxy: structure; galaxies: formation; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
Categories
Funding
- NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure [PHY-0941373]
- Michigan State University Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research
- Department of Energy through the Los Alamos National Laboratory Institute for Geo-physics and Planetary Physics
- US National Science Foundation [PHY 02-16783, PHY 08-22648]
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- European Research Council [202781]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- University of Arizona
- Brazilian Participation Group
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- University of Cambridge
- University of Florida
- French Participation Group
- German Participation Group
- Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
- Michigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
- New Mexico State University
- New York University
- Ohio State University
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- University of Tokyo
- University of Utah
- Vanderbilt University
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- Yale University
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1009973] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- European Research Council (ERC) [202781] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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It is now known that minor mergers are capable of creating structure in the phase-space distribution of their host galaxys disc. In order to search for such imprints in the Milky Way, we analyse the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) F/G dwarf and the Schuster et al. stellar samples. We find similar features in these two completely independent stellar samples, consistent with the predictions of a Milky Way minor-merger event. We next apply the same analyses to high-resolution, idealized N-body simulations of the interaction between the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and the Milky Way. The energy distributions of stellar particle samples in small spatial regions in the host disc reveal strong variations of structure with position. We find good matches to the observations for models with a mass of Sagittarius dark matter halo progenitor 10(11) M circle dot. Thus, we show that this kind of analysis could be used to provide unprecedentedly tight constraints on Sagittarius orbital parameters, as well as place a lower limit on its mass.
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