15 research outputs found
Resolving local and global kinematic signatures of satellite mergers with billion particle simulations
Large scale structure and cosmolog
Searching for solar siblings in APOGEE and Gaia DR2 with N-body simulations
Computational astrophysic
Aurigaia: mock Gaia DR2 stellar catalogues from the Auriga cosmological simulations
We present and analyse mock stellar catalogues that match the selection criteria and observables (including uncertainties) of the Gaia satellite data release 2 (DR2). The source are six cosmological high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamic ÎCDM zoom simulations of the formation of Milky Way analogues from the AURIGA project. Mock data are provided for stars with V 20 deg. The mock catalogues are made using two different methods: the public SNAPDRAGONS code, and a method based on that of Lowing et al. (2015) that preserves the phase-space distribution of the model stars. These publicly available catalogues contain five-parameter astrometry, radial velocities, multiband photometry, stellar parameters, dust extinction values, and uncertainties in all these quantities. In addition, we provide the gravitational potential and information on the origin of each star. By way of demonstration, we apply the mock catalogues to analyses of the young stellar disc and the stellar halo. We show that (i) the young outer stellar disc exhibits a flared distribution that is detectable in the height and vertical velocity distribution of A - and B -dwarf stars up to radii of âŒ15 kpc, and (ii) the spin of the stellar halo out to 100 kpc can be accurately measured with Gaia DR2 RR Lyrae stars. These catalogues are well suited for comparisons with observations and should help to (i) develop and test analysis methods for the Gaia DR2 data, (ii) gauge the limitations and biases of the data, and (iii) interpret the data in the light of theoretical predictions from realistic ab initio simulations of galaxy formation in the ÎCDM cosmological model
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Mapping Dark Matter with Extragalactic Stellar Streams: The Case of Centaurus A
In the coming decade, thousands of stellar streams will be observed in the halos of external galaxies. What fundamental discoveries will we make about dark matter from these streams? As a first attempt to look at these questions, we model Magellan/Megacam imaging of the Centaurus A (Cen A) disrupting dwarf companion Dwarf 3 (Dw3) and its associated stellar stream, to find out what can be learned about the Cen A dark matter halo. We develop a novel external galaxy stream-fitting technique and generate model stellar streams that reproduce the stream morphology visible in the imaging. We find that there are many viable stream models that fit the data well, with reasonable parameters, provided that Cen A has a halo mass larger than M 200 > 4.70 Ă 1012 M â. There is a second stream in Cen Aâs halo that is also reproduced within the context of this same dynamical model. However, stream morphology in the imaging alone does not uniquely determine the mass or mass distribution for the Cen A halo. In particular, the stream models with high likelihood show covariances between the inferred Cen A mass distribution, the inferred Dw3 progenitor mass, the Dw3 velocity, and the Dw3 line-of-sight position. We show that these degeneracies can be broken with radial-velocity measurements along the stream, and that a single radial velocity measurement puts a substantial lower limit on the halo mass. These results suggest that targeted radial-velocity measurements will be critical if we want to learn about dark matter from extragalactic stellar streams. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]