What's up in the Milky Way? The orientation of the disc relative to the triaxial halo

被引:60
作者
Debattista, Victor P. [1 ,2 ]
Roskar, Rok [3 ]
Valluri, Monica [4 ]
Quinn, Thomas [5 ]
Moore, Ben [3 ]
Wadsley, James [6 ]
机构
[1] Univ Cent Lancashire, Jeremiah Horrocks Inst, Preston PR1 2HE, Lancs, England
[2] Univ Malta, Dept Phys, MSD-2080 Msida, Malta
[3] Univ Zurich, Inst Theoret Phys, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
[4] Univ Michigan, Dept Astron, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
[5] Univ Washington, Dept Astron, Seattle, WA 98195 USA
[6] McMaster Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
Galaxy: evolution; Galaxy: formation; Galaxy: halo; Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics; Galaxy: structure; galaxies: haloes; DARK-MATTER HALO; SAGITTARIUS DWARF GALAXY; PREFERRED ORBIT PLANES; TULLY-FISHER RELATION; ANGULAR-MOMENTUM; TIDAL STREAMS; SPHEROIDAL GALAXY; ELLIPTIC GALAXIES; RADIAL MIGRATION; SPIRAL GALAXIES;
D O I
10.1093/mnras/stt1217
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
Models of the Sagittarius stream have consistently found that the Milky Way disc is oriented such that its short axis is along the intermediate axis of the triaxial dark matter halo. We attempt to build models of disc galaxies in such an 'intermediate-axis orientation'. We do this with three models. In the first two cases we simply rigidly grow a disc in a triaxial halo such that the disc ends up perpendicular to the global intermediate axis. We also attempt to coax a disc to form in an intermediate-axis orientation by producing a gas+dark matter triaxial system with gas angular momentum about the intermediate axis. In all cases we fail to produce systems which remain with stellar angular momentum aligned with the halo's intermediate axis, even when the disc's potential flattens the inner halo such that the disc is everywhere perpendicular to the halo's local minor axis. For one of these unstable simulations we show that the potential is even rounder than the models of the Milky Way potential in the region probed by the Sagittarius stream. We conclude that the Milky Way's disc is very unlikely to be in an intermediate-axis orientation. However we find that a disc can persist off one of the principal planes of the potential. We propose that the disc of the Milky Way must be tilted relative to the principal axes of the dark matter halo. Direct confirmation of this prediction would constitute a critical test of Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
引用
收藏
页码:2971 / 2981
页数:11
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