Does the dwarf galaxy system of the Milky Way originate from Andromeda?

Abstract

The Local Group is often seen to be a quiescent environment without significant merger events. However an ancient major merger may have occurred in the most massive galaxy. Numerical simulations have shown that tidal tails formed during gas-rich major mergers are long-lived and could be responsible for old stellar streams and likely induce the formation of tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs). Using several hydrodynamical simulations we have investigated the most prominent tidal tail formed during the first passage, which is gas-rich and contains old and metal poor stars. We discovered several striking coincidences after comparing its location and motion to those of the Milky Way (MW) and of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs). First, the tidal tail is sweeping a relatively small volume in which the MW precisely lies. Because the geometry of the merger is somehow fixed by the anisotropic properties of the Giant Stream (GS), we evaluate the chance of the MW to be at such a rendez-vous with this gigantic tidal tail to be 5 %. Second, the velocity of the tidal tail matches the LMC proper motion, and reproduce quite well the geometrical and angular momentum properties of the MW dwarfs, i.e. the so-called disk of satellites, better called Vast Polar Structure (VPOS). Third, the simulation of the tidal tail reveals one of the formed TDG with mass and location almost comparable to those of the LMC. Our present modeling is however too limited to study the detailed interaction of gas-rich TDGs with the potential of the MW, and a complementary study is required to test whether the dwarf intrinsic properties can be accounted for by our scenario. Nevertheless this study suggests a causal link between an ancient, gas-rich major merger at the M31 location, and several enigma in the Local Group, the GS, the VPOS, and the presence of the MCs.