We introduce a suite of thirty cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical zoom simulations of the formation of galaxies in isolated Milky Way mass dark haloes. These were carried out with the moving mesh code arepo, together with a comprehensive model for galaxy formation physics, including AGN feedback and magnetic fields, which produces realistic galaxy populations in large cosmological simulations. We demonstrate that our simulations reproduce a wide range of present-day observables, in particular, two component disc dominated galaxies with appropriate stellar masses, sizes, rotation curves, star formation rates and metallicities. We investigate the driving mechanisms that set present-day disc sizes/scale lengths, and find that they are related to the angular momentum of halo material. We show that the largest discs are produced by quiescent mergers that inspiral into the galaxy and deposit high angular momentum material into the pre-existing disc, simultaneously increasing the spin of dark matter and gas in the halo. More violent mergers and strong AGN feedback play roles in limiting disc size by destroying pre-existing discs and by suppressing gas accretion onto the outer disc, respectively. The most important factor that leads to compact discs, however, is simply a low angular momentum for the halo. In these cases, AGN feedback plays an important role in limiting central star formation and the formation of a massive bulge.

We analyse an N-body simulation of the interaction of the Milky Way (MW) with a Sagittarius-like dSph (Sgr), looking for signatures which may be attributed to its orbital history in the phase space volume around the Sun in light of Gaia DR2 discoveries. The repeated impacts of Sgr excite coupled vertical and radial oscillations in the disc which qualitatively, and to a large degree quantitatively are able to reproduce many features in the 6D Gaia DR2 samples, from the median V R , V φ , V z velocity maps to the local δρ(v z , z) phase-space spiral which is a manifestation of the global disc response to coupled oscillations within a given volume. The patterns in the large-scale velocity field are well described by tightly wound spirals and vertical corrugations excited from Sgr's impacts. We show that the last pericentric passage of Sgr resets the formation of the local present-day δρ(v z , z) spiral and situate its formation around 500-800 Myr. As expected δρ(vz, z) grows in size and decreases in woundedness as a function of radius in both the Gaia DR2 data and simulations. This is the first N-body model able to explain so many of the features in the data on different scales. We demonstrate how to use the full extent of the Galactic disc to date perturbations dating from Myr to Gyr, probe the underlying potential and constrain the mass-loss history of Sgr. δρ(vz, z) looks the same in all stellar populations age bins down to the youngest ages which rules out a bar buckling origin.

We determine the Milky Way (MW) mass profile inferred from fitting physically motivated models to the Gaia DR2 Galactic rotation curve and other data. Using various hydrodynamical simulations of MW-mass haloes, we show that the presence of baryons induces a contraction of the dark matter (DM) distribution in the inner regions, r 20 kpc. We provide an analytic expression that relates the baryonic distribution to the change in the DM halo profile. For our galaxy, the contraction increases the enclosed DM halo mass by factors of roughly 1.3, 2 and 4 at radial distances of 20, 8 and 1 kpc, respectively compared to an uncontracted halo. Ignoring this contraction results in systematic biases in the inferred halo mass and concentration. We provide a best-fitting contracted NFW halo model to the MW rotation curve that matches the data very well. The best-fit has a DM halo mass, M DM 200 = 0.99 +0.18 −0.20 ×10 12 M , and concentration before baryon contraction of 8.2 +1.7 −1.5 , which lie close to the median halo mass-concentration relation predicted in ΛCDM. The inferred total mass, M total 200 = 1.12 +0.20 −0.22 × 10 12 M , is in good agreement with recent measurements. The model gives a MW stellar mass of 4.99 +0.34 −0.50 × 10 10 M , of which 60% is contained in the thin stellar disc, with a bulge-to-total ratio of 0.2. We infer that the DM density at the Solar position is ρ DM = 9.0 +0.5 −0.4 × 10 −3 M pc −3 ≡ 0.34 +0.02 −0.02 GeV cm −3 . The rotation curve data can also be fitted with an uncontracted NFW halo model, but with very different DM and stellar parameters. The observations prefer the physically motivated contracted NFW halo, but the measurement uncertainties are too large to rule out the uncontracted NFW halo.

Recently, Widrow and collaborators announced the discovery of vertical density waves in the Milky Way disk. Here we investigate a scenario where these waves were induced by the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy as it plunged through the Galaxy. Using numerical simulations, we find that the the Sagittarius impact produces North-South asymmetries and vertical wave-like behavior that qualitatively agrees with what is observed. The extent to which vertical modes can radially penetrate into the disc, as well as their amplitudes, depend on the mass of the perturbing satellite. We show that the mean height of the disc is expected to vary more rapidly in the radial than in the azimuthal direction. If the observed vertical density asymmetry is indeed caused by vertical oscillations, we predict radial and azimuthal variations of the mean vertical velocity, correlating with the spatial structure. These variations can have amplitudes as large as 8 km s −1 .

We present N-body simulations of a Sagittarius-like dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr) that follow its orbit about the Milky Way (MW) since its first crossing of the Galaxy's virial radius to the present day. As Sgr orbits around the MW, it excites vertical oscillations, corrugating and flaring the Galactic stellar disc. These responses can be understood by a two-phase picture in which the interaction is first dominated by torques from the wake excited by Sgr in the MW dark halo before transitioning to tides from Sgr's direct impact on the disc at late times. We show for the first time that a massive Sgr model simultaneously reproduces the locations and motions of arc-like over densities, such as the Monoceros Ring and the Triangulum Andromeda stellar clouds, that have been observed at the extremities of the disc, while also satisfying the solar neighbourhood constraints on the vertical structure and streaming motions of the disc. In additional simulations, we include the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) self consistently with Sgr. The LMC introduces coupling through constructive and destructive interference, but no new corrugations. In our models, the excitation of the current structure of the outer disk can be traced to interactions as far back as 6-7 Gyr ago (corresponding to z 1). Given the apparently quiescent accretion history of the MW over this timescale, this places Sgr as the main culprit behind the vertical oscillations of the disc and the last major accretion event for the Galaxy with the capacity to modulate its chemodynamical structure.

We examine the stellar haloes of the Auriga simulations, a suite of thirty cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical high-resolution simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies performed with the moving-mesh code arepo. We study halo global properties and radial profiles out to ∼ 150 kpc for each individual galaxy. The Auriga haloes are diverse in their masses and density profiles; mean metallicity and metallicity gradients; ages; and shapes, reflecting the stochasticity inherent in their accretion and merger histories. A comparison with observations of nearby late-type galaxies shows very good agreement between most observed and simulated halo properties. However, Auriga haloes are typically too massive. We find a connection between population gradients and mass assembly history: galaxies with few significant progenitors have more massive haloes, possess large negative halo metallicity gradients and steeper density profiles. The number of accreted galaxies, either disrupted or under disruption, that contribute 90% of the accreted halo mass ranges from 1 to 14, with a median of 6.5, and their stellar masses span over three orders of magnitude. The observed halo mass-metallicity relation is well reproduced by Auriga and is set by the stellar mass and metallicity of the dominant satellite contributors. This relationship is found not only for the accreted component but also for the total (accreted + in-situ) stellar halo. Our results highlight the potential of observable halo properties to infer the assembly history of galaxies.

Motivated by recent studies suggesting that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) could be significantly more massive than previously thought, we explore whether the approximation of an inertial Galactocentric reference frame is still valid in the presence of such a massive LMC. We find that previous estimates of the LMC's orbital period and apocentric distance derived assuming a fixed Milky Way are significantly shortened for models where the Milky Way is allowed to move freely in response to the gravitational pull of the LMC. Holding other parameters fixed, the fraction of models favoring first infall is reduced. Due to this interaction, the Milky Way center of mass within the inner 50 kpc can be significantly displaced in phase-space in a very short period of time that ranges from 0.3 to 0.5 Gyr by as much as 30 kpc and 75 km/s. Furthermore, we show that the gravitational pull of the LMC and response of the Milky Way are likely to significantly affect the orbit and phase space distribution of tidal debris from the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr). Such effects are larger than previous estimates based on the torque of the LMC alone. As a result, Sgr deposits debris in regions of the sky that are not aligned with the present-day Sgr orbital plane. In addition, we find that properly accounting for the movement of the Milky Way around its common center of mass with the LMC significantly modifies the angular distance between apocenters and tilts its orbital pole, alleviating tensions between previous models and observations. While these models are preliminary in nature, they highlight the central importance of accounting for the mutual gravitational interaction between the MW and LMC when modeling the kinematics of objects in the Milky Way and Local Group.

This paper explores the effect of the LMC on the mass estimates obtained from the timing argument. We show that accounting for the presence of the LMC systematically lowers the Local Group mass (M LG ) derived from the relative motion of the Milky Way-Andromeda pair. Motivated by this result we apply a Bayesian technique devised by Peñarrubia et al. (2014) to simultaneously fit (i) distances and velocities of galaxies within 3 Mpc and (ii) the relative motion between the Milky Way and Andromeda derived from HST observations, with the LMC mass (M LMC ) as a free parameter. Our analysis returns a Local Group mass M LG = 2.64 +0.42 −0.38 × 10 12 M at a 68% confidence level. The masses of the Milky Way, M MW = 1.04 +0.26 −0.23 × 10 12 M , and Andromeda, M M31 = 1.33 +0.39 −0.33 × 10 12 M , are consistent with previous estimates that neglect the impact of the LMC on the observed Hubble flow. We find a (total) LMC mass M LMC = 0.25 +0.09 −0.08 × 10 12 M , which is indicative of an extended dark matter halo and supports the scenario where this galaxy is just past its first pericentric approach. Consequently, these results suggest that the LMC may induce significant perturbations on the Galactic potential.