The impact of two massive early accretion events in a Milky Way-like galaxy: repercussions for the buildup of the stellar disc and halo

Orkney, Matthew D. A.; Laporte, Chervin F. P.; Grand, Robert J. J.; Gómez, Facundo A.; van de Voort, Freeke; Marinacci, Federico; Fragkoudi, Francesca; Pakmor, Ruediger; Springel, Volker
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Advertised on:
11
2022
Number of authors
9
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
18
Refereed citations
16
Description
We identify and characterize a Milky Way-like realization from the Auriga simulations with two consecutive massive mergers $\sim 2$ Gyr apart at high redshift, comparable to the reported Kraken and Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus. The Kraken-like merger (z = 1.6, $M_{\rm Tot}=8\times 10^{10}\, \rm {M_{\odot }}$) is gas-rich, deposits most of its mass in the inner $10\,$ kpc, and is largely isotropic. The Sausage-like merger (z = 1.14, $M_{\rm Tot}=1\times 10^{11}\, \rm {M_{\odot }}$) leaves a more extended mass distribution at higher energies, and has a radially anisotropic distribution. For the higher-redshift merger, the stellar mass ratio of the satellite to host galaxy is high (1:3). As a result, the chemistry of the remnant is indistinguishable from contemporaneous in situ populations, making it challenging to identify through chemical abundances. This naturally explains why all abundance patterns attributed so far to Kraken are in fact fully consistent with the metal-poor in situ so-called Aurora population and thick disc. However, our model makes a falsifiable prediction: if the Milky Way underwent a gas-rich double merger at high redshift, then this should be imprinted on its star formation history with bursts about $\sim 2\,$ s apart. This may offer constraining power on the highest-redshift massive mergers.
Related projects
A view of our Milky Way galaxy with its close neighbors the Magellanic Clouds
Galaxy Evolution in the Local Group
Galaxy formation and evolution is a fundamental Astrophysical problem. Its study requires “travelling back in time”, for which there are two complementary approaches. One is to analyse galaxy properties as a function of red-shift. Our team focuses on the other approach, called “Galactic Archaeology”. It is based on the determination of galaxy
Matteo
Monelli