Is High-Velocity Cloud Complex C Associated with the Galactic Warp?

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

Daisuke Kawata¹ 

[1] Christopher Thom

关键词: ISM: clouds;    Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics;    methods: N-body simulations;   

DOI  :  10.1071/AS03028

学科分类：天文学(综合)

来源: CSIRO

【 摘 要 】

We test the hypothesis that high-velocity gas cloud Complex C is actually a high-latitude spiral arm extension in the direction of the Galactic warp, as opposed to the standard interpretation — that of a once extragalactic, but now infalling, gas cloud. A parallel Tree N-body code was employed to simulate the tidal interaction of a satellite perturber with the Milky Way. We find that a model incorporating a perturber of the mass of the Large Magellanic Cloud on a south to north polar orbit, crossing the disk at ˜15 kpc, does yield a high-velocity, high-latitude extension consistent with the spatial, kinematical, and column density properties of Complex C. Unless this massive satellite remains undiscovered because of either a fortuitous alignment with the Galactic bulge (feasible within the framework of the model), or the lack of any associated baryonic component, we conclude that this alternative interpretation appears unlikely.

【 授权许可】

Unknown