On the Effect of the Large Magellanic Cloud on the Orbital Poles of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies

Abstract The reflex motion and distortion of the Milky Way (MW) halo caused by infall a massive Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has been demonstrated to result in an excess orbital poles dark matter particles toward LMC pole. This was suggested help explain observed preference MW satellite galaxies coorbit along Vast Polar Structure (VPOS). We test this idea correcting positions velocities satellites for Galactocentric-distance-dependent shifts inferred from LMC-infall simulation. While should substantially reduce clustering if it were mainly LMC, we instead find that strong remains preserved. confirm initial study’s main with our simulation MW-LMC-like interaction, use identify two reasons why scenario is unable VPOS: (1) pole density enhancement very mild (∼10% within 50–250 kpc) compared (∼220%–300%), (2) sensitive specific angular momenta (AM) particles, higher-AM being affected least. Particles simulated halos tend follow more radial orbits (lower AM), so their are easily small offsets position velocity than objects tangential (higher such as dwarf surrounding MW. origin VPOS thus unexplained.