Related papers: Accretion Onto the Milky Way: The Smith Cloud
The Galaxy's population of High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) may include a subpopulation that is confined by dark matter minihalos and falling toward the Galactic disk. We present the first magnetohydrodynamic simulational study of dark…
Star formation occurs in molecular gas. In previous studies, the structure of the molecular gas has been studied in terms of molecular clouds, but has been overlooked beyond the cloud scale. We present an observational study of the…
We analyze the collective gravitational interaction among gas clouds in the inner regions of galactic disks and find that it leads to accretion at a rate $\sim M_{mc}\Omega (M_{mc}/M_t)^2$; where $M_{mc}$ is the molecular mass of the disk,…
On small scales there have been a number of claims of discrepancies between the standard Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model and observations. The 'missing satellites problem' infamously describes the overabundance of subhalos from CDM simulations…
We use cosmological SPH simulations to study the kinematic signatures of cool gas accretion onto a pair of well-resolved galaxy halos. Cold-flow streams and gas-rich mergers produce a circum-galactic component of cool gas that generally…
The selective light absorption in space has been raised in astronomical literature. The substance producing the absorption must have some mass; thus the question is how large it is. We develop a dynamical model of the Milky Way system,…
The radial number density and flattening of the Milky Way's stellar halo is measured with $\mathrm{5351}$ metal-poor ([Fe/H]$<-1$) K giants from LAMOST DR3, using a nonparametric method which is model independent and largely avoids the…
We use a distribution function analysis to estimate the mass of the Milky Way out to 100 kpc using a large sample of halo stars. These stars are compiled from the literature, and the vast majority (~98%) have 6D phase-space information. We…
In recent years, massive new spectroscopic data sets, such as the over half million stellar spectra obtained during the course of SDSS (in particular its sub-survey SEGUE), have provided the quantitative detail required to formulate a…
We discuss the support for the cooling of gas directly at the disk-halo interface as a mechanism to continually fuel a galaxy. This may be an important reservoir as there is not enough cold gas observed in galaxy halos and simulations…
While there is no lack of evidence for the accretion of stellar systems onto nearby galaxies, direct evidence for the accretion of gas without stars is scarce. Here we consider an inventory of starless gas "clouds" in and around galaxies of…
Galactic high-velocity clouds (HVCs) are known to be complex, multiphase systems consisting of neutral and/or ionized gas moving at high velocities relative to the rotation of the disk. In this work, we investigate Milky Way-like galaxies…
We study the properties of low-column density gas clumps in the halo of the Milky Way based on high-resolution 21-cm observations. Using interferometric data from the WSRT and the VLA we study HI emission at low-, intermediate- and high…
Star formation in most galaxies requires cosmic gas accretion because the gas consumption time is short compared to the Hubble time. This accretion presumably comes from a combination of infalling satellite debris, cold flows, and…
In chemodynamical evolution models it is usually assumed that the Milky Way galaxy forms from the inside-out implying that gas inflows onto the disk decrease with galactocentric distance. Similarly, to reproduce differences between chemical…
The Magellanic Stream, a tidal tail of diffuse gas falling onto the Milky Way, formed by interactions between the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, is primarily composed of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI). The deficiency of dust and the…
Recent observations suggest that some high-velocity clouds may be confined by massive dark matter halos. In particular, the proximity and proposed dark matter content of the Smith Cloud make it a tempting target for the indirect detection…
The physical properties of Milky Way Mgii-bearing gas remain poorly constrained due to the saturation of the near-UV doublet. We utilize the weaker Mgii $\lambda\lambda$1239, 1240 doublet from 482 archival HST/COS extragalactic sightlines…
Cold atomic and molecular gas are commonly observed in the winds of both external galaxies and the Milky Way, yet the survival and origin of these cool phases within hot galactic winds is poorly understood. To help gain insight into these…
Hundreds of high-velocity atomic gas clouds exist above and below the Galactic Centre, with some containing a molecular component. However, the origin of these clouds in the Milky Way's wind is unclear. This paper presents new…