The LMC Corona Favors a First Passage

Abstract We use constrained idealized simulations of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)/Milky Way interaction to determine if the size of the LMC’s gaseous halo (Corona) can be used to distinguish between first and second passage models—an orbital trajectory for the LMC in which it has just recently approached the Milky Way for the first time (first passage) or one in which it has had a previous pericenter (second passage). Using live circumgalactic gas particles combined with analytic dark matter potentials evolved to follow previously published orbital trajectories, we find that the first passage model is able to reproduce the observed velocity profile and column density profile of the present day LMC Corona. On the other hand, in a second passage scenario, the longer interaction time leads to the velocities and column densities around the LMC at the present day being significantly lower than observations. Based on this observed velocity profile, recent works have found that the LMC’s Corona has been truncated to 17–20 kpc, and we find truncation radii of 16.6 ± 0.5 kpc and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>5</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2.2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.8</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> kpc for the first and second passage models, respectively. Thus, based on the gas properties of the LMC’s circumgalactic medium at the present day, a second passage trajectory is strongly disfavored.