High-resolution spectroscopy of the GD-1 stellar stream localizes the perturber near the orbital plane of Sagittarius

Abstract

The $100^{\circ }$-long thin stellar stream in the Milky Way halo, GD-1, has an ensemble of features that may be due to dynamical interactions. Using high-resolution MMT/Hectochelle spectroscopy we show that a spur of GD-1-like stars outside of the main stream are kinematically and chemically consistent with the main stream. In the spur, as in the main stream, GD-1 has a low intrinsic radial velocity dispersion, ${\sigma }_{V_r}\lesssim 1\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, is metal-poor, $[Fe/H]\approx -2.3$, with little $[Fe/H]$ spread and some variation in $[\alpha /Fe]$ abundances, which point to a common globular cluster progenitor. At a fixed location along the stream, the median radial velocity offset between the spur and the main stream is smaller than $0.5\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, comparable to the measurement uncertainty. A flyby of a massive, compact object can change orbits of stars in a stellar stream and produce features like the spur observed in GD-1. In this scenario, the radial velocity of the GD-1 spur relative to the stream constrains the orbit of the perturber and its current on-sky position to $\approx 5,000\mathrm{de}{\mathrm{g}}^2$. The family of acceptable perturber orbits overlaps the stellar and dark-matter debris of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in present-day position and velocity. This suggests that GD-1 may have been perturbed by a globular cluster or an extremely compact dark-matter subhalo formerly associated with Sagittarius.

Comments: submitted to AAS Journals