Milky Way Mass and Potential Recovery Using Tidal Streams in a Realistic Halo

Understand

We present a new method for determining the Galactic gravitational potential based on forward modeling of tidal stellar streams.

• We use this method to test the performance of smooth and static analytic potentials in representing realistic dark matter halos, which have substructure and are continually evolving by accretion.
• Our FAST-FORWARD method uses a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm to compare, in 6D phase space, an "observed" stream to models created in trial analytic potentials.
• We analyze a large sample of streams evolved in the Via Lactea II (VL2) simulation, which represents a realistic Galactic halo potential.