Structure, Kinematics, and Observability of the Large Magellanic Cloud's Dynamical Friction Wake in Cold vs. Fuzzy Dark Matter

Understand

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) will induce a dynamical friction (DF) wake on infall to the Milky Way (MW).

• The MW's stellar halo will respond to the gravity of the LMC and the dark matter (DM) wake, forming a stellar counterpart to the DM wake.
• This provides a novel opportunity to constrain the properties of the DM particle.
• We present a suite of high-resolution, windtunnel-style simulations of the LMC's DF wake that compare the structure, kinematics, and stellar tracer response of the DM wake in cold DM (CDM), with and without self-gravity, vs.