Effects of the Galactic bar and a satellite galaxy on the Milky Way

Abstract

The detection of different kinematic disturbances in observational data from our Galaxy suggests its sensitivity to perturbations and opens door to a perturbation by one or more agents in the formation of spiral arms in the Milky Way. In this project, we created a framework for easy and fast simulation of the effects of various perturbations in a galaxy and used it to simulate various scenarios combining the growth of a bar structure at the centre of the galaxy, and the approach of a satellite galaxy. We find that the events seem to overlap resulting in more complex structures for the early stages of evolution; while for later years the order or time separation of the events does not have a significant change to the outcome of the galaxy, where each region is dominated by a single agent (with the bar dominating at inner regions while the satellite perturbation does at outer radius) colliding near the Outer Lindblad Resonance (8 kpc in our simulations)