_version_ 1866910934573776896
author Doliva-Dolinsky, Amandine
Mutlu-Pakdil, Burçin
Crnojević, Denija
Anbajagane, Dhayaa
Carlin, Jeffrey L.
Medoff, Jonah
Sand, David J.
Tollerud, Erik
Lim, Sungsoon
Bennet, Paul
Drlica-Wagner, Alex
Fielder, Catherine E.
Hargis, Jonathan R.
Herron, Kai
Hunter, Laura Congreve
Jones, Michael G.
Karunakaran, Ananthan
Peter, Annika H. G.
Romanowsky, Aaron J.
Spekkens, Kristine
Strader, Jay
Willman, Beth
Carballo-Bello, Julio A.
Cerny, William
Chaturvedi, Astha
Kallivayalil, Nitya
Martínez-Vázquez, Clara E.
Medina, Gustavo E.
Noël, Noelia E. D.
Pace, Andrew B.
Riley, Alex H.
Sakowska, Joanna D.
Smercina, Adam
Vivas, Kathy
Adamów, Monika
Bom, Clecio R.
Choi, Yumi
Ferguson, Peter S.
Navabi, Mahdieh
Zenteno, Alfredo
COLLABORATION, DELVE
author_facet Doliva-Dolinsky, Amandine
Mutlu-Pakdil, Burçin
Crnojević, Denija
Anbajagane, Dhayaa
Carlin, Jeffrey L.
Medoff, Jonah
Sand, David J.
Tollerud, Erik
Lim, Sungsoon
Bennet, Paul
Drlica-Wagner, Alex
Fielder, Catherine E.
Hargis, Jonathan R.
Herron, Kai
Hunter, Laura Congreve
Jones, Michael G.
Karunakaran, Ananthan
Peter, Annika H. G.
Romanowsky, Aaron J.
Spekkens, Kristine
Strader, Jay
Willman, Beth
Carballo-Bello, Julio A.
Cerny, William
Chaturvedi, Astha
Kallivayalil, Nitya
Martínez-Vázquez, Clara E.
Medina, Gustavo E.
Noël, Noelia E. D.
Pace, Andrew B.
Riley, Alex H.
Sakowska, Joanna D.
Smercina, Adam
Vivas, Kathy
Adamów, Monika
Bom, Clecio R.
Choi, Yumi
Ferguson, Peter S.
Navabi, Mahdieh
Zenteno, Alfredo
COLLABORATION, DELVE
contents We report the results of the deepest search to date for dwarf galaxies around NGC3109, a barred spiral galaxy with a mass similar to that of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), using a semi-automated search method. Using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), we survey a region covering a projected distance of $\sim$70 kpc of NGC 3109 ($D$ = 1.3 Mpc, $R_\mathrm{vir}\sim$ 90 kpc, $M\sim10^8M_\ast$) as part of the MADCASH and DELVE-DEEP programs. Through our resolved and newly designed semi-resolved searches, we successfully recover the known satellites Antlia and Antlia B. We identified a promising candidate, which was later confirmed to be a background dwarf through deep follow-up observations. Our detection limits are well defined, with the sample $\sim 80\%$ complete down to $M_V\sim-$8.0 , and includes detections of dwarf galaxies as faint as $M_V\sim-$6.0. This is the first comprehensive study of a satellite system through resolved star around an SMC mass host. Our results show that NGC 3109 has more bright ($M_V\sim-$9.0) satellites than the mean predictions from cold dark matter (CDM) models, but well within the host-to-host scatter. A larger sample of LMC/SMC-mass hosts is needed to test whether or not the observations are consistent with current model expectations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_05570
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The NGC3109 Satellite System: The First Systematic Resolved Search for Dwarf Galaxies Around a SMC-mass Host
Doliva-Dolinsky, Amandine
Mutlu-Pakdil, Burçin
Crnojević, Denija
Anbajagane, Dhayaa
Carlin, Jeffrey L.
Medoff, Jonah
Sand, David J.
Tollerud, Erik
Lim, Sungsoon
Bennet, Paul
Drlica-Wagner, Alex
Fielder, Catherine E.
Hargis, Jonathan R.
Herron, Kai
Hunter, Laura Congreve
Jones, Michael G.
Karunakaran, Ananthan
Peter, Annika H. G.
Romanowsky, Aaron J.
Spekkens, Kristine
Strader, Jay
Willman, Beth
Carballo-Bello, Julio A.
Cerny, William
Chaturvedi, Astha
Kallivayalil, Nitya
Martínez-Vázquez, Clara E.
Medina, Gustavo E.
Noël, Noelia E. D.
Pace, Andrew B.
Riley, Alex H.
Sakowska, Joanna D.
Smercina, Adam
Vivas, Kathy
Adamów, Monika
Bom, Clecio R.
Choi, Yumi
Ferguson, Peter S.
Navabi, Mahdieh
Zenteno, Alfredo
COLLABORATION, DELVE
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We report the results of the deepest search to date for dwarf galaxies around NGC3109, a barred spiral galaxy with a mass similar to that of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), using a semi-automated search method. Using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), we survey a region covering a projected distance of $\sim$70 kpc of NGC 3109 ($D$ = 1.3 Mpc, $R_\mathrm{vir}\sim$ 90 kpc, $M\sim10^8M_\ast$) as part of the MADCASH and DELVE-DEEP programs. Through our resolved and newly designed semi-resolved searches, we successfully recover the known satellites Antlia and Antlia B. We identified a promising candidate, which was later confirmed to be a background dwarf through deep follow-up observations. Our detection limits are well defined, with the sample $\sim 80\%$ complete down to $M_V\sim-$8.0 , and includes detections of dwarf galaxies as faint as $M_V\sim-$6.0. This is the first comprehensive study of a satellite system through resolved star around an SMC mass host. Our results show that NGC 3109 has more bright ($M_V\sim-$9.0) satellites than the mean predictions from cold dark matter (CDM) models, but well within the host-to-host scatter. A larger sample of LMC/SMC-mass hosts is needed to test whether or not the observations are consistent with current model expectations.
title The NGC3109 Satellite System: The First Systematic Resolved Search for Dwarf Galaxies Around a SMC-mass Host
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05570