Wednesday

Recent results suggest that the LMC could be as massive as 2.5e11 solar masses, a significant fraction of the Milky Way mass. We simulate the tidal disruption of globular clusters around the Milky Way in the presence of the LMC and find that the streams which were close to the LMC during its pericenter are significantly perturbed. We show that if the LMC is neglected when constraining the Milky Way potential with tidal streams, the resulting potential will be biased, making the Milky Way halo appear artificially aspherical. Finally, we show that if the LMC is accounted for, an unbiased Milky Way potential can be recovered along with the mass of the LMC. Thus, the effect of the LMC must be accounted for when trying to determine the shape of the Milky Way halo. As a result, tidal streams around the Milky Way may prove an important tool to constrain the mass of the LMC.