2015MNRAS.453.2302Y

The recent discoveries of ultrafaint dwarf (UFD) galaxies in the vicinity of the Magellanic system support the expectation from cosmological models that such faint objects exist and are numerous. By developing a mass model of the Local Group and backward integrating the Magellanic Clouds' present kinematics, we find that the observed UFDs are consistent with their predicted locations if previously associated with the Large Magellanic Cloud as part of a loose association. We further demonstrate how these satellites are likely to have been processed by the Galactic hot halo upon accretion, with the implication that ongoing detections of extremely gas-rich objects on the periphery of the Galaxy and without clear stellar counterparts are analogous to the progenitors of these gas-deficient UFDs. We predict both the locations of other putative Magellanic satellites and the existence of ram pressure stripped, metal-poor HI clouds that are distinguishable from the local inventory of compact high velocity clouds and the extensive Magellanic Stream. Their respective distribution/kinematics are suspected to provide a novel constraint on the dynamical properties of the Galaxy.