ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF STRUCTURE FOR GALAXIES IN THE LOCAL GROUP

The Milky Way did not form in isolation, but is the product of a complex evolution of generations of mergers, collapses, star formation, supernovae and collisional heating, radiative and collisional cooling, and ejected nucleosynthesis. Moreover, all of this occurs in the context of the cosmic expansion, the formation of cosmic filaments, dark-matter haloes, spiral density waves, and emerging dark energy. This paper summarizes a review of recent attempts to reconstruct this complex evolution. We compare simulated properties with various observed properties of the Local Group. Among the generic features of simulated systems is the tendency for galactic halos to form within the dark matter filaments that define a supergalactic plane. Gravitational interaction along this structure leads to a streaming flow toward the two dominant galaxies in the cluster. We analyze this alignment and streaming flow and compare with the observed properties of Local-Group galaxies. Our comparison with Local Group properties suggests that some dwarf galaxies in the Local Group are part of a local streaming flow. These simulations also suggest that a significant fraction of the Galactic halo formed at large distances and arrived later along these streaming flows.