Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): In Search of Milky-Way Magellanic Cloud
  Analogues
  Analysing all Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) galaxies within a factor two
(+/- 0.3 dex) of the stellar mass of the Milky Way (MW), there is a 11.9%
chance that one of these galaxies will have a close companion (within a
projected separation of 70 kpc and radial separation of 400 km/s) that is at
least as massive as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Two close companions at
least as massive as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are rare at the 3.4%
level. Two full analogues to the MW- LMC-SMC system were found in GAMA (all
galaxies late-type and star forming), suggesting such a combination of close
together, late-type, star-forming galaxies is rare: only 0.4% of MW mass
galaxies (in the range where we could observe both the LMC and SMC) have such a
system. In summary, the MW-LMC-SMC system is a 2.7? event (when recast into
Gaussian statistics).
  Using cross-correlation comparisons we find that there is a preference for
SMC- LMC binary pair analogues to be located within 2 Mpc of a range of
different lumi- nosity groups. There is a particular preference is for such
binaries to be located near LG luminosity systems. When these groups are
subdivided into small magnitude gap and large magnitude gap subsets, the
binaries prefer to be spatially associated with the small magnitude gap
systems. These systems will be dynamically less evolved, but still offer the
same amount of gravitational dark matter. This suggests that binaries such as
the SMC-LMC might be transient systems, usually destroyed during vigorous
merger events. Details of a particularly striking analogue to the MW-SMC-LMC
and M31 complex are included.
