LMS-1 accretion origin and associated GCs

I study the fossil record of the Milky Way: the stellar streams, disrupted globular clusters, and accreted dwarf galaxies that trace how our Galaxy came together. Using data from the DESI Milky Way Survey and galactic dynamics simulations, I look for tidal substructures in the halo and try to figure out where they came from.

Right now I’m using the particle-spray (Mock Stream) algorithm to detect tidal streams across the DESI Legacy Survey footprint, including tracing the LMS-1 stream and its globular clusters back to an ancient accretion event. More broadly, I’m curious how dark matter, both as a smooth halo and as clumpy subhalos, shapes the way stellar streams look and how easy they are to detect.

I use simulations to trace the phase-space origin of LMS-1 within a self-consistent Milky Way model, reconstructing the orbit and progenitor properties of the stream and its associated globular clusters. This lets me connect the debris we see today back to a specific accretion event, and more broadly, to how our Galaxy assembled over cosmic time (Farisi & Cooper 2026, in preparation).