2013MNRAS.429..159G

Recently, Widrow and collaborators announced the discovery of vertical density waves in the Milky Way disc. Here we investigate a scenario where these waves were induced by the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy as it plunged through the Galaxy. Using numerical simulations, we find that the Sagittarius impact produces north-south asymmetries and vertical wave-like behaviour that qualitatively agrees with what is observed. The extent to which vertical modes can radially penetrate into the disc, as well as their amplitudes, depends on the mass of the perturbing satellite. We show that the mean height of the disc is expected to vary more rapidly in the radial than in the azimuthal direction. If the observed vertical density asymmetry is indeed caused by vertical oscillations, we predict radial and azimuthal variations of the mean vertical velocity, correlating with the spatial structure. These variations can have amplitudes as large as 8 km s-1.