Formation of Elliptical and S0 Galaxies by Close Encounters
Astrophysics
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
We study a possible formation mechanism for elliptical/S0 galaxies using N-body simulations with GRAPE. A close galaxy encounter which does not lead to a merger can induce a strong bar in an initially axisymmetric disk. This bar is unstable against bending oscillations and loses angular momentum to the dark halo. After 6 Gyrs the remnant is spheroidal with a de Vaucouleurs-type surface profile and has ellipticities and rotation properties comparable to observed elliptical/S0 galaxies: the system rotates fast (v/sigma \approx 1) and has disky isophotes.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9907417,
title = {Formation of Elliptical and S0 Galaxies by Close Encounters},
author = {Thorsten Naab and Andreas Burkert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9907417},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 Latex pages, 2 Postscript figures, uses paspconf.sty. To appear in ASP Conference Series, Vol. 182, Galaxy Dynamics, ed. D.Merritt, J. A. Sellwood and M. Valluri