English

Formation of globular clusters in galaxy mergers

Astrophysics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

Our numerical simulations first demonstrate that the pressure of ISM in a major merger becomes so high (>> 10510^5 kB\rm k_{\rm B} K cm3\rm cm^{-3}) that GMCs in the merger can collapse to form globular clusters (GCs) within a few Myr. The star formation efficiency within a GMC in galaxy mergers can rise up from a few percent to \sim 80 percent, depending on the shapes and the temperature of the GMC. This implosive GC formation due to external high pressure of warm/hot ISM can be more efficient in the tidal tails or the central regions of mergers. The developed clusters have King-like profile with the effective radius of a few pc. The structural, kinematical, and chemical properties of these GC systems can depend on orbital and chemical properties of major mergers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0308263,
  title  = {Formation of globular clusters in galaxy mergers},
  author = {Kenji Bekki and Warrick J. Couch and Duncan A. Forbes and M. A. Beasley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0308263},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

2 pages 1 figure (color), in the proceedings of Extragalactic Globular clusters and their host galaxies (JD6 in IAU)