Related papers: Old stellar counter-rotating components in ellipti…
The close relationship between mergers and the reorientation of the spin for galaxies and their host dark haloes is investigated using a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation (Horizon-AGN). Through a statistical analysis of merger trees,…
We carry out numerical simulations of dissipationless major mergers of elliptical galaxies using initial galaxy models that consist of a dark matter halo and a stellar bulge with properties consistent with the observed fundamental plane. By…
The correspondence between galaxy major mergers and starburst activity is well-established observationally and in simulations of low redshift galaxies. However, the evolution of the properties of interactions and of the galaxies involved…
Aims:In this study we investigate the evolution of shape and kinematics of elliptical galaxies in a cosmological framework. Methods: We use a set of hydrodynamic, self-consistent simulations operating in the context of a concordance…
Recent spectroscopic observations of planetary nebulae (PNe) in several elliptical galaxies have revealed structural and kinematical properties of the outer stellar halo regions. In order to elucidate the origin of the properties of these…
The Milky Way's stellar disk can tilt in response to torques that result from infalling satellite galaxies and their associated tidal debris. In this work, we explore the dynamics of disk tilting by running N-body simulations of mergers in…
We investigate detailed kinematical properties of simulated collisionless merger remnants of disk galaxies with mass ratios of 1:1 and 3:1. The simulations were performed by direct summation using the new special hardware device GRAPE-5. In…
Most transiting planets orbit very close to their parent star, causing strong tidal forces between the two bodies. Tidal interaction can modify the dynamics of the system through orbital alignment, circularisation, synchronisation, and…
I will present a review of some of the many recent developments within the exciting and rapidly evolving field of Interacting and Merging Galaxies. I will touch both on observations and on theory, focussing on those aspects where galaxy…
We use oblate axisymmetric dynamical models including dark halos to determine the orbital structure of intermediate mass to massive Coma early-type galaxies. We find a large variety of orbital compositions. Averaged over all sample galaxies…
To probe the progenitors of the numerous massive spirals requires to dissect distant galaxy properties through spatially-resolved kinematics, detailed morphologies and photometry from UV to mid-IR. So far IMAGES is the only representative…
With the goal to refine modelling of shell galaxies and the use of shells to probe the merger history, we develop a new method for implementing dynamical friction in test-particle simulations of radial minor mergers. The friction is…
We have investigated the impact of dissipationless minor galaxy mergers on the angular momentum of the remnant. Our simulations cover a range of initial orbital characteristics and the system consists of a massive galaxy with a bulge and…
We present a preliminary report on the dynamical evolution of triplets of spiral galaxies that lead to merger remnants that resemble an elliptical. We find that large projected stellar tidal tails ~200 Kpc can develop during the binary…
We present collisionless simulations of dry mergers in groups of three to twenty-five galaxies to test the hypothesis that elliptical galaxies form at the centers of such groups. Mock observations of the central remnants confirm their…
In this paper, we study the behavior of a pair of co-orbital planets, both orbiting a central star on the same plane and undergoing tidal interactions. Our goal is to investigate final orbital configurations of the planets, initially…
The influence of rotation on the dynamical evolution of collisional stellar systems is investigated by solving the orbit-averaged Fokker-Planck equation in (E,J_z)-space. We find that large amounts of initial rotation drive the system into…
We use numerical simulations to study the development of gas/star offsets in the tidal tails of merging galaxies. These offsets are shown to be a natural consequence of the radially extended HI spatial distribution in disk galaxies, coupled…
A number of theoretical and simulation results on star and structure formation in galaxy interactions and mergers is reviewed, and recent hydrodynamic simulations are presented. The role of gravity torques and ISM turbulence in galaxy…
We present a detailed investigation of the relation between the orbital content of merger remnants and observable properties of elliptical and S0 galaxies. Our analysis is based on the statistical sample of collisionless mergers of disk…