Related papers: Dissipation and Extra Light in Galactic Nuclei: II…
The radial distribution of globular clusters in galaxies is always less peaked to the centre than the halo stars'. Extending previous work to a sample of HST globular cluster systems in ellipticals, we evaluate the number of clusters lost…
We analyze a sample of 23 supermassive elliptical galaxies (central velocity dispersion larger than 330 km s-1), drawn from the SDSS. For each object, we estimate the dynamical mass from the light profile and central velocity dispersion,…
Recent studies have shown that massive quiescent galaxies at high redshift are much more compact than present-day galaxies of the same mass. Here we compare the radial stellar density profiles and the number density of a sample of massive…
Using imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope, we derive surface brightness profiles for ultra-compact dwarfs in the Fornax cluster and for the nuclei of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster. Ultra-compact dwarfs are more extended…
We model explosions driven by the coalescence of a black hole or neutron star with the core of its massive-star companion. Upon entering a common envelope phase, a compact object may spiral all the way to the core. The concurrent release of…
Near-IR spectra for a sample of 31 elliptical galaxies in the Coma cluster are obtained. The galaxies are selected to be ellipticals (no lenticulars), with a large spatial distribution, covering both the core and outskirt of the cluster…
We present the formation of a Kinematically Decoupled Core (KDC) in an elliptical galaxy, resulting from a major merger simulation of two disk galaxies. We show that although the two progenitor galaxies are initially following a prograde…
We construct numerical models of mildly triaxial elliptical galaxies with central density cusps. Using a technique we call ``adiabatic squeezing'', we begin with a spherical gamma=1 Hernquist model and apply a drag to the velocities of the…
Globular Clusters (GCs) provide valuable insight into the properties of their host galaxies' dark matter halos. Using N-body simulations incorporating semianalytic dynamical friction and GC-GC merger prescriptions, we study the evolution of…
Deep exposure imaging of early-type galaxies (ETGs) are revealing the second-order complexity of these objects, which have been long considered uniform, dispersion-supported spheroidals. "Fine structure" features (e.g. ripples, plumes,…
We present the results of a numerical code that combines multi-zone chemical evolution with 1-D hydrodynamics to follow in detail the evolution and radial behaviour of gas and stars during the formation of elliptical galaxies. We use the…
We review the origin and structure of hot (cooling flow) gas in elliptical galaxies. X-ray observations can be used to determine the stellar mass to light ratio, the mass profiles of dark matter halos, and the interstellar magnetic field.…
We present N-body simulations of elliptical galaxy encounters into dry mergers to study the resulting unbound intergalactic stellar population, in particular that of the post-Main Sequence stars. The systems studied are pairs of spherical…
We run high resolution fully GPU N-body simulations to demonstrate that the dark matter distribution in M31 is well-fitted by a core-like profile. Rich observational data especially on the giant stellar stream provides stringent constraints…
We analyze the fundamental plane projections of elliptical galaxies as a function of luminosity, using a sample of approximately 80,000 galaxies drawn from Data Release 4 (DR4) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We separate brightest…
N-body simulations of major spiral-spiral mergers with different mass ratios q <= 4:1 are presented. All mergers lead to spheroidal stellar systems with de Vaucouleurs-like surface density profiles, resembling elliptical galaxies. The…
Using photometric and redshift data for the Virgo and Coma clusters, we present evidence for a correlation between the light concentration of elliptical galaxies (including dwarf ellipticals) and the local 3-D (i.e. non-projected) density…
We propose an analytical method to describe a matter density profile near a galaxy center. The description is based on the study of the distribution function of particles over possible trajectories. We establish a relation between the…
Shallow cores in bright, massive galaxies are commonly thought to be the result of scouring of stars by mergers of binary supermassive black holes. Past investigations have suggested correlations between the central black hole mass and the…
We investigate a model in which galactic nuclei form via the coalescence of pre-existing stellar systems containing supermassive black holes. Merger simulations are carried out using N-body algorithms that can follow the formation and decay…