Related papers: The rate of secular evolution in elliptical galaxi…
It is shown how the violation of the invariance of the $Z$-component of the orbital angular momentum $L_z$ in the axially symmetric potential of the Galaxy with a bar can serve as an indicator of the degree of orbital chaos of globular…
Recent work on the equilibrium and stability of ellipsoidal stellar systems is reviewed. The absence of constant-density cores in early-type galaxies implies that chaos and high-order resonances are generic features of the motion in…
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…
We present a semi-analytical correction to the seminal solution for the secular motion of a planet's orbit under gravitational influence of an external perturber derived by Heppenheimer (1978). A comparison between analytical predictions…
A standard paradigm is now available for the recent evolution (z < 10) of structure on galactic and larger scales. Most of the matter is assumed to be dark and dissipationless and to cluster hierarchically from gaussian initial conditions.…
We extend the formalism of a previous paper to include the effects of flybys and instantaneous perturbations such as supernovae on the long-term secular evolution of hierarchical multiple systems with an arbitrary number of bodies and…
This paper summarises a numerical investigation of the statistical properties of orbits evolved in `frozen,' time-independent N-body realisations of smooth, time-independent density distributions, allowing for 10^(2.5)<N<10^(5.5). Two…
We use cosmological SPH simulations to investigate the effects of mergers and interactions on the formation of the bulge and disc components of galactic systems. We find that secular evolution during mergers seems to be a key process in the…
In the present article, we present a new gravitational galactic model, describing motion in elliptical as well as in disk galaxies, by suitably choosing the dynamical parameters. Moreover, a new dynamical parameter, the S(g) spectrum, is…
We investigate the dependence of ellipticities of clusters of galaxies on cosmological parameters using large-scale cosmological simulations. We determine cluster ellipticities out to redshift unity for LCDM models with different mean…
In a planetary system with two or more well-spaced, eccentric, inclined planets, secular interactions may lead to chaos. The innermost planet may gradually become very eccentric and/or inclined, as a result of the secular degrees of freedom…
The presence of celestial companions means that any planet may be subject to three kinds of harmonic mechanical forcing: tides, precession/nutation, and libration. These forcings can generate flows in internal fluid layers, such as fluid…
Adaptive SPH and N-body simulations were carried out to study the collapse and evolution of dark matter halos that result from the gravitational instability and fragmentation of cosmological pancakes. Such halos resemble those formed by…
We test the hypothesis that metal-poor globular clusters form within disk galaxies at redshifts z>3. Numerical simulations demonstrate that giant gas clouds, which are cold and dense enough to produce massive star clusters, assemble…
We present an analytical formalism to study the secular dynamics of a system consisting of N-2 planets orbiting a binary star in outer orbits. We introduce a canonical coordinate system and expand the disturbing function in terms of…
We study the secular gravitational dynamics of quadruple systems consisting of a hierarchical triple system orbited by a fourth body. These systems can be decomposed into three binary systems with increasing semimajor axes, binaries A, B…
We study the orbital evolution of a three planet system with masses in the super-Earth regime resulting from the action of tides on the planets induced by the central star which cause orbital circularization. We consider systems either in…
The angular momentum of galaxies is routinely ascribed to a process of tidal torques acting during the early stages of gravitational collapse, and is predicted from the initial mass distribution using second-order perturbation theory and…
In self-gravitating $N$-body systems, small perturbations introduced at the start, or infinitesimal errors that are produced by the numerical integrator or are due to limited precision in the computer, grow exponentially with time. For…
We review the observational evidence showing that luminous cluster elliptical galaxies are old stellar systems, undergoing mostly passive stellar evolution up to redshift $z\approx 1$, with approximate coeval epoch of formation. This…