Related papers: Internal dynamics and dynamical friction effects i…
Uniquely among the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, Fornax hosts globular clusters. It remains a puzzle as to why dynamical friction has not yet dragged any of Fornax's five globular clusters to the centre, and…
We investigate the in-spiraling timescales of globular clusters in dwarf spheroidal (dSph) and dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies, due to dynamical friction. We address the problem of these timescales having been variously estimated in the…
We present a simplified analytic approach to the problem of the spiraling of a massive body orbiting within the dark halo of a dwarf galaxy. This dark halo is treated as the core region of a King distribution of dark matter particles, in…
We present new radial velocity results for 176 stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy, of which at least 156 are probable Fornax members. We combine with previously published data to obtain a radial velocity sample with 206 stars, of…
The dynamical friction timescale of massive globular clusters (GCs) in the inner regions of cuspy dark haloes in dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies can be much shorter than the Hubble time. This implies that a small fraction of the GCs is…
The dark matter dominated Fornax dwarf spheroidal has five globular clusters orbiting at ~1 kpc from its centre. In a cuspy CDM halo the globulars would sink to the centre from their current positions within a few Gyrs, presenting a puzzle…
The five globular clusters (GCs) of the Fornax dSph are puzzling for two reasons; the mass in GCs is high with respect to the galaxy's old stellar mass, and their survival and large distance (> 1 kpc) is at odds with naive expectations of…
We present new dynamical models of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) in which both the stellar component and the dark halo are described by analytic distribution functions that depend on the action integrals. In their most general form…
Globular clusters (GCs) act as massive probe particles traversing the dark matter halos of their host galaxies. Gravitational dynamical friction due to halo particles causes GC orbits to contract over time, providing a beyond-mean field…
The dynamical friction timescale for globular clusters to sink to the center of a dwarf elliptical galaxy (dE) is significantly less than a Hubble time if the halos have King-model or isothermal profiles and the globular clusters formed…
We use measurements of the stellar velocity dispersion profile of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy to derive constraints on its dark matter distribution. Though the data are unable to distinguish between models with small cores and those…
Many Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies are found in the Galactic halo along great circles in the sky. Some of these stellar systems are thought to be the fragments of larger parent galaxies which have once intruded into and were torn…
I summarize our recent results to use the orbits of globular clusters (GCs) in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy to learn more about dark matter (DM) properties. Our focus is on clarifying how dynamical friction (DF) from the DM…
The Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy has five massive globular clusters (GCs). They are often used for testing different dark matter and modified gravity theories, because it is difficult to reconcile their old stellar ages with the short…
We derive the distribution of the phantom dark matter in the eight classical dwarf galaxies surrounding the Milky Way, under the assumption that modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is the correct theory of gravity. According to their…
Using high-resolution N-body simulations we study the stellar properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies resulting from the tidally induced morphological transformation of disky dwarfs on a cosmologically motivated eccentric orbit around the…
The Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy is the most massive satellites of the Milky Way, claimed to be embedded in a huge dark matter halo, and the only among the Milky Way satellites hosting five globular clusters. Interestingly, their…
Observations of early-type dwarf galaxies in clusters often show that cluster dwarf members have significantly higher velocities and less symmetric distributions than cluster giant ellipticals, suggesting that these dwarfs are recently…
In this paper we briefly review the properties of the dwarf galaxy population at the core of the Fornax cluster, as well as the properties of the extraordinary rich globular cluster system and the cD halo around the central galaxy NGC 1399.…
We study the interplay between mass-loss and dynamical friction (DF) on the orbital decay of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the potential of the Milky Way (MW). Using a simplified single particle approach combined with a mass-loss…