Related papers: Shell Galaxies: Dynamical Friction, Gradual Satell…
Using N-body simulations of shell galaxies created in nearly radial minor mergers, we investigate the error of collision dating, resulting from the neglect of dynamical friction and of gradual disruption of the cannibalized dwarf.
Stellar shells observed in many giant elliptical and lenticular as well as a few spiral and dwarf galaxies presumably result from radial minor mergers of galaxies. We show that the line-of-sight velocity distribution of the shells has a…
The model of a radial minor merger proposed by Quinn (1984), which successfully reproduces the observed regular shell systems in shell galaxies, is ideal for a test-particle simulation. We compare such a simulation with a self-consistent…
The timescale for galaxies within merging dark matter halos to merge with each other is an important ingredient in galaxy formation models. Accurate estimates of merging timescales are required for predictions of astrophysical quantities…
Shell galaxies are understood to form through the collision of a dwarf galaxy with an elliptical galaxy. Shell structures and kinematics have been noted to be independent tools to measure the gravitational potential of the shell galaxies.…
In this paper we test the performance of explicit simulations of groups of galaxies, (i.e. simulations in which each galaxy is treated as a mass point and the physics of the interactions is modelled by specific analand the physics of the…
As the missing complement to existing studies of shell galaxies, we carried out a set of self-consistent N-body simulations of a minor merger forming a stellar shell system within a giant elliptical galaxy. We discuss the effect of a…
Numerical simulations of clusters of galaxies provide a unique way to follow the dynamics of these systems. The models reveal many characteristics of the merging process of subclusters: shock structure and strength, temperature distribution…
We study the infall of a subhalo in its parent halo due to dynamical friction. Using expected mass and spatial distributions of subhaloes, in unison with the derived infall time-scale, we calculate the expected merger stellar mass growth…
It has been proposed that mergers induce starbursts and lead to important morphological changes in galaxies. Most studies so far have focused on large galaxies, but dwarfs might also experience such events, since the halo mass function is…
We investigate the dynamical evolution of galaxies in groups with different formation epochs. Galaxy groups have been selected to be in different dynamical states, namely dynamically old and dynamically young, which reflect their early and…
Stellar shells are low surface brightness features in the form of open, concentric arcs, formed in close-to-radial collisions of galaxies. They occur in at least 10% of early-type galaxies and a small portion of spirals and their unique…
We have developed a simple yet surprisingly accurate analytic scheme for tracking the dynamical evolution of substructure within larger dark halos. The scheme incorporates the effects of dynamical friction, tidal mass loss and tidal heating…
Numerical simulations of cluster mergers reveal many characteristics of the merging process: shock structure and strength, observational signatures of the dynamical state, effects on the mass determination, turbulence and the evolution of…
We analyse the phase-space structure of simulated thick discs that are the result of a significant merger between a disc galaxy and a satellite. Our main goal is to establish what would be the characteristic imprints of a merger origin for…
An introductory exposition of Chandrasekhar's gravitational dynamical friction, appropriate for an undergraduate class in mec hanics, is presented. This friction results when a massive particle moving through a ``sea'' of much lighter star…
In this work we establish and test methods for implementing dynamical friction for massive black hole pairs that form in large volume cosmological hydrodynamical simulations which include galaxy formation and black hole growth. We verify…
The main goal of this paper is to set up a numerical laboratory for the study of the slow evolution of the density and of the pressure tensor profiles of an otherwise collisionless stellar system, as a result of the interactions with a…
In the current concordance cosmology small halos are expected to be completely dark and can significantly perturb low-mass galaxies during minor merger interactions. These interactions may well contribute to the diversity of the dwarf…
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…