Related papers: A minor-merger origin for inner disks and rings in…
Recent observations show that inner discs and rings (IDs and IRs, henceforth) are not preferably found in barred galaxies, a fact that points to the relevance of formation mechanisms different to the traditional bar-origin scenario. In…
A large fraction of bulgeless disk galaxies contain young compact stellar systems at their centers, in spite of the local gravitational stability of these disks. We evaluate two contrasting hypotheses for the origin of the nuclear star…
All the four giant planets in our Solar System have rings, but their characteristics are very different. The rings consist of a number of small particles, although individual particles have not been directly imaged. Near the central planet,…
Mergers between gas--rich disks and less--massive dwarf galaxies are studied using numerical simulation. As the orbit of a satellite decays through dynamical friction, the primary disk develops large-amplitude spirals in response to its…
Multiple, sequential mergers are unavoidable in the hierarchical build-up picture of galaxies, in particular for the minor mergers that are frequent and highly likely to have occured several times for most present-day galaxies. However, the…
We present simulations of the formation of thick disks via the accretion of two-component satellites onto a pre-existing thin disk. Our goal is to establish the detailed characteristics of the thick disks obtained in this way, as well as…
Galaxy mergers are a fundamental part of galaxy evolution. To study the resulting mass distributions of different kinds of galaxy mergers, we present a simulation suite of 36 high-resolution isolated merger simulations, exploring a wide…
Using test particle simulations we examine the structure of the outer Galactic disk as it is perturbed by a satellite in a tight eccentric orbit about the Galaxy. A satellite of mass a few times 10^9 Msol can heat the outer Galactic disk,…
We perform fully self-consistent stellar dynamical simulations of the accretion of a companion ("satellite") galaxy by a large disk galaxy to investigate the interaction between the disk, halo, and satellite components of the system during…
We have investigated the dynamics of the merging process in the minor merger hypothesis for active galactic nuclei. We find that for a satellite galaxy to be able to merge directly with the nucleus of the host galaxy (for example, to give…
We numerically investigate stellar and gas dynamics in star-forming and dissipative galaxy mergers between two disk galaxies with specific orbital configurations. We find that violent relaxation combined with gaseous dissipation in galaxy…
Nuclear Star Clusters (NSCs) are commonly observed in the centres of most galactic nuclei, including our own Milky Way. While their study can reveal important information about the build-up of the innermost regions of galaxies, the physical…
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…
By means of N-body simulations we investigate the impact of minor mergers on the angular momentum and dynamical properties of the merger remnant. Our simulations cover a range of initial orbital characteristics and gas-to-stellar mass…
We study the distribution of orbital eccentricities of stars in thick disks generated by the heating of a pre-existing thin stellar disk through a minor merger (mass ratio 1:10), using N-body/SPH numerical simulations of interactions that…
Using three fiducial Nbody+SPH simulations, we follow the merging of two disk galaxies with a hot gaseous halo component each, and examine whether the merger remnant can be a spiral galaxy. The stellar progenitor disks are destroyed by…
The Galactic Center hosts a rotating disk of young stars between 0.05 and 0.5 pc of Sgr A*. The ``S-stars'' at a distance $<0.04$ pc, however, are on eccentric orbits with nearly isotropically distributed inclinations. The dynamical origin…
The recent discovery of narrow rings around minor bodies has raised many questions regarding their origin and current dynamics. Sharp ring boundaries seem indicative of shepherding moonlets, but none have been found. All rings lie close to…
By means of N-body/SPH simulations we investigate the morphological properties of thick disks formed through minor mergers. We show that the vertical surface density profile of the post-merger thick disk follows a sech function and has an…
Galaxy interactions can have an important effect in a galaxy's evolution. Cosmological models predict a large number of small satellites around galaxies. It is important to study the effect that these small satellites can have on the host.…