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Related papers: Dynamical friction of massive objects in galactic …

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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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 M. Fellhauer , D. N. C. Lin

The splashback radius is one popular method of constraining the size of galaxy clusters, often measured through the logarithmic derivative of the galaxy number density profile. However, measuring the splashback radius through the galaxy…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-12 Talia M. O'Shea , Josh Borrow , Stephanie O'Neil , Mark Vogelsberger

An algorithm is described for evolving the phase-space density of stars or compact objects around a massive black hole at the center of a galaxy. The technique is based on numerical integration of the Fokker-Planck equation in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-03-01 David Merritt

Compact objects evolving in an astrophysical environment experience a gravitational drag force known as dynamical friction. We present a multipole-frequency decomposition to evaluate the orbit-averaged energy and angular momentum…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-09-22 Gali Eytan , Vincent Desjacques , Yonadav Barry Ginat

We study binary stars moving through a uniform dark matter background and experiencing dynamical friction. The centre-of-mass motion of the pairs is taken into account. We derive formulas and timescales for the secular evolution of the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-02-25 Nicolas Esser

This paper presents $N$-body and stochastic models that describe the motion of tracer particles in a potential that contains a large population of extended substructures. Fluctuations of the gravitational field induce a random walk of…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-10-16 Jorge Peñarrubia

We study the joint effect of tidal torques and dynamical friction on the collapse of density peaks solving numerically the equations of motion of a shell of barionic matter falling into the central regions of a cluster of galaxies. We…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. Del Popolo , M. Gambera

We present an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon of dynamical friction in a universe where the dark matter is composed entirely of so-called Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM), ultralight bosons of mass $m\sim\mathcal{O}(10^{-22})\,$eV. We review…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-15 Lachlan Lancaster , Cara Giovanetti , Philip Mocz , Yonatan Kahn , Mariangela Lisanti , David N. Spergel

We simulate the gravitational dynamics of a massive object interacting with Ultralight / Fuzzy Dark Matter (ULDM/FDM), non-relativistic quantum matter described by the Schrodinger-Poisson equation. We first consider a point mass moving in a…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2022-04-06 Yourong Wang , Richard Easther

We investigate dynamical self-friction, the process by which material that is stripped from a subhalo torques its remaining bound remnant, which causes it to lose orbital angular momentum. By running idealized simulations of a subhalo…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-06-29 Tim B. Miller , Frank C. van den Bosch , Sheridan B. Green , Go Ogiya

We investigated the orbital evolution of satellite galaxies using numerical simulations. It has been long believed that the orbit suffers circularization due to the dynamical friction from the galactic halo during orbital decay. This…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Yoshikazu Hashimoto , Yoko Funato , Junichiro Makino

The supersonic motion of gravitating objects through a gaseous medium constitutes a classical problem in theoretical astrophysics. Its application covers a broad range of objects and scales from planets up to galaxies. Especially the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-04-06 Daniel Thun , Rolf Kuiper , Franziska Schmidt , Wilhelm Kley

We consider the orbital evolution of satellites in galaxy mergers, focusing on the evolution of eccentricity. Using a large suite of N-body simulations, we study the phenomenon of satellite orbital radialization -- a profound increase in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-03-02 Eugene Vasiliev , Vasily Belokurov , Wyn Evans

Dynamic friction force, diffusion tensor, flux density in velocity space, and Coulomb collision term are expressed in curvilinear coordinates via Trubnikov potential functions corresponding to each species of background plasma. For…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2010-09-09 P. R. Goncharov

We follow the sinking of two massive black holes in a spherical stellar system where the black holes become bound under the influence of dynamical friction. Once bound, the binary hardens by three-body encounters with surrounding stars. We…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-06 Marc Hemsendorf , Steinn Sigurdsson , Rainer Spurzem

It is likely that cold molecular clouds form at high redshift, before galaxies. Considering these cold clouds instead of hot homogeneous gas as the main baryonic component of proto-galactic halos may affect several issues during galaxy…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 B. Semelin , F. Combes

We study the efficiency at which a black hole or dense star cluster spirals-in to the Galactic centre. This process takes place on a dynamical friction time scale, which depends on the value of the Coulomb logarithm ln(L). We determine the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Piero F. Spinnato , Michael Fellhauer , Simon F. Portegies Zwart

The dynamical evolution of the globular cluster systems in galaxies is predicted, based on the standard dynamical theory normalized to the example of the Milky Way. The major processes varying with the galactocentric distance are the tidal…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-28 Jeremiah P. Ostriker , Oleg Y. Gnedin

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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 G. Bertin , T. Liseikina , F. Pegoraro

(Abridged) Dynamical friction can be used to distinguish Newtonian gravity and modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) because it works differently in these frameworks. This concept, however, has yet to be explored very much with MOND. Previous…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-09-29 Michal Bílek , Hongsheng Zhao , Benoit Famaey , Oliver Müller , Pavel Kroupa , Rodrigo Ibata