Related papers: Dynamical Friction in Cuspy Galaxies
The present work extends and deepens previous examinations of the evolution of globular cluster orbits in elliptical galaxies, by means of numerical integrations of a wide set of orbits in 5 self-consistent triaxial galactic models…
The different dynamical processes (relaxation, dynamical friction, tides and mergers) operating in groups and clusters are reviewed. The small-scale substructure observed in clusters is argued to be the remnants of the cores of rich…
Many astrophysical and galaxy-scale cosmological problems require a well determined gravitational potential which is often modeled by observers under strong assumptions. Globular clusters (GCs) surrounding galaxies can be used as dynamical…
For a rigid model satellite, Chandrasekhar's dynamical friction formula describes the orbital evolution quite accurately, when the Coulomb logarithm is chosen appropriately. However, it is not known if the orbital evolution of a real…
The standard cosmological model, now strongly constrained by direct observation at early epochs, is very successful in describing the structure of the evolved universe on large and intermediate scales. Unfortunately, serious contradictions…
Dynamical friction implies a consistency check on any system where dark matter particles are hypothesised to explain orbital dynamics requiring more mass under Newtonian gravity than is directly detectable. Introducing the assumption of a…
The dynamical evolution of galaxies in clusters is modified if dark matter is self-interacting. Heat conduction from the hot cluster halo leads to evaporation of the relatively cooler galactic halos. The stellar distribution would…
Different from Milky-Way-like galaxies, discs of gas-rich galaxies are clumpy. It is believed that the clumps form because of gravitational instability. However, a necessary condition for gravitational instability to develop is that the…
The central regions of galaxies show the presence of massive black holes and/or dense stellar systems. The question about their modes of formation is still under debate. A likely explanation of the formation of the central dense stellar…
Clusters of galaxies, the largest collapsed structures in the Universe, are located at the intersection of extended filaments of baryons and dark matter. Cosmological accretion onto clusters through large scale filaments adds material at…
We study the formation and the evolution of galaxy groups in a critical universe, showing the importance of secondary infall for their dynamical evolution. Merging is only slightly accelerated if galaxies have massive halos, because the…
A homogeneous sample of galaxy redshifts in the core regions (R < 0.5 h$^{-1}$ Mpc) of 12 clusters is used to measure the frequency of substructure with different tests. In 50 % of the cases substructure is detected, a frequency which…
The links between the internal structure of galaxy groups and clusters and cosmological parameters are reviewed here. The mass density profiles of clusters, inferred from both optical analyses of the galaxy surface number density profile…
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…
It has been known for some time that rotating bars in galaxies slow due to dynamical friction against the halo. However, recent attempts to use this process to place constraints on the dark matter density in galaxies and possibly also to…
A plausible dark matter candidate is an ultralight bosonic particle referred to as fuzzy dark matter. The equivalent mass-energy of the fuzzy dark matter boson is $\sim 10^{-22}$eV and has a corresponding de Broglie wavelength of kiloparsec…
This is a short note on the spatiotemporal complexity of the dynamical state(s) of the universe at subhorizon scales (up to 300 Mpc). There are reasons, based mainly on infrared radiative divergences, to believe that one can encounter a…
With the goal to refine modelling of shell galaxies and the use of shells to probe the merger history, we develop a new method for implementing dynamical friction in test-particle simulations of radial minor mergers. The friction is…
Using a recent homogeneous sample of 40 high quality velocity dispersion profiles for Galactic globular clusters, we study the low gravitational acceleration regime relevant to the outskirts of these systems. We find that a simple empirical…
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…