Related papers: Dynamical friction and scratches of orbiting satel…
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 orbital decay of a perturber within a larger system plays a key role in the dynamics of many astrophysical systems -- from nuclear star clusters or globular clusters in galaxies, to massive black holes in galactic nuclei, to dwarf…
How fast a satellite decays its orbit depends on how slowly its mass is lost by tide. Motivated by inner halo satellite remnants like the Sgr and Omega Cen, we develop fully analytical models to study the orbital decay and tidal massloss of…
A fully analytical formulation is developed to make dynamical friction modeling more realistic. The rate for a satellite to decay its orbit in a host galaxy halo is often severely overestimated when applying ChandraSekhar's formula without…
The evolution of a small satellite inside a more massive truncated isothermal spherical halo is studied using both the Theory of Linear Response for dynamical friction and N-Body simulations. The analytical approach includes the effects of…
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…
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…
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…
Dynamical friction is the process responsible for matter transport toward the inner regions of galaxies in form of massive objects, like intermediate mass black holes, globular clusters and small satellite galaxies. While very bright…
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…
We present a dynamical friction model based on Chandrasekhar's formula that reproduces the fast inspiral and stalling experienced by satellites orbiting galaxies with a large constant density core. We show that the fast inspiral phase does…
Using analytic calculations and N-body simulations we show that in constant density (harmonic) cores, sinking satellites undergo an initial phase of very rapid (super-Chandrasekhar) dynamical friction, after which they experience no…
We carry out a set of self-consistent N-body calculations to investigate how important the velocity anisotropy in non-spherical dark-matter haloes is for dynamical friction. For this purpose we allow satellite galaxies to orbit within…
In this paper we study the infall, by dynamical friction, of rigid "satellites" taken in a variety of initial configurations and models. We thus measure how dynamical friction depends on the density concentration and on the pressure…
We derive a formalism, within the theory of linear response, for the analysis of the interaction of a satellite (the perturber) with a spherical galaxy whose equilibrium is described by a one-particle distribution function. We compute the…
We present a novel method to detect the effects of dynamical friction in observed galaxy clusters. Following accretion into clusters, massive satellite galaxies will backsplash to systematically smaller radii than less massive satellites,…
Dynamical friction is an important phenomena in stellar dynamics resulting in the slowing down of a test particle upon many two-body scatters with background particles. Chandrasekhar's original formulation, developed for idealized infinite…
In this paper we treat the problem of the dynamical friction decay of a massive object moving in an elliptical galaxy with a cuspidal inner distribution of the mass density. We present results obtained by both self-consistent, direct…
In the framework of the fluctuation-dissipation approach to dynamical friction, we derive an expression giving the orbital energy exchange experienced by a compound body as it moves interacting with a non homogeneous discrete background.…
Dynamical friction leads to an orbital decay of massive objects like young compact star clusters or Massive Black Holes in central regions of galaxies. The dynamical friction force can be well approximated by Chandrasekhar's standard…