Related papers: Utilizing Shell Galaxies
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…
Relying on the dramatic increase in the number of stars with full 6D phase-space information provided by the Gaia Data Release 3, we discover unambiguous signatures of phase-mixing in the stellar halo around the Sun. We show that for the…
Slow rotator galaxies are distinct amongst galaxy populations, with simulations suggesting that a mix of minor and major mergers are responsible for their formation. A promising path to resolve outstanding questions on the type of merger…
Galaxy mergers are traditionally one of the favoured mechanisms for quenching star formation. To test this paradigm in the context of modern cosmological simulations, we use the IllustrisTNG simulation to investigate the impact of…
We introduce and apply a new approach to probe the response of galactic stellar haloes to the interplay between cosmological merger histories and galaxy formation physics. We perform dark matter-only, zoomed simulations of two Milky…
We show that the kinematics of the shells seen around some elliptical galaxies provide a new, independent means for measuring the gravitational potentials of elliptical galaxies out to large radii. A numerical simulation of a set of shells…
Stellar halos are the only major stellar component of disk galaxies that lack systematic observational characterization, yet they encode critical information about galaxy merger histories. We present the first systematic census of stellar…
Stellar shells observed in many giant elliptical and lenticular as well as a few spiral and dwarf galaxies, presumably result from galaxy mergers. Line-of-sight velocity distributions of the shells could, in principle, if measured with a…
In the context of exploring mass distributions of dark matter haloes in giant ellipticals, we extend the analysis carried out Merrifield and Kuijken (1998) for stellar line profiles of shells created in nearly radial mergers of galaxies. We…
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.…
We present an improved study of the expected shape of the line-of-sight velocity distribution in shell galaxies. We found a simple analytical expression connecting prominent and in principle observable characteristics of the line profile…
Galaxies accrete their mass by means of both smooth accretion from the cosmic web, and the mergers of smaller entities. We wish to quantify the respective role of these two modes of accretion, which could determine the morphological types…
Shell galaxies are widely considered the debris of recent accretion/merging episodes. Their high frequency in low density environment suggests that such episodes could be among the driver of the early-type galaxy secular evolution. We…
This paper explores the mapping between the observable properties of a stellar halo in phase- and abundance-space and the parent galaxy's accretion history in terms of the characteristic epoch of accretion and mass and orbits of progenitor…
AIM:Learn more about the origin of shells and dust in early type galaxies. METHOD: V-I colours of shells and underlying galaxies are derived, using HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) data. A galaxy model is made locally in wedges and…
We perform a comprehensive estimate of the frequency of galaxy mergers and their impact on star formation over z~0.24--0.80 (lookback time T_b~3--7 Gyr) using 3698 (M*>=1e9 Msun) galaxies with GEMS HST, COMBO-17, and Spitzer data. Our…
One-dimensional (1D) stellar evolution models are widely used across various astrophysical fields, however they are still dominated by important uncertainties that deeply affect their predictive power. Among those, the merging of…
Globular clusters (GCs) are some of the most visible tracers of the merging and accretion history of galaxy halos. Metal-poor GCs, in particular, are thought to arrive in massive galaxies largely through dry, minor merging events, but it is…
Galaxies with Milky Way-like stellar masses have a wide range of bulge and black hole masses; in turn, these correlate with other properties such as star formation history. While many processes may drive bulge formation, major and minor…
We employ a high-resolution LCDM N-body simulation to present merger rate predictions for dark matter halos and investigate how common merger-related observables for galaxies--such as close pair counts, starburst counts, and the…