English
Related papers

Related papers: GalactiKit: reconstructing mergers from $z=0$ debr…

200 papers

In the $\Lambda$-Cold Dark Matter model of the Universe, galaxies form in part through accreting satellite systems. Previous work have built an understanding of the signatures of these processes contained within galactic stellar halos. This…

The standard picture of galaxy formation motivates the decomposition of the Milky Way into 3--4 stellar populations with distinct kinematic and elemental abundance distributions: the thin disk, thick disk, bulge, and stellar halo. To test…

There is increasing observational and theoretical evidence for a correlation between the metallicity and the mass of the stellar halo for galaxies with Milky Way-like stellar masses. Using the Illustris cosmological hydrodynamical…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-01-10 Richard D'Souza , Eric Bell

Stellar haloes form through the disruption of satellite galaxies over time, making them a promising observable for constraining galaxy merger histories. We use a dynamical decomposition technique to isolate the stellar haloes of Milky…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-09-03 Katy L. Proctor , Aaron D. Ludlow , Claudia del P. Lagos , Aaron S. G. Robotham

Previous studies have shown that disk warps can result from galaxy mergers. Recent research indicates a noticeable decline in the rotation curve (RC) of the Milky Way (MW), suggesting the need for a new low-mass model to describe its…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-30 Mingji Deng , Cuihua Du , Jian Zhang , Haoyang Liu , Zhongbcheng Li

Aims: We present a new method that uses luminosity or stellar mass functions combined with clustering measurements to select samples of galaxies at different redshifts likely to follow a progenitor-to-descendant relationship. As the method…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 Nelson Padilla , Daniel Christlein , Eric Gawiser , Danilo Marchesini

As galaxy formation and evolution over long cosmic time-scales depends to a large degree on the structure of the universe, the assembly history of galaxies is potentially a powerful approach for learning about the universe itself. In this…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-22 Christopher J. Conselice , Asa F. L. Bluck , Alice Mortlock , David Palamara , Andrew J. Benson

Since the chemical abundances of stars are the fossil records of the physical conditions in galaxies, they provide the key information for recovering the assembly history of galaxies. In this work, we explore the chemo-chrono-kinematics of…

The fraction of distant disks and mergers is still debated, while 3D-spectroscopy is revolutionizing the field. However its limited spatial resolution imposes a complimentary HST imagery and a robust analysis procedure. When applied to…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-23 F. Hammer , H. Flores , M. Puech

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…

The role that minor mergers have played in the formation and structure of the Milky Way is still an open question, about which there is much debate. We use numerical simulations to explore the evolution of debris from a tidally disrupted…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-28 Kathryn V. Johnston , Lars Hernquist , Michael Bolte

The Milky Way halo was predominantly formed by the merging of numerous progenitor galaxies. However, our knowledge of this process is still incomplete, especially in regard to the total number of mergers, their global dynamical properties…

Galaxy mergers are critical events that influence galaxy evolution by driving processes such as enhanced star formation, quenching, and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity. However, constraining the timescales over which these processes…

The Milky Way stellar halo contains relics of ancient mergers that tell the story of our Galaxy's formation. Some of them are identified due to their similarity in energy, actions and chemistry, referred to as the "chemodynamical space",…

We run numerical simulations of the disruption of satellite galaxies in a Galactic potential to build up the entire stellar halo, in order to investigate what the next generation of astrometric satellites will reveal by observing the halo…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Amina Helmi , P. Tim de Zeeuw

We study numerical simulations of satellite galaxy disruption in a potential resembling that of the Milky Way. Our goal is to assess whether a merger origin for the stellar halo would leave observable fossil structure in the phase-space…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Amina Helmi , Simon D. M. White

Tracking the formation and evolution of dark matter haloes is a critical aspect of any analysis of cosmological $N$-body simulations. In particular, the mass assembly of a halo and its progenitors, encapsulated in the form of its merger…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2022-03-16 Sownak Bose , Daniel J. Eisenstein , Boryana Hadzhiyska , Lehman H. Garrison , Sihan Yuan

Galaxy merger timescales are crucial for understanding and modeling galaxy formation in our hierarchically structured Universe. However, previous studies have reported widely varying dependencies of merger timescales on initial orbital…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-07-08 Kun Xu , Y. P. Jing

We model the formation of the Galactic stellar halo via the accretion of satellite galaxies onto a time-dependent semi-cosmological galactic potential. Our goal is to characterize the substructure left by these accretion events in a close…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-18 Facundo A. Gómez , Amina Helmi , Anthony G. A. Brown , Yang-Shyang Li

One of the generic predictions of modern cosmological models is that large galaxies should have experienced many mergers with smaller galaxies at some point in their past. Debris from such encounters will leave spatially distinct…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 James E. Taylor