Related papers: N-body simulations of interactions and mergings in…
A series of N-body simulations aimed to study the dynamics of small groups of galaxies are presented. The properties of small galaxy groups are very well reproduced, and those of Hickson's compact groups are well reproduced by the most…
Disc galaxies can be substantially modified by close encounters and mergers, since their discs are very responsive components. Close interactions can be held responsible for the formation of bridges and tails, as well as for the formation…
We study the evolution of disc galaxies in group environments under the effect of both the global tidal field and close-encounters between galaxies, using controlled N-body simulations of isolated mergers. We find that close-range…
I review recent progress from $N$-body simulations in our understanding of the secular evolution of isolated disk galaxies. I describe some of the recent controversies in the field which have been commonly attributed to numerics. The…
I present examples of how chemo-dynamical N-body simulations can help understanding the structure and evolution of the inner Galaxy. Such simulations reproduce the observed links between kinematics, morphology and chemistry in the bar/bulge…
We present the results of a self-consistent $N$-body simulation following the evolution of a primordial population of thick disc globular clusters (GCs). We study how the internal properties of such clusters evolve under the action of…
These lectures are intended to provide an introduction to the rich interplay between N-body simulations and stellar-kinematic observations of galaxies. The first section describes the kinematic properties of galaxies that are accessible to…
We present gravitational N-body simulations of the secular morphological evolution of disk galaxies induced by density wave modes. In particular, we address the demands collective effects place on the choice of simulation parameters, and…
Space-based observations are beginning to yield detailed information about the stellar kinematics at the very centers of galaxies, within the sphere of gravitational influence of the black hole. The structure and dynamics of these regions…
The evolution of compact groups of galaxies may represent one of the few places in the nearby universe in which massive galaxies are being forged through a complex set of processes involving tidal interaction, ram-pressure stripping, and…
We present the results of a series of numerical simulations aimed to study the evolution of a disc galaxy within the global tidal field of a group environment. Both the disc galaxy and the group are modelled as multi-component,…
We evolve for the first time in full general relativity a small, collisional N-body black hole cluster of arbitrary total mass M. The bound cluster is initially compact (radius R/M~10), stable, and consists of 25 equal-mass, nonspinning…
We use direct N-body simulations to investigate the evolution of star clusters with large size-scales with the particular goal of understanding the so-called extended clusters observed in various Local Group galaxies, including M31 and…
We consider the use of N-body simulations for studying the evolution of rich star clusters (i.e. globular clusters). The dynamical processes included in this study are restricted to gravitational (point-mass) interactions, the steady tidal…
We review what has been learned recently using N-body simulations about the evolution of globular clusters. While simulations of star clusters have become more realistic, and now include the evolution of single and binary stars, the…
I review the Marseille GRAPE systems and the N-body simulations done with them. I first describe briefly the available hardware and software, their possibilities and their limitations. I then describe work done on interacting galaxies and…
Multiple, sequential mergers are unavoidable in the hierarchical build-up picture of galaxies, in particular for the minor mergers that are frequent and highly likely to have occured several times for most present-day galaxies. However, the…
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…
In this thesis we study several aspects of dynamical evolution of stellar clusters. The results of more than 200 simulations of single-mass star clusters with different initial total mass, half-mass radius and galactocentric distance, are…
We describe the astrophysical and numerical basis of N-body simulations, both of collisional stellar systems (dense star clusters and galactic centres) and collisionless stellar dynamics (galaxies and large-scale structure). We explain and…