Related papers: Dynamical consequences of CDM merger trees
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…
Under the merger hypothesis, elliptical galaxies are built through mergers of gas-rich spirals. However, the relative paucity of HI in most normal ellipticals demands significant processing of atomic gas into other forms if this process is…
The formation of elliptical galaxies as a result of the merging of spiral galaxies is discussed. We analyse a large set of numerical N-Body merger simulations which show that major mergers can in principle explain the observed isophotal…
We investigate the evolution of dwarf galaxies using N -body/SPH simulations that incorporate their formation histories through merger trees constructed using the ex- tended Press-Schechter formalism. The simulations are computationally…
Recent studies have shown that massive galaxies in the distant universe are surprisingly compact, with typical sizes about a factor of three smaller than equally massive galaxies in the nearby universe. It has been suggested that these…
The tightness of the observed colour-magnitude and Mg$_{2}$- velocity dispersion relations for elliptical galaxies has often been cited as an argument against a picture in which ellipticals form by the merging of spiral disks. A common view…
A popular formation scenario for giant elliptical galaxies proposes that they might have formed from binary mergers of disk galaxies. Difficulties with the scenario that emerged from earlier studies included providing the necessary stellar…
The discovery of a population of massive, compact and quiescent early-type galaxies has changed the view on plausible formation scenarios for the present day population of elliptical galaxies. Traditionally assumed formation histories…
Most giant spiral galaxies have pseudo or disk-like bulges that are considered to be the result of purely secular processes. This may challenge the hierarchical scenario predicting about one major merger per massive galaxy ($>$$3\times…
The discovery of proto-globular cluster candidates in many current-day mergers allows us to better understand the possible effects of a merger event on the globular cluster system of a galaxy, and to foresee the properties of the…
Most elliptical galaxies contain central black holes, whose masses scale proportionally to the observed central velocity dispersions of the host galaxies according to the so-called Mbh-sigma relation. Here we discuss some consequences that…
The luminosity dependence of kinematical and isophotal properties of elliptical galaxies is investigated using numerical simulations of galaxy merging, combined with semi-analytical models of hierarchical structure formation. Mergers of…
In hierarchical models of galaxy formation, ellipticals form from the merging of disk galaxies drawn together by gravity as their surrounding dark halos coalesce. Using semi-analytic techniques, we are able to follow the merging, star…
In the last decades, extended old stellar clusters have been observed. These extended objects cover a large range in masses, from extended clusters or faint fuzzies to ultra compact dwarf galaxies. It has been demonstrated that these…
To show that the bulk of the star formation and the galaxy assembly should occur simultaneously in order to reproduce at the same time the downsizing and the chemical properties of present-day massive spheroids within one effective…
The last decade of research on elliptical galaxies has produced a wealth of new information concerning both their detailed structure and their global scaling relations. We review the old and new results about isophote shapes and…
As the missing complement to existing studies of shell galaxies, we carried out a set of self-consistent N-body simulations of a minor merger forming a stellar shell system within a giant elliptical galaxy. We discuss the effect of a…
Observations consistently show that elliptical galaxies follow a tight "fundamental plane" scaling relation between size, mean surface brightness and velocity dispersion, with the form $R \propto \sigma^{a}\mu^{b}$. This relation not only…
The origin of boxy and disky elliptical galaxies is investigated. The results of two collisionless N-body simulations of spiral-spiral mergers with mass ratios of 1:1 and 3:1 are discussed and the projected properties of the merger remnants…
High-resolution numerical simulations of galaxy mergers are analysed. The global structure and isophotal shapes of the merger remnants are in good agreement with the observations. Whereas equal-mass mergers lead to anisotropic, boxy…