Related papers: Dynamical consequences of CDM merger trees
Collisionless N-body simulations of merging disk-galaxies with mass ratios ($\eta$) of 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 have been performed using direct summation with the special purpose hardware GRAPE. The simulations are used to examine whether…
We present a series of hundreds of collisionless simulations of galaxy group mergers. These simulations are designed to test whether the properties of elliptical galaxies - including the key fundamental plane scaling relation, morphology…
We study whether dry merger-driven size growth of massive elliptical galaxies depends on their initial structural concentration, and analyse the validity of the homology hypothesis for virial mass determination in massive ellipticals grown…
We simulate the formation and chemodynamical evolution of 124 elliptical galaxies by using a GRAPE-SPH code that includes various physical processes associated with the formation of stellar systems: radiative cooling, star formation,…
We present preliminary results of numerical simulations of dissipationless merging of stellar systems, aimed at exploring the consequences of merging between gas free, spheroidal systems. In particular, we study the dynamical and structural…
We use numerical simulations to examine the structure of merger remnants resulting from collisions of gas-rich spiral galaxies. When the gas fraction of the progenitors is small, the remnants structurally and kinematically resemble…
We use semi-analytical modelling of galaxy formation to predict the redshift-size-evolution of elliptical galaxies. Using a simple model in which relative sizes of elliptical galaxies of a given mass correlate with the fraction of stars…
In models of galaxy formation in a hierarchical Universe, elliptical galaxies form through the merging of smaller disk systems. These models yield a number of testable predictions if reliable techniques for determining the relative ages and…
It is generally believed that major galaxy mergers with mass ratios in the range 1:1-3:1 result in remnants that have properties similar to elliptical galaxies, and minor mergers below 10:1 result in disturbed spiral galaxies. The…
Galactic spheroids can form as a result of galaxy interactions and mergers of disks. Detailed analyses of the photometric properties, the intrinsic orbital structure, the line-of-sight velocity distributions and the kinemetry of simulated…
There are many proposed mechanisms driving the morphological transformation of disk galaxies to elliptical galaxies. In this paper, we determine if the observed transformation in low mass groups can be explained by the merger histories of…
It is commonly accepted that a merger of two spiral galaxies results in a remnant with an elliptical-like surface-brightness profile. Surprisingly, our recent study (Chitre & Jog 2002) of the 2MASS data for twenty-seven advanced mergers of…
It is widely accepted that shell galaxies form as a result of a merger between an elliptical and a small disk galaxy. Simulations of the stellar component have shown that the shells are created either by ``phase-wrapping'' of debris on…
The effects of dry and wet merging on the Scaling Laws (SLs) of elliptical galaxies (Es) are discussed. It is found that the galaxy SLs, possibly established at high redshift by the fast collapse of gas-rich and clumpy stellar distributions…
We present a high-resolution simulation of globular cluster formation in a galaxy merger. For the first time in such a simulation, individual star clusters are directly identified and followed on their orbits. We quantitatively compare star…
We test the hypothesis that elliptical galaxies are formed by violent mergers in a universe with hierarchical structure formation. Within the framework of a semi-analytic scheme for galaxy formation, we predict the distribution of…
Mergers of gas-poor galaxies, so-called dry mergers, may play a fundamental role in the assembly of the most massive galaxies, and therefore, in galaxy formation theories. Using the SDSS, we have serendipitously discovered a rare system in…
A major goal of contemporary astrophysics is understanding the origin of the most massive galaxies in the universe, particularly nearby ellipticals and spirals. Theoretical models of galaxy formation have existed for many decades, although…
We review the observed properties of globular cluster systems and their implications for models of galaxy formation. Observations show that globular clusters form in gas-rich mergers, and that bimodal metallicity distributions are common in…
Several recent observations suggest that gas-poor (dissipationless) mergers of elliptical galaxies contribute significantly to the build-up of the massive end of the red sequence. We perform a series of major merger simulations to…