Related papers: Dynamical consequences of CDM merger trees
Stellar shells observed in many giant elliptical and lenticular as well as a few spiral and dwarf galaxies presumably result from radial minor mergers of galaxies. We show that the line-of-sight velocity distribution of the shells has a…
The hierarchical scenario of structure formation describes how objects like galaxies and galaxy clusters are formed by mergers of small objects. In this scenario, mergers of galaxies can lead to the formation of massive black hole (MBH)…
Building galaxy merger trees from a state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamics simulation, Horizon-AGN, we perform a statistical study of how mergers and smooth accretion drive galaxy morphologic properties above $z > 1$. More…
(ABRIDGED) We examine the fundamental scaling relations of elliptical galaxies formed through mergers. Using hundreds of simulations to judge the impact of progenitor galaxy properties on merger remnants, we find that gas dissipation…
This review focuses on how galaxies and their globular cluster systems form. I first discuss the now fairly convincing evidence that some globular clusters form in galaxy starbursts/mergers. One way these observations are valuable is they…
There are strong correlations between the three structural properties of elliptical galaxies -- stellar mass, velocity dispersion and size -- in the form of a tight "fundamental plane" and a "scaling relation" between each pair. Major…
We study the formation and evolution of small groups of galaxies using new Monte Carlo simulations. These are directly based on the random walk approach to the statistics of condensations collapsing by gravitational instability, and the…
We study resolution effects in numerical simulations of gas-rich and gas-poor major mergers, and show that the formation of slowly-rotating elliptical galaxies often requires a resolution that is beyond the present-day standards to be…
When following the growth of structure in the Universe, we propose replacing merger trees with merger graphs, in which haloes can both merge and split into separate pieces. We show that this leads to smoother mass growth and eliminates…
Halo merger trees describe the hierarchical mass assembly of dark matter haloes, and are the backbone for modeling galaxy formation and evolution. Merger trees constructed using Monte Carlo algorithms based on the extended Press-Schechter…
The colour-magnitude relation (CMR) of cluster ellipticals has been widely used to constrain their star formation histories (SFHs) and to discriminate between the monolithic and merger paradigms of elliptical galaxy formation. We…
To probe the progenitors of the numerous massive spirals requires to dissect distant galaxy properties through spatially-resolved kinematics, detailed morphologies and photometry from UV to mid-IR. So far IMAGES is the only representative…
We use large volume, high resolution, N-body simulations of 3 different $\Lambda$CDM models, with different clustering strengths, to generate dark matter halo merging histories. Over the reliable range of halo masses, roughly galaxy groups…
Many recent observations and numerical simulations suggest that nearby massive, early-type galaxies were formed through a "two-phase" process. In the proposed second phase, the extended stellar envelope was accumulated through many dry…
Dissipationless (gas-free or "dry") mergers have been suggested to play a major role in the formation and evolution of early-type galaxies, particularly in growing their mass and size without altering their stellar populations. We perform a…
In this paper, we present a model of the formation and chemical enrichment of elliptical galaxies that differs from the conventional picture in two ways: 1)Ellipticals do not form in a single monolithic collapse and burst of star formation…
We describe high resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of three approximately $M_*$ field galaxies starting from \LCDM initial conditions. The simulations are made intentionally simple, and include photoionization,…
A modified version of the extended Press-Schechter model for the growth of dark-matter haloes was introduced in two previous papers with the aim at explaining the mass-density relation shown by haloes in high-resolution cosmological…
We present a new Monte-Carlo algorithm to generate merger trees describing the formation history of dark matter halos. The algorithm is a modification of the algorithm of Cole et al (2000) used in the GALFORM semi-analytic galaxy formation…
We present a new method for calculating the merger history of matter halos in hierarchical clustering cosmologies. The linear density field is smoothed on a range of scales, these are then ordered in decreasing density and a merger tree…