Related papers: Lost and found dark matter in elliptical galaxies
We analyze the mass distribution of stellar black holes derived from the light and radial velocity curves of optical stars in close binary systems using dynamical methods. The systematic errors inherent in this approach are discussed. These…
Elliptical (E) and spiral (S) galaxies follow tight, but different, scaling laws that link their stellar masses, radii, and characteristic velocities. Mass and velocity, for example, scale tightly in spirals with little dependence on galaxy…
We present results from two mid-infrared imaging programs of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and fine-structure elliptical galaxies. The former are known to nearly all be recent mergers between two gas-rich spiral galaxies, while…
A better understanding of the formation of mass structures in the universe can be obtained by determining the amount and distribution of dark and luminous matter in spiral galaxies. To investigate such matters a sample of 12 galaxies, most…
Compact elliptical galaxies are characterized by small sizes and high stellar densities. They are thought to form through tidal stripping of massive progenitors. However, only a handful of them were known, preventing us from understanding…
I will present recent theoretical results on the formation and the high redshift assembly of spheroids. These findings have been obtained by utilising different and complementary techniques: chemodynamical models offer great insight in the…
We investigate how 'extra' central light in the surface brightness profiles of cusp ellipticals relates to the profiles of ellipticals with cores. Cusp elliptical envelopes are formed by violent relaxation in mergers acting on stars in…
The dynamics of an elliptical galaxy within a couple of effective radii can be probed effectively by stars. However, at larger distances planetary nebulae (PNe) replace stars as the tracer of the dynamics. Making use of the motion of PNe,…
In the past years a wealth of observations has unraveled the structural properties of the Dark and Luminous mass distribution in spirals. These have pointed out to an intriguing scenario not easily explained by present theories of galaxy…
We study the internal response of a galaxy to an unbound encounter and present a survey of orbital parameters covering typical encounters in different galactic environments. Overall, we conclude that relatively weak encounters by low-mass…
Recent measurements of gas velocity in the outer parts of high redshift galaxies suggest that steeply falling rotation curves may be common, or even universal, in these galaxies, in contrast to the near universal flat, non-declining…
Theoretical considerations and observational data support the idea that mergers were more frequent in the past. At redshifts z = 2 to 5, violent interactions and mergers may be implicated by observations of Lyman-break galaxies, sub-mm…
We test the formation of low-luminosity elliptical galaxies through collisionless mergers of unequal-mass disk galaxies. The kinematic properties of a small survey of simulated merger end-products with initial disk mass ratios of 3:1 is…
We present the results of the HI observations of four dust-lane ellipticals. The HI detected is regularly distributed in disks or rings. Moreover, in three of the four objects we have detected a very large amount of neutral hydrogen with…
Globular cluster systems evolve, in galaxies, due to internal and external dynamics and tidal phenomena. One of the causes of evolution, dynamical friction, is responsible for the orbital decay of massive clusters into the innermost…
We are studying the mass distribution in a sample of 50 early type spiral galaxies, with morphological type betweens S0 and Sab and absolute magnitudes M_B between -18 and -22; they form the massive and high-surface brightness extreme of…
High spatial and spectral resolution observations of star formation and kinematics in early galaxies have shown that two-thirds are massive rotating disk galaxies with the remainder being less massive non-rotating objects. The line of sight…
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations reveal that the density of stars in most elliptical galaxies rises toward the center in a power-law cusp. Many of these galaxies also contain central dark objects,possibly supermassive black holes.…
Recent work on the construction of spherical, Axisymmetric and triaxial dynamical models for elliptical galaxies is reviewed briefly, including their role in providing evidence for dark halos and central black holes. The different orbital…
The merger history of a galaxy is thought to be one of the major factors determining its internal dynamics, with galaxies having undergone different types or mergers (e.g. dry, minor or major mergers) predicted to show different dynamical…