Related papers: Interactions, Mergers and the Fundamental Mass Rel…
We use cosmological SPH simulations to investigate the effects of mergers and interactions on the formation of the bulge and disc components of galactic systems. We find that secular evolution during mergers seems to be a key process in the…
We study the effects of mergers on the structural properties of disc-like systems by using Smooth Particle Hydrodynamical (SPH) numerical simulations in hierarchical clustering scenarios. In order to assess the effects of mergers on the…
(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…
We use a suite of semi-empirical models to predict galaxy merger rates and contributions to bulge growth as functions of merger mass, redshift, and mass ratio. The models use empirical halo occupation constraints to identify mergers,…
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…
Galaxy evolution is in transition from an early universe dominated by hierarchical clustering to a future dominated by secular processes. These result from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral…
New observations in favour of a significant role of secular evolution are reviewed: central star formation boosted in pseudo-bulge barred galaxies, relations between bulge and disk, evidence for rejuvenated bulges. Numerical simulations…
Bulges and disks are major structural components that define galaxy morphology. The mass ratios of bulges and disks increase statistically with the galaxy mass, with the high-mass end occupied by elliptical galaxies. Although previous…
We carry out numerical simulations of dissipationless major mergers of elliptical galaxies using initial galaxy models that consist of a dark matter halo and a stellar bulge with properties consistent with the observed fundamental plane. By…
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…
In the current galaxy formation scenarios, two physical phenomena are invoked to build disk galaxies: hierarchical mergers and more quiescent external gas accretion, coming from intergalactic filaments. Although both are thought to play a…
Galaxies with Milky Way-like stellar masses have a wide range of bulge and black hole masses; in turn, these correlate with other properties such as star formation history. While many processes may drive bulge formation, major and minor…
The details of bulge formation via collapse, mergers, secular processes or their interplay remain unresolved. To start answering this question and quantify the importance of distinct mechanisms, we mapped a sample of three galactic bulges…
We present a theoretical model for the evolution of mass, angular momentum and size of galaxy disks and bulges, and we implement it into the semi-analytic galaxy formation code SAGE. The model follows both secular and violent evolutionary…
We study the effect of mergers on the morphology of galaxies by means of the simulated merger tree approach first proposed by Moster et al. This method combines N-body cosmological simulations and semi-analytic techniques to extract…
I review our understanding of classic dynamical scaling relations, relating luminosity, size and kinematics of early-type galaxies. Using unbiased determinations of galaxy mass profiles from stellar dynamical models, a simple picture has…
The mass aggregation and merger histories of present-day distinct haloes selected from the cosmological Millennium Simulations I and II are mapped into stellar mass aggregation and galaxy merger histories of central galaxies by using…
Galaxy mergers are considered as questionable mechanisms for the evolution of lenticular galaxies (S0's), on the basis that even minor ones induce structural changes that are difficult to reconcile with the strong bulge-disk coupling…
We use the Millennium I and II cosmological simulations to revisit the impact of mergers in the growth of bulges in central galaxies in the LCDM scenario. We seed galaxies within the growing CDM haloes using semi-empirical relations to…
In the context of the hierarchical formation of galaxies, we investigated the role played by mergers in shaping the scaling relations of galaxies, that is the projections of their Fundamental Plane onto the Ie-Re, Ie-Sigma, Ms-Re and…