Related papers: Cusps and Triaxiality
We reformulate the stellar structure equations in the language of dynamical systems and show that the maximum mass of stellar sequences arises from the existence of a fixed point in the relativistic regime. In an appropriate representation…
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 three-body problem has been studied for more than three centuries [1,2], and has received much attention in recent years [3-5]. It shows complex dynamical phenomena due to the mutual gravitational interaction of the three bodies. Triple…
Current observational constraints on the dynamical evolution of star clusters are reviewed. Theory and observations now agree nicely on the mass dependency and time scales for disruption of young star clusters in galactic disks, but many…
It is routinely assumed that galaxy rotation curves are equal to their circular velocity curves (modulo some corrections) such that they are good dynamical mass tracers. We take a visualisation-driven approach to exploring the limits of the…
Using semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, the origin of boxy and disky elliptical galaxies is investigated. We find that the simple scenario, motivated by N-body simulations, in which the isophotal shape is only dependent on the…
Measuring the distribution of mass on galaxy cluster scales is a crucial test of the Lambda CDM model, providing constraints on the nature of dark matter. Recent work investigating mass distributions of individual galaxy clusters using…
A standard paradigm is now available for the recent evolution (z < 10) of structure on galactic and larger scales. Most of the matter is assumed to be dark and dissipationless and to cluster hierarchically from gaussian initial conditions.…
We investigate the stability of trajectories in barred galaxies with mildly triaxial halos by means of Liapunov exponents. This method is perfectly suitable for time-dependent 3D potentials where surfaces of sections and other simple…
We present a detailed analysis of dark matter halo shapes, studying how the distributions of ellipticity, prolateness and axial ratios evolve as a function of time and mass. With this purpose in mind, we analysed the results of three…
The evolution of galaxies is governed by equations with chaotic solutions: gravity and compressible hydrodynamics. While this micro-scale chaos and stochasticity has been well studied, it is poorly understood how it couples to macro-scale…
The concentrations of the cuspy dark matter halos predicted by simulations of cold dark matter are related to the cosmology in which the halos form. Observational constraints on halo concentration therefore map into constraints on…
We study density cusps in the center of clusters of galaxies to reconcile X-ray mass estimates with gravitational lensing masses. For various mass density models with cusps we compute X-ray surface brightness distribution, and fit them to…
Orbits are the key building blocks of any density distribution and their study helps us understand the kinematical structure and the evolution of galaxies. Here we investigate orbits in a tidally induced bar of a dwarf galaxy, using an…
We present fully nonparametric estimates of the frequency function of elliptical galaxy intrinsic shapes under the axisymmetric and triaxial hypotheses. If elliptical galaxies are assumed to be oblate or prolate, the frequency function of…
We test the hypothesis that metal-poor globular clusters form within disk galaxies at redshifts z>3. Numerical simulations demonstrate that giant gas clouds, which are cold and dense enough to produce massive star clusters, assemble…
We use probability density functions (pdfs) of sums of orbit coordinates, over time intervals of the order of one Hubble time, to distinguish weakly from strongly chaotic orbits in a barred galaxy model. We find that, in the weakly chaotic…
Weak gravitational lensing studies of galaxy clusters often assume a spherical cluster model to simplify the analysis, but some recent studies have suggested this simplifying assumption may result in large biases in estimated cluster masses…
We compare the apparent axial ratio distributions of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) and normal ellipticals (Es) in our sample of 75 galaxy clusters from the WINGS survey. Most BCGs in our clusters (69%) are classified as cD galaxies. The…
We have combined Halpha and recent high resolution CO(J=1-0) data to consider the quantitative relation between gas mass and star formation rate, or the so-called Schmidt law in nearby spiral galaxies at regions of high molecular density.…