Related papers: Cusps and Triaxiality
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…
How elliptical galaxies form is a key question in observational cosmology. While the formation of massive ellipticals is strongly linked to mergers, the low mass (Mstar < 10^9.5 MSun) regime remains less well explored. In particular,…
The motions of galaxies can be used to constrain the cosmological density parameter Omega and the clustering amplitude of matter on large scales. The mean relative velocity of galaxy pairs, estimated from the Mark III survey, indicates that…
Mock member stars for 28 dwarf galaxies are constructed from the cosmological Auriga simulation, which reflect the dynamical status of realistic stellar tracers. The axis-symmetric Jeans Anisotropic Multi-Gaussian Expansion (JAM) modeling…
Two dimensional realizations of self-consistent models for the ``perfect elliptic disks'' were tested for global stability by gravitational N-body integration. The family of perfect elliptic disk potentials have two isolating integrals;…
Initially far out-of-equilibrium self-gravitating systems form, through a collisionless relaxation dynamics, quasi-stationary states (QSS). These may arise from a bottom-up aggregation of structures or in a top-down frame; their…
Simulations of the clustering of cold dark matter yield dark-matter halos that have central density cusps, but observations of totally dark-matter dominated dwarf spheroidal galaxies imply that they do not have cuspy central density…
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 investigate regular and chaotic two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) orbits of stars in models of a galactic potential consisting in a disk, a halo and a bar, to find the origin of boxy components, which are part of the bar or…
We have investigated the structural and dynamical properties of triaxial stellar systems whose surface brightness profiles follow the r^{1/n} luminosity law - extending the analysis of Ciotti (1991) who explored the properties of spherical…
We analyze a sample of 23 supermassive elliptical galaxies (central velocity dispersion larger than 330 km s-1), drawn from the SDSS. For each object, we estimate the dynamical mass from the light profile and central velocity dispersion,…
Holes and clumps in the interstellar gas of dwarf irregular galaxies are gravitational scattering centers that heat field stars and change their radial and vertical distributions. Because the gas structures are extended and each stellar…
Star complexes are the largest globular regions of star formation in galaxies. If there is a spiral density wave, nuclear ring, tidal arm, or other well-defined stellar structure, then gravitational instabilities in the gaseous component…
We use oblate axisymmetric dynamical models including dark halos to determine the orbital structure of intermediate mass to massive Coma early-type galaxies. We find a large variety of orbital compositions. Averaged over all sample galaxies…
Accurate measurement of the cluster mass function is a crucial element in efforts to constrain structure formation models, the normalisation of the matter power spectrum and the cosmological matter density, and the nature and evolution of…
We explore the possibility and practical limitations of using a three-line approach to measure both the slope and normalization of the dust attenuation law in individual galaxies. To do this, we focus on a sample of eleven galaxies with…
Tests for the intrinsic shape of the luminosity distribution in elliptical galaxies are discussed, with an emphasis on the uncertainties. Recent determinations of the ellipticity frequency function imply a paucity of nearly spherical…
The Bayesian MAMPOSSt mass/orbit modeling algorithm is used to jointly fit the distribution of elliptical, spiral (and irregular), and lenticular galaxies in projected phase space, on 3 stacked clusters (with normalized positions and…
The elliptical power-law (EPL) model of the mass in a galaxy is widely used in strong gravitational lensing analyses. However, the distribution of mass in real galaxies is more complex. We quantify the biases due to this model mismatch by…
We use the Made-to-Measure method to construct N-body realizations of self-similar, triaxial ellipsoidal halos having cosmologically realistic density profiles. Our implementation parallels previous work with a few numerical refinements,…