Related papers: Dynamical Friction in Stellar Systems: an introduc…
Dynamical friction is the process responsible for matter transport toward the inner regions of galaxies in form of massive objects, like intermediate mass black holes, globular clusters and small satellite galaxies. While very bright…
Dynamical friction is an important phenomena in stellar dynamics resulting in the slowing down of a test particle upon many two-body scatters with background particles. Chandrasekhar's original formulation, developed for idealized infinite…
In the framework of the fluctuation-dissipation approach to dynamical friction, we derive an expression giving the orbital energy exchange experienced by a compound body as it moves interacting with a non homogeneous discrete background.…
We consider the intermediate mass-ratio inspiral of a stellar-mass compact object with an intermediate-mass black hole that is surrounded by a dark matter density spike. The interaction of the inspiraling black hole with the dark matter…
The discovery of dynamical friction was Chandrasekhar's best known contribution to the theory of stellar dynamics, but his work ranged from the few-body problem to the limit of large N (in effect, galaxies). Much of this work was summarised…
We discuss dynamical friction in an $N$-body system in the presence of tidal interactions caused by a distant external source. Using the distant tide approximation, we develop a perturbation scheme for the calculation of dynamical friction…
The motion of a point like object of mass $M$ passing through the background potential of massive collisionless particles ($m << M$) suffers a steady deceleration named dynamical friction. In his classical work, Chandrasekhar assumed a…
Dynamical friction leads to an orbital decay of massive objects like young compact star clusters or Massive Black Holes in central regions of galaxies. The dynamical friction force can be well approximated by Chandrasekhar's standard…
For a rigid model satellite, Chandrasekhar's dynamical friction formula describes the orbital evolution quite accurately, when the Coulomb logarithm is chosen appropriately. However, it is not known if the orbital evolution of a real…
We study the dynamical response of extended systems, hosts, to smaller systems, satellites, orbiting around the hosts using extremely high-resolution N-body simulations with up to one billion particles. This situation corresponds to minor…
The analytical generalization of the classical dynamical friction formula (derived under the assumption that all the field particles have the same mass) to the case in which the masses of the field particles are distributed with a mass…
Dynamical friction implies a consistency check on any system where dark matter particles are hypothesised to explain orbital dynamics requiring more mass under Newtonian gravity than is directly detectable. Introducing the assumption of a…
Using analytic calculations and N-body simulations we show that in constant density (harmonic) cores, sinking satellites undergo an initial phase of very rapid (super-Chandrasekhar) dynamical friction, after which they experience no…
Chandrasekhar's most important contribution to stellar dynamics was the concept of dynamical friction. I briefly review that work, then discuss some implications of Chandrasekhar's theory of gravitational encounters for motion in galactic…
Dynamical friction is a fundamental and important phenomenon in astrophysics. The Chandrasekhar formula is a well-known analytical estimation of the effect. However, current astrophysicists have realized that the formula is not correct in…
Dynamical friction governs the orbital decay of massive perturbers within galaxies and dark matter halos, yet its standard Chandrasekhar formulation fails in systems with cores of (roughly) constant density, where inspiral can halt or even…
We extend the classical formulation of the dynamical friction effect on a test star by Chandrasekhar to the case of relativistic velocities and velocity distributions also accounting for post-Newtonian corrections to the gravitational…
The supersonic motion of gravitating objects through a gaseous medium constitutes a classical problem in theoretical astrophysics. Its application covers a broad range of objects and scales from planets up to galaxies. Especially the…
It is well known that a large fraction of galaxies have cuspy luminosity profiles in their central regions, at least within the observational resolution. In such cases, the often used, simplified, local approximation for the dynamical…
It has been known for some time that rotating bars in galaxies slow due to dynamical friction against the halo. However, recent attempts to use this process to place constraints on the dark matter density in galaxies and possibly also to…