Sign on

SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service

· Find Similar Abstracts (with default settings below)
· Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)
· Full Refereed Journal Article (PDF/Postscript)
· Full Refereed Scanned Article (GIF)
· arXiv e-print (arXiv:astro-ph/0603497)
· References in the article
· Citations to the Article (22) (Citation History)
· Refereed Citations to the Article
· Also-Read Articles (Reads History)
·
· Translate This Page
Title:
The dissipative merger progenitors of elliptical galaxies
Authors:
Dekel, Avishai; Cox, Thomas J.
Affiliation:
AA(Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel), AB(Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)
Publication:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 370, Issue 3, pp. 1445-1453. (MNRAS Homepage)
Publication Date:
08/2006
Origin:
MNRAS
MNRAS Keywords:
galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD: galaxies: evolution: galaxies: formation: galaxies: haloes: dark matter, cD, galaxies: evolution, galaxies: formation, galaxies: haloes, dark matter
DOI:
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10566.x
Bibliographic Code:
2006MNRAS.370.1445D

Abstract

We address the deviations of the scaling relations of elliptical galaxies from the expectations based on the virial theorem and homology, including the `tilt' of the `Fundamental Plane' and the steep decline of density with mass. We show that such tilts result from dissipative major mergers once the gas fraction available for dissipation declines with progenitor mass, and derive the scaling properties of the progenitors. We use hydrodynamical simulations to quantify the effects of major mergers with different gas fractions on the structural properties of galaxies. The tilts are driven by the differential shrinkage of the effective stellar radius as a function of dissipation in the merger, while the correlated smaller enhancements in internal velocity and stellar mass keep the slope of the velocity-stellar mass relation near . The progenitors match a straightforward model of disc formation in Λ cold dark matter haloes. Their total-to-stellar mass ratio within the effective radius varies as , consistent with the effect of supernova feedback. They are nearly homologous in the sense that the dark matter fractions within the effective and virial radii scale with mass in a similar way, with only a weak decline of density with mass. The progenitor radius is roughly , compatible with today's intermediate late-type galaxies. This may indicate that the latest dissipative mergers in the history of ellipticals involved relatively big discs. The dissipative gas-to-stellar mass ratio is predicted to decline , similar to the observed trend in today's blue-sequence galaxies. Such a trend should be observed in relatively massive gaseous galaxies at z ~ 1-4. The corresponding `baryonic' relations are consistent with homology and spherical virial equilibrium, V ~ R ~ M1/3bar.

Printing Options

Print whole paper
Print Page(s) through

Return 600 dpi PDF to Acrobat/Browser. Different resolutions (200 or 600 dpi), formats (Postscript, PDF, etc), page sizes (US Letter, European A4, etc), and compression (gzip,compress,none) can be set through the Printing Preferences


More Article Retrieval Options

HELP for Article Retrieval
Bibtex entry for this abstract   Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences)
   

Find Similar Abstracts:

Use: Authors
Title
Keywords (in text query field)
Abstract Text
Return: Query Results Return    items starting with number
Query Form
Database: Astronomy
Physics
arXiv e-prints