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Disc galaxies – work in progress in Gothenburg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

J. A. Sellwood
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Summary

Problem under study

We study interactions between disc galaxies, in particular the case of a main system and a small perturber. Here we look at the behaviour using a responsive disturber in contrast to the more common approximation of a rigid mass distribution. It is possible to isolate the effect of the perturber's dynamics by studying the difference between simulations with and without internal motion in the disturber. One facet of extended systems is the possible stripping of cool gas from the smaller galaxy in the case when the systems do not merge. Another line of study is cloud-cloud collisions, their impact on cooling the gas and keeping the velocity dispersion down.

Numerical model

A particle-mesh code is used to simulate these systems. It is possible to evolve a 2-dimensional Cartesian grid (512 × 512 maximum) with 200K particles in a reasonable time (approximately 15s/time-step). The code is quite flexible since it does not need any description of the free populations other than their mass density and desired velocity dispersion. An option is to use a rigid potential in order to mimic a hot (spherical) component. The rigid components are moved along with the centre of mass for the respective system.

Experiments

The experiment displayed in the poster session had two galaxies with a mass ratio of 5:1. The orbit was initially parabolic and direct, as seen from the larger system's point of view.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

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