Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T22:42:13.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Formation of Globular Clusters in Galaxy Mergers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Kenji Bekki ,
Warrick J. Couch ,
Duncan A. Forbes  and
M. A. Beasley
Kenji Bekki
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
Warrick J. Couch
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
Duncan A. Forbes
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia
M. A. Beasley
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Our numerical simulations first demonstrate that the pressure of ISM in a major merger becomes so high (> 105 kB K cm-3) that GMCs in the merger can collapse to form globular clusters (GCs) within a few Myr. The star formation efficiency within a GMC in galaxy mergers can rise up from a few percent to ~ 80 percent, depending on the shapes and the temperature of the GMC. This implosive GC formation due to external high pressure of warm/hot ISM can be more efficient in the tidal tails or the central regions of mergers. The developed clusters have King-like profiles with an effective radius of a few pc. The structural, kinematical, and chemical properties of these GC systems can depend on the orbital and chemical properties of major mergers.

Type
JD6: Extragalactic Globular Clusters & Their Host Galaxies
Information
Highlights of Astronomy , Volume 13 , 2005 , pp. 191 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Pacific 2005

References

Bekki, K., Forbes, D. A., Beasley, M. A., & Couch, W. J. 2002, MNRAS, 335, 1176 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G., & Efremov, Y. N., 1997, ApJ, 480, 235 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hills, J. G. 1980, ApJ, 235, 986 CrossRefGoogle Scholar