Merger as Intermittent Accretion

Abstract

The Self-Similar Secondary Infall Model (SSIM) is modified to simulate a merger event. The model encompass spherical versions of tidal stripping and dynamical friction that agrees with the Syer & White merger paradigm's behaviour. The SSIM shows robustness in absorbing even comparable mass perturbations and returning to its original state. It suggests the approach to be invertible and allows to consider accretion as smooth mass inflow merging and mergers as intermittent mass inflow accretion.

letter accepted by A&A 29/09/08, 4 pages, colour figures

References in corpus (3)

• On Universal Halos and the Radial Orbit Instability
• Secondary infall and dark matter haloes
• The nature of dark matter and the density profile and central behavior of relaxed halos