Formation and evolution of galactic spheroids by mergers

Abstract

Galactic spheroids can form as a result of galaxy interactions and mergers of disks. Detailed analyses of the photometric properties, the intrinsic orbital structure, the line-of-sight velocity distributions and the kinemetry of simulated merger remnants, which depend critically on the geometry and the gas content of the interacting progenitors, indicate that low and intermediate mass rotating ellipticals can form from mergers of disks. The masses and metallicities of all massive ellipticals and the kinematics of some massive non-rotating ellipticals cannot be explained by binary mergers. Thus these galaxies might have formed in a different way.

Conference proceedings, IAU Symposium 245, Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges, Oxford, July 16-20 2007

References in corpus (3)

• The SAURON project -- X. The orbital anisotropy of elliptical and lenticular galaxies: revisiting the (V/sigma,epsilon) diagram with integral-field stellar kinematics
• Kinematic Structure of Merger Remnants
• Dynamical properties of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. II. Traces of dynamical evolution and end products of local ultraluminous mergers