Tidal stirring of Milky Way satellites: a simple picture with the integrated tidal force

Abstract

Most of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group were probably formed via environmental processes like the tidal interaction with the Milky Way. We study this process via N-body simulations of dwarf galaxies evolving on seven different orbits around the Galaxy. The dwarf galaxy is initially composed of a rotating stellar disk and a dark matter halo. Due to the action of tidal forces it loses mass and the disk gradually transforms into a spheroid while stellar motions become increasingly random. We measure the characteristic scale-length of the dwarf, its maximum circular velocity, mass, shape and kinematics as a function of the integrated tidal force along the orbit. The final properties of the evolved dwarfs are remarkably similar if the total tidal force they experienced was the same, independently of the actual size and eccentricity of the orbit.

5 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of JENAM 2010 in Lisbon, Symposium 2 "Environment and the formation of galaxies: 30 years later", comments welcome

References in corpus (2)

• On the Efficiency of the Tidal Stirring Mechanism for the Origin of Dwarf Spheroidals: Dependence on the Orbital and Structural Parameters of the Progenitor Disky Dwarfs
• The inner structure and kinematics of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy as a product of tidal stirring

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Tidal evolution of galaxies in the most massive cluster of IllustrisTNG-100
• How to make an ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy: tidal stirring of disky dwarfs with shallow dark matter density profiles
• Non-Axisymmetric Structure in the Satellite Dwarf Galaxy NGC2976: Implications for its Dark/Bright Mass Distribution and Evolution