paper

Formation of gas disks in merging galaxies

arXiv:astro-ph/0201250 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05335.x

Abstract

Observations indicate that much of the interstellar gas in merging galaxies may settle into extended gaseous disks. Here, I present simulations of disk formation in mergers of gas-rich galaxies. Up to half of the total gas settles into embedded disks; the most massive instances result from encounters in which both galaxies are inclined to the orbital plane. These disks are often warped, many have rather complex kinematics, and roughly a quarter have counter-rotating or otherwise decoupled central components. Disks typically grow from the inside out; infall from tidal tails may continue disk formation over long periods of time.

Submitted to MNRAS. 15 pages, 12 B&W figures, 1 color figure. See http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/fogdimg.html for versions with high-resolution figures, and http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/research/gassy_mergers/index.html for animations of the simulations

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