The formation of ultracompact dwarf galaxies

By M. Fellhauer, Pavel Kroupa. 2001

157 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent spectroscopic observations of galaxies in the Fornax Cluster reveal nearly unresolved 'star-like' objects with redshifts appropriate to the Fornax Cluster. These objects have intrinsic sizes of 100 pc and absoluteB-band magnitudes in the range -14 < M B < -11.5 mag and lower limits for the central surface brightness μ B ≥ 23 mag arcsec - 2 , and so appear to constitute a new population of ultracompact dwarf galaxies (UCDs). Such compact dwarfs were predicted to form from the amalgamation of stellar superclusters (by Kroupa), which are rich aggregates of young massive star clusters (YMCs) that can form in collisions between gas-rich galaxies. Here we present the evolution of superclusters in a tidal field. The YMCs merge on a few supercluster crossing times. Superclusters that are initially as concentrated and massive as knot S in the interacting Antennae galaxies evolve to merger objects that are long-lived and show properties comparable to the newly discovered UCDs. Less massive superclusters resembling knot 430 in the Antennae may evolve to w Cen-type systems. Low-concentration superclusters are disrupted by the tidal field, dispersing their surviving star clusters while the remaining merger objects rapidly evolve into the μ B - M B region populated by low-mass Milky Way dSph satellites.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2f096492b693d7984d03e95c784f5b691fb5feba

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Bimodal Metallicity Distributions and the Nature of the High-Luminosity Clusters (2005, background): “Another interpretation that has been offered for the UCDs and objects like NGC7252- W3 is that they are merged products of several young massive star clusters that formed from cluster complexes in major starbursts (Fellhauer & Kroupa 2002).”
Masses and scaling relations for nuclear star clusters, and their co-existence with central black holes (2016, unknown): “An increase in NSC size and mass over time has been demonstrated by a number of numerical simulations of merging clusters (Fellhauer & Kroupa 2002; Baumgardt et al. 2003; Bekki et al. 2004; Brüns et al. 2011; Antonini 2013; Gnedin et al. 2014; Arca-Sedda & Capuzzo-Dolcetta 2014) or/and mass build…”
THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG COMPACT STELLAR SYSTEMS: A FRESH VIEW OF ULTRACOMPACT DWARFS (2011, background): “Alternatively, UCDs may be a species of GC whose brodie@ucolick.org large sizes are the result of star cluster mergers (Kroupa 1998; Fellhauer & Kroupa 2002; Kissler-Patig et al. 2006), or of a change in cluster formation physics at high masses (Murray 2009).”
THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY (NGVS). I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY (2012, background): “Leading theories for the formation of UCDs include hierarchical merging of stellar clusters, possibly in actively starforming environments (e.g., Fellhauer & Kroupa 2002) and tidal stripping of nucleated galaxies (e.g., Bekki et al. 2003; see also Bassino et al. 1994).”