Tidal Effects in Clusters of Galaxies

By O. Gnedin. 2003

134 citations recorded by the source corpus.

High-redshift clusters of galaxies show an overabundance of spirals by a factor of 2-3 and the corresponding underabundance of S0 galaxies, relative to the nearby clusters. This morphological evolution can be explained by tidal interactions with neighboring galaxies and with the hierarchically growing cluster halo. The efficiency of tidal interactions depends on the size and structure of the cluster, as well as on the epoch of its formation. I simulate the formation and evolution of Virgo-type clusters in three cosmologies: a critical density model Ω0 = 1, an open model Ω0 = 0.4, and a flat model Ω0 = 0.4 with a cosmological constant. The orbits of identified halos are traced with a high temporal resolution (~107 yr). Halos with low relative velocities merge only shortly after entering the cluster; after virialization mergers are suppressed. The dynamical evolution of galaxies is determined by the tidal field along their trajectories. The maxima of the tidal force do not always correspond to closest approach to the cluster center. They are produced to a large extent by the local density structures, such as the massive galaxies and the unvirialized remnants of infalling groups of galaxies. Collisions of galaxies are intensified by the substructure, with about 10 encounters within 10 kpc per galaxy in the Hubble time. These very close encounters add an important amount (10%-50%) of the total heating rate. The integrated effect of tidal interactions is insufficient to transform a spiral galaxy into an elliptical but can produce an S0 galaxy. Overall, tidal heating is stronger in the low-Ω0 clusters.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9f23ed214262217ade660c58742978e3e93bd630

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Citations in the corpus

Environmental Effects on Late‐Type Galaxies in Nearby Clusters (2006, methodology): “The recent simulations of Virgo-like clusters by Gnedin (2003), adopting various cosmologies ( and 0.4 with andQ p 10 without L), show that tidal heating is more effective in lowclusters.”
The Tumultuous Lives of Galactic Dwarfs and the Missing Satellites Problem (2004, methodology): “Such redshift-independent suppression of gas cooling is observed in cosmological simulations of Chiu et al. (2001) and Kravtsov & Gnedin (2003).”
Galaxy formation theory (2010, background): “During such tidal shocks, the energy per unit mass of the galaxy changes by (Gnedin 2003) 〈∆E〉 = 1 6 Itid〈r2〉, (47) where〈r2〉 is the mean squared radius of the galaxy and Itid = ∑ n ∑ α,β ( ∫ Fαβdt )2 n 1+ τ2n t2dyn −3/2 , (48) where the sums extend over alln peaks in the density…”
Shredded Galaxies as the Source of Diffuse Intrahalo Light on Varying Scales (2007, background): “…lost from shredded galaxies over the course of cluster formation (Gallagher & Ostriker 1972; Merritt 1983; Byrd & Valtonen 1990; Dubinski et al. 2003; Gnedin 2003; Mihos 2004; Murante et al. 2004; Lin & Mohr 2004; Willman et al. 2004; Sommer-Larsen 2006; Rudick et al. 2007; Conroy et al. 2007).”
A Fitting Formula for the Merger Timescale of Galaxies in Hierarchical Clustering (2007, background): “…orbiting in the potential well of the primary halo loses a large fraction of its initial mass due to the exposure to the global tidal field (e.g., Tormen et al. 1998; Gao et al. 2004; Shaw et al. 2007) and due to high-speed encounters with other satellites (e.g., Moore et al. 1996; Gnedin 2003).”
Diffuse Optical Light in Galaxy Clusters. II. Correlations with Cluster Properties (2007, background): “This is well above a realistic merger rate for this timescale and this time period (Gnedin 2003a).”
Galaxy Zoo: Passive Red Spirals . (2009, background): “This can be due to tidal effects (e.g. Gnedin 2003), or interaction with the hot intercluster gas, either through thermal evaporation (Cowie & Songaila 1977) or ram pressure stripping (Gunn & Gott 1972).”
Galaxy ecology: groups and low-density environments in the SDSS and 2dFGRS (2003, background): “One possibility is that the gas density drops below a certain threshold necessary for star formation (e.g. Kennicutt 1989; Martin & Kennicutt 2001; Wong & Blitz 2002; Boissier et al. 2003; Gnedin 2003a), but can still flow to the centre and fuel an AGN.”
Dynamical Evolution of Galaxies in Clusters (2003, background): “The evolution is driven by the tidal forces of the hierarchically forming clusters, extracted from the lower resolution simulations (Gnedin 2003) in three cosmological scenarios.”
Star formation and AGN activity in SDSS cluster galaxies (2009, background): “Furthermore, galaxies experience tidal forces in the gravitational potential of the cluster, which can similarly heat the stellar disk (Gnedin 2003).”