Dynamical Evolution of Galaxies in Clusters

By O. Gnedin. 2003

153 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Tidal forces acting on galaxies in clusters lead to a strong dynamical evolution. In order to quantify the amount of evolution, I run self-consistent N-body simulations of disk galaxies for a variety of models in the hierarchically forming clusters. The tidal field along the galactic orbits is extracted from the simulations of cluster formation in the Ω0 = 1, 0.4, and 0.4, ΩΛ = 0.6 cosmological scenarios. For large spiral galaxies with a rotation speed of 250 km s-1, tidal interactions truncate massive dark matter halos at 30 ± 6 kpc and thicken stellar disks by a factor of 2-3, increasing Toomre's parameter to Q ≳ 2 and halting star formation. Low-density galaxies, such as the dwarf spheroidals with a circular velocity of 20 km s-1 and the extended low surface brightness galaxies with a scale length of 10-15 kpc, are completely disrupted by tidal shocks. Their debris contribute to the diffuse intracluster light. The tidal effects are significant not only in the core but throughout the cluster and can be parametrized by the critical tidal density. The tidally induced evolution results in the transformation of the infalling spirals into S0 galaxies and in the depletion of the low surface brightness galaxy population. In the low-Ω0 cosmological models, clusters form earlier and produce stronger evolution of galaxies.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f4685b6fb2f15f0c663dbef6ea6022531959919f

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Citations in the corpus

A HIGH STELLAR VELOCITY DISPERSION AND ∼100 GLOBULAR CLUSTERS FOR THE ULTRA-DIFFUSE GALAXY DRAGONFLY 44 (2016, background): “The axis ratio distribution of UDGs is inconsistent with disks under random viewing angles (van Dokkum et al. 2015a), but Amorisco & Loeb (2016) suggested that this could be the result of processing by the cluster environment (see also Gnedin 2003).”
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.”
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).”
Hα Tail, Intracluster H II Regions, and Star Formation: ESO 137-001 in Abell 3627 (2007, methodology): “Cluster galaxies also undergo tidal interaction with the cluster potential (e.g., Gnedin 2003).”
Dynamical friction and galaxy merging time-scales (2007, background): “Full dynamical models of the evolution of merging halos – complete with the physics of dynamical friction, tidal stripping, and gravitational shocking – have been created by a number of groups (e.g., Taylor & Babul 2001; Taffoni et al. 2003; Zentner et al. 2005; Gnedin 2003).”
Intergalactic stars in z∼ 0.25 galaxy clusters: systematic properties from stacking of Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data (2005, background): “However, when the evolution of the cluster and the presence of substructures is taken into account, two other mechanisms become relevant (Gnedin 2003).”
K-Band Properties of Galaxy Clusters and Groups: Luminosity Function, Radial Distribution, and Halo Occupation Number (2004, background): “It is found that low surface brightness galaxies with luminosity near L are destroyed most efficiently (Gnedin 2003).”
K-band Properties of Galaxy Clusters and Groups: Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light (2004, background): “…harassment, tidal truncation, and ram pressure stripping may all liberate galactic material (dark matter, stars, gas, etc.) into the intergalactic space (e.g., Malumuth & Richstone 1984; Gnedin 2003; Napolitano et al. 2003; Sommer-Larsen et al. 2004; Murante et al. 2004; Willman et al. 2004).”
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).”
Pre-Processing of Galaxies before Entering a Cluster (2003, background): “It is to be noted that Gnedin (2003) indicated that the morphological transformation by tidal force may occur even in the outer region of a hierarchically growing cluster.”
The importance of mergers for the origin of intracluster stars in cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters (2007, background): “The ICL may be produced by stripping and disruption of galaxies as they pass through the central regions of relaxed clusters (Byrd & Valtonen 1990; Gnedin 2003).”
Environmental Dependence of Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (2006, background): “There is also observational and theoretical evidence that the tidal force field in clusters can transform the infalling spirals to early types (Moss & Whittle 2000; Gnedin 2003).”