Bibcode
Tapia, T.; Eliche-Moral, M. Carmen; Querejeta, Miguel; Balcells, Marc; González-García, A. C.; Prieto, M.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Gallego, Jesús; Zamorano, Jaime; Rodríguez-Pérez, Cristina; Borlaff, Alejandro
Referencia bibliográfica
IAU General Assembly, Meeting #29, #2253560
Fecha de publicación:
8
2015
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Recently, it has been found that classifying early-type galaxies into
fast and slow rotators based on their kinematics is more in accordance
with their physical properties than the traditional morphological
classification of S0 and ellipticals. In the framework of the kinematic
classification, observations by the ATLAS3D Project have
found that approximately 10-20% of the lenticular galaxies (S0s) in
their sample show hybrid properties between fast and slow rotators.
Numerical studies of major to intermediate mergers or of several
sequential minor mergers have successfully generated slow and fast
rotator galaxies, but they barely populate the gap between these two
types. Therefore, we explore whether mergers of higher mass ratios can
generate these hybrid galaxies by studying collisionless N-body
simulations of intermediate and minor dry mergers onto S0s and
determining the structural and kinematic evolution induced by the
encounters. We have found that intermediate to minor mergers are a
feasible mechanism to generate galaxies with intermediate kinematic
properties between fast and slow rotators. Additionally, we find that
the elliptical galaxies follow the linear tendency in the plane of
global anisotropy of velocities and intrinsic ellipticity envisioned by
the major merger simulations whereas the S0s are more scattered in this
plane. These trends give us clues about the role played by major mergers
in the constitution of each morphological type. Our results suggest that
major mergers may be responsible for the dynamical state of up to
~40-50% of the actual S0 galaxies.