TY - JOUR
T1 - Energy evolution in the progenitor of galaxy shells
T2 - a semi-analytical model
AU - Guo, Beibei
AU - Wu, Xufen
AU - Zhao, Hongsheng
AU - Fan, Lulu
N1 - Funding: The authors acknowledge the support of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFA1608100). X.W. wishes to thank the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (Numbers NSFC-12073026, NSFC-12433002) and “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” (KY2030000173, WK3440000004), which made this research possible. H.Z. acknowledges the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council grant ST/V000861/1 and the USTC Fellowship for International Cooperation for the funding provided. L.F. gratefully acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; grant Nos. 12173037, 12233008), the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (No. YSBR-092), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WK3440000006). All the authors thank the Cyrus Chun Ying Tang Foundations and the 111 Project for “Observational and Theoretical Research on Dark Matter and Dark Energy” (B23042).
PY - 2024/11/1
Y1 - 2024/11/1
N2 - The stellar shells surrounding an elliptical galaxy, as remnants of a dwarf galaxy disrupted during merging, reveal the distribution of energy and angular momentum of the progenitor dwarf galaxy. We develop a semi-analytical model to describe the changes in energy ΔEi and angular momentum ΔLzi for particles during the first infall. We show that these changes, induced by the self-gravity of the progenitor, are important in broadening the initial energy distribution of the Plummer or Hernquist progenitor model. Consequently, these changes are crucial in shaping the shells. In the freefall stage following the disintegration of the progenitor potential, particles are no longer bound by self-gravity but move within the gravitational potential of the target galaxy. We investigate the relationship between the radial period and the energy of particles undergoing radial motion. We show that an accurate model of the energy range of the dwarf galaxy at disruption is essential to predict the number of observable shells.
AB - The stellar shells surrounding an elliptical galaxy, as remnants of a dwarf galaxy disrupted during merging, reveal the distribution of energy and angular momentum of the progenitor dwarf galaxy. We develop a semi-analytical model to describe the changes in energy ΔEi and angular momentum ΔLzi for particles during the first infall. We show that these changes, induced by the self-gravity of the progenitor, are important in broadening the initial energy distribution of the Plummer or Hernquist progenitor model. Consequently, these changes are crucial in shaping the shells. In the freefall stage following the disintegration of the progenitor potential, particles are no longer bound by self-gravity but move within the gravitational potential of the target galaxy. We investigate the relationship between the radial period and the energy of particles undergoing radial motion. We show that an accurate model of the energy range of the dwarf galaxy at disruption is essential to predict the number of observable shells.
KW - Galaxy mass distributions
KW - Stellar streams
KW - Astronomical simulations
KW - Interacting galaxies
KW - Galaxy mergers
KW - Galaxy dynamics
KW - N-body simulations
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85207722057
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad75f9
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad75f9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85207722057
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 975
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
JF - The Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 11
ER -