The Structure and Formation of Elliptical Galaxies

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Burkert
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5449802

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

We investigated the origin of elliptical galaxies by comparing high-resolution numerical simulations of galaxy-galaxy mergers with observations. We find that binary mergers can explain very well peculiar properties of ellipticals, like counter-rotating cores, gas rings, embedded disks or misaligned rotation. We however also detect problems. For example, binary mergers cannot explain the population of spheroidal, massive and slowly rotating ellipticals. We demonstrate that this population can be explained well by cosmological simulations where ellipticals form by random merging of multiple substructures.

Publications

• (2007). 2D kinematics of simulated disc merger remnants. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 376(3), 997-1020
  Jesseit, R., Naab, Th., Peletier, R. & Burkert, A.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11524.x)
• Axisymmetric orbit models of N‐body merger remnants: a dependency of reconstructed mass on viewing angle. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 381(4), 1672-1696
  Thomas, J., Jesseit, R., Naab, Th., Saglia, R.P., Burkert, A. & Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12343.x)
• (2009). Specific angular momentum of disc merger remnants and the λR-parameter. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 397(3), 1202-1214
  Jesseit, R., Cappelari, M., Naab, Th., Emsellem, E. & Burkert, A.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14984.x)