Encounters-between-spherical-galaxies-I：systems-without-dark-halo.pdfVIP

A Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 000, 000–000 (0000) Printed 20 May 2006 (MN LT X style file v2.2) E Encounters between spherical galaxies I: systems without dark halo ´ ´ 1,2 1 A.C. Gonzalez-Garcıa and T.S. van Albada 1 Kapteyn Astronomical Institute,P.O. BOX 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands 2 Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, V´ıa L´actea s/n, La Laguna, 38200, Spain 20 May 2006 ABSTRACT We report here on a survey of N-body simulations of encounters between spherical galaxies. Initial systems are isotropic Jaffe models. Different sets of mass ratios, impact parameters and orbital energies are studied. Both merger remnants and systems perturbed after a non- merging encounter are analysed and compared to real-life elliptical galaxies. The properties of merger remnants show a large variety. Merger remnants resulting from head-on encounters are mainly non-rotating prolate spheroids. Merger remnants from models with Jorb 0 are triaxial or mildly oblate spheroids supported in part by rotation. The velocity distributions are biased toward the radial direction in the prolate case and the tangential direction in the oblate case. Non-mergers are affected in various ways, depending on the orbital characteristics. We conclude th