Dynamical friction and shells around elliptical galaxies

Details Dynamical friction and shells around elliptical galaxies Dynamical friction and shells around elliptical galaxies

Publishing date

Oct 1987

URL

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987a%26a...185l...1d&link_type=abstract

Journals

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 185, no. 1-2, Oct. 1987, p. L1-L4. Research supported by the Alexander von Hum

Science

Statistics

Field

Computation

Additional info 2

36

Additional info 3

Chandrasekhar Equation, Dark Matter, Elliptical Galaxies, Galactic Nuclei, Computational Astrophysics, Computerized Simulation, Gravitational Fields, Stellar Gravitation

Type

Scientific paper

Abstract

The effects of dynamical friction on the radial distribution of a shell system around an elliptical galaxy are calculated using the Chandrasekhar formula. The scenario naturally explains the formation of shells down to the center of the E-galaxy. It is shown that the positions of the inner shells cannot be used to derive the age of the shell system, and that the weaker the friction undergone by the accreted companion, the more the shell distribution departs from the one built in the framework of a model which does not take friction into account. Explaining the radial distribution of a shell system does not require the E-galaxy to be surrounded by any dark matter. As a matter of fact, shell systems cannot be used to determine the mass distribution of ellipticals. For instance, the observed shell distribution of NGC 3923 may be accounted for in the frame of a simple model with no dark halo.

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