Disruption of dark satellite halos in the Potential of the Milky Way

Details Disruption of dark satellite halos in the Potential of the Milky Way Disruption of dark satellite halos in the Potential of the Milky Way

Aug 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997agab...13..251s&link_type=abstract

Astronomische Gesellschaft Abstract Series, vol. 13, p. 251 (1997).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We use the special hardware device GRAPE to simulate the evolution of a satellite in the potential of the Milky Way. Following Johnston et al. 1996, the Galaxy is described by a three-component model consisting of a Miyamoto-Nagai potential (Miyamoto & Nagai 1975) for the disk, a spherical Hernquist potential (Hernquist 1990) for the bulge, and a logarithmic halo potential. Up to now, our satellite is modeled by a Hernquist (Hernquist 1990) density profile, which is very closely related to a R1/4 law, and which represents the dark matter halo of a satellite galaxy. In our simulations we chose 108 Msolar for its total mass; a typical orbit of its center of mass within the first 3.9 Gyrs is shown in the figure. In particular we studied the evolution of tidal tails: In the beginning, the originally spherically symmetric halo becomes elliptically deformed, lengthened along its orbit. During the orbital evolution, a front and a back tidal tail arises. When moving from apo- (AG) to perigalacticon (PG), the front tidal tail grows fast in length as it is more heavily accelerated by the potential of the Galaxy than the core and the rear part. The tails evolve to equal length when the core reaches PG, and the rear tail is larger on the way back out from PG to AG. At this time, the front tail gets crunched, and the main body structure looks bar-like. Vice versa, during the infall the back tail is being crunched. This periodic behaviour of both tidal tails seems to be a common feature for disruptions of satellite halos. Applied to the Magellanic System, this model would qualitatively suggest that the system core is (at or) soon after perigalacticon, in agreement with calculations by Gardiner et al. 1994.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Disruption of dark satellite halos in the Potential of the Milky Way does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Disruption of dark satellite halos in the Potential of the Milky Way, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Disruption of dark satellite halos in the Potential of the Milky Way will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1877962