644 research outputs found
Photometric evolution of dusty starburst mergers:On the nature of ultra-luminous infrared galaxies
By performing N-body simulations of chemodynamical evolution of galaxies with
dusty starbursts, we investigate photometric evolution of gas-rich major
mergers in order to explore the nature of ultraluminous infrared galaxies
(ULIRGs) with the total infrared luminosity ( for
m) of . Main results are the following three.
(1) Global colors and absolute magnitudes the during dusty starburst of a major
merger do not change with time significantly, because interstellar dust heavily
obscures young starburst populations that could cause rapid evolution of
photometric properties of the merger. (2) Dust extinction of stellar
populations in a galaxy merger with large infrared luminosity (
) is selective in the sense that younger stellar
populations are preferentially obscured by dust than old ones. This is because
younger populations are located in the central region where a larger amount of
dusty interstellar gas can be transferred from the outer gas-rich regions of
the merger. (3) Both and the ratio of to band
luminosity ) increases as the star formation rate increase during
the starburst of the present merger model, resulting in the positive
correlation between and .Comment: 32 pages 25 figures,2001,ApJ,in press. For all 25 PS figures
(including fig25.ps), see
http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/~bekki/res.dir/paper.dir/apj06.dir/fig.tar.g
The Origin of Large-scale HI structures in the Magellanic Bridge
We investigate the formation of a number of key large-scale HI features in
the ISM of the Magellanic Bridge using dissipationless numerical simulation
techniques. This study comprises the first direct comparison between detailed
HI maps of the Bridge and numerical simulations. We confirm that the SMC forms
two tidal filaments: a near arm, which forms the connection between the SMC and
LMC, and a counterarm. We show that the HI of the most dense part of the Bridge
can become arranged into a bimodal configuration, and that the formation of a
"loop" of HI, located off the North-Eastern edge of the SMC can be reproduced
simply as a projection of the counter-arm, and without invoking localised
energy-deposition processes such as SNe or stellar winds.Comment: 5 Pages, 4 Figures, Accepted - MNRAS let
Potential formation sites of super star clusters in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies
Recent observational results on high spatial resolution images of
ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) have revealed very luminous, young,
compact, and heavily obscured super star clusters in their central regions,
suggested to be formed by gas-rich major mergers. By using stellar and gaseous
numerical simulations of galaxy mergers, we firstly demonstrate that the
central regions of ULIGs are the most promising formation sites of super star
clusters owing to the rather high gaseous pressure of the interstellar medium.
Based on simple analytical arguments, we secondly discuss the possibility that
super star clusters in an ULIG can be efficiently transferred into the nuclear
region owing to dynamical friction and consequently merge with one another to
form a single compact stellar nucleus with a seed massive black hole. We thus
suggest that multiple merging between super star clusters formed by nuclear
starbursts in the central regions of ULIGs can result in the formation of
massive black holes.Comment: 12 pages 4 figures, 2001, accepted by ApJ
Impact of dark matter subhalos on extended HI disks of galaxies: Possible formation of HI fine structures and stars
Recent observations have discovered star formation activities in the extreme
outer regions of disk galaxies. However it remains unclear what physical
mechanisms are responsible for triggering star formation in such low-density
gaseous environments of galaxies. In order to understand the origin of these
outer star-forming regions, we numerically investigate how the impact of dark
matter subhalos orbiting a gas-rich disk galaxy embedded in a massive dark
matter halo influences the dynamical evolution of outer HI gas disk of the
galaxy. We find that if the masses of the subhalos () in a galaxy
with an extended HI gas disk are as large as , where
is the total mass of the galaxy's dark halo, local fine structures
can be formed in the extended HI disk. We also find that the gas densities of
some apparently filamentary structures can exceed a threshold gas density for
star formation and thus be likely to be converted into new stars in the outer
part of the HI disk in some models with larger . These results thus
imply that the impact of dark matter subhalos (``dark impact'') can be
important for better understanding the origin of recent star formation
discovered in the extreme outer regions of disk galaxies. We also suggest that
characteristic morphologies of local gaseous structures formed by the dark
impact can indirectly prove the existence of dark matter subhalos in galaxies.
We discuss the origin of giant HI holes observed in some gas-rich galaxies
(e.g., NGC 6822) in the context of the dark impact.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ
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