2,239 research outputs found
High-resolution N-body Simulations of Galactic Cannibalism: The Magellanic Stream
Hierarchical clustering represents the favoured paradigm for galaxy formation
throughout the Universe; due to its proximity, the Magellanic system offers one
of the few opportunities for astrophysicists to decompose the full
six-dimensional phase-space history of a satellite in the midst of being
cannibalised by its host galaxy. The availability of improved observational
data for the Magellanic Stream and parallel advances in computational power has
led us to revisit the canonical tidal model describing the disruption of the
Small Magellanic Cloud and the consequent formation of the Stream. We suggest
improvements to the tidal model in light of these recent advances.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX (gcdv.sty). Refereed contribution to the
5th Galactic Chemodynamics conference held in Swinburne, July 2003. Accepted
for publication in PASA. Version with high resolution figures available at
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/publications.htm
Galactic Cannibalism: the Origin of the Magellanic Stream
We are in a privileged location in the Universe which allows us to observe
galactic interactions from close range -- the merger of our two nearest dwarf
satellite galaxies, the LMC and SMC. It is important to understand the local
merger process before we can have confidence in understanding mergers at high
redshift. We present high resolution Nbody+SPH simulations of the disruption of
the LMC and SMC and the formation of the Magellanic Stream, and discuss the
implications for galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "The Evolution of Galaxies II: Basic
Building Blocks", (2002) ed. M. Sauvage et al. (Kluwer
Are Red Tidal Features Unequivocal Signatures of Major Dry Mergers?
We use a cosmological numerical simulation to study the tidal features
produced by a minor merger with an elliptical galaxy. We find that the
simulated tidal features are quantitatively similar to the red tidal features,
i.e., dry tidal features, recently found in deep images of elliptical galaxies
at intermediate redshifts. The minor merger in our simulation does not trigger
star formation due to active galactic nuclei heating. Therefore, both the tidal
features and the host galaxy are red, i.e. a dry minor merger. The stellar mass
of the infalling satellite galaxy is about 10^10 Msun, and the tidal debris
reach the surface brightness of mu_R~27 mag arcsec^-2. Thus, we conclude that
tidal debris from minor mergers can explain the observed dry tidal features in
ellipticals at intermediate redshifts, although other mechanisms (such as major
dry mergers) may also be important.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Nonclassical Moments and their Measurement
Practically applicable criteria for the nonclassicality of quantum states are
formulated in terms of different types of moments. For this purpose the moments
of the creation and annihilation operators, of two quadratures, and of a
quadrature and the photon number operator turn out to be useful. It is shown
that all the required moments can be determined by homodyne correlation
measurements. An example of a nonclassical effect that is easily characterized
by our methods is amplitude-squared squeezing.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
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