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The dependence of tidal stripping efficiency on the satellite and host galaxy morphology
In this paper we study the tidal stripping process for satellite galaxies
orbiting around a massive host galaxy, and focus on its dependence on the
morphology of both satellite and host galaxy. For this purpose, we use three
different morphologies for the satellites: pure disc, pure bulge and a mixture
bulge+disc. Two morphologies are used for the host galaxies: bulge+disc and
pure bulge. We find that while the spheroidal stellar component experiences a
constant power-law like mass removal, the disc is exposed to an exponential
mass loss when the tidal radius of the satellite is of the same order of the
disc scale length. This dramatic mass loss is able to completely remove the
stellar component on time scale of 100 Myears. As a consequence two satellites
with the same stellar and dark matter masses, on the same orbit could either
retain considerable fraction of their stellar mass after 10 Gyrs or being
completely destroyed, depending on their initial stellar morphology. We find
that there are two characteristic time scales describing the beginning and the
end of the disc removal, whose values are related to the size of the disc. This
result can be easily incorporated in semi-analytical models. We also find that
the host morphology and the orbital parameters also have an effect on the
determining the mass removal, but they are of secondary importance with respect
to satellite morphology. We conclude that satellite morphology has a very
strong effect on the efficiency of stellar stripping and should be taken into
account in modeling galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA
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