The DOI matches its Crossref record; 44 of the 44 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Dynamical friction and galaxy merging time-scales
Open accessAbstract
The time-scale for galaxies within merging dark matter haloes to merge with each other is an important ingredient in galaxy formation models. Accurate estimates of merging time-scales are required for predictions of astrophysical quantities such as black hole binary merger rates, the build-up of stellar mass in central galaxies and the statistical properties of satellite galaxies within dark matter haloes. In this paper, we study the merging time-scales of extended dark matter haloes using N-body simulations. We compare these results to standard estimates based on the Chandrasekhar theory of dynamical friction. We find that these standard predictions for merging time-scales, which are often used in semi-analytic galaxy formation models, are systematically shorter than those found in simulations. The discrepancy is approximately a factor of 1.7 for Msat/Mhost≈ 0.1 and becomes larger for more disparate satellite-to-host mass ratios, reaching a factor of ∼3.3 for Msat/Mhost≈ 0.01. Based on our simulations, we propose a new, easily implementable fitting formula that accurately predicts the time-scale for an extended satellite to sink from the virial radius of a host halo down to the halo's centre for a wide range of Msat/Mhost and orbits. Including a central bulge in each galaxy changes the merging time-scale by ≲10 per cent. To highlight one concrete application of our results, we show that merging time-scales often used in the literature overestimate the growth of stellar mass by satellite accretion by ≈40 per cent, with the extra mass gained in low mass ratio mergers.
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Cites
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Cited by
Galactic star formation and accretion histories from matching galaxies to dark matter haloes
Moster, B. P., Naab, T., & White, S. D. M. (2013) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/sts261 · Cited by 1,431
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Guo, Q., White, S., Boylan-Kolchin, M., De Lucia, G., Kauffmann, G., Lemson, G., Li, C., Springel, V., & Weinmann, S. (2011) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.18114.x · Cited by 1,205
Self-citationBlack holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
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Galaxy merger morphologies and time-scales from simulations of equal-mass gas-rich disc mergers
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Metadata
- Authors
- Boylan-Kolchin, M., Ma, C.-P., & Quataert, E.
- Venue
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-01-01
- Volume
- 383
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 93-101
- ISSN
- 0035-8711 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2966
- OpenAlex
- W2164387557
- Cited by
- 425
- References
- 44
- FWCI
- 16.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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