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B. E. Robertson, T. J. Cox, L. Hernquist, P. F. Hopkins (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), P. Martini (The Ohio State University), V. Springel (Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics)
Using hundreds of hydrodynamical simulations of merging galaxies including star formation, supernova feedback, and a new prescription for supermassive black hole growth and feedback, we explore possible origins for the fundamental scaling relations of elliptical galaxies. The stellar mass Fundamental Plane relation for elliptical galaxies produced by gas-rich disk mergers obtains the same scaling between redshifts z=0-6. We connect the tilt of the Fundamental Plane to the stellar phase-space density of the remnants and show that gas dissipation may contribute significantly to the observed tilt by altering the central stellar mass to dark matter mass ratio in a galaxy-mass dependent manner. We also show that a single generation of spheroidal re-mergers may contribute scatter to the M-sigma and Fundamental Plane relations but will not destroy the scalings for a mass-sequence of elliptical galaxies.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: brobertson@cfa.harvard.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.