Galaxy Mergers and the Creation of Cluster S0 Galaxies |
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Authors: | Kenji Bekki |
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Institution: | (1) Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan |
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Abstract: | When and how red S0 galaxies were formed is a longstanding and noteworthy problem. Recent morphological and photometric studies
of S0sin distant clusters of galaxies have revealed a smaller S0 population fraction and the existence of S0s with bluer colours,
which suggests that some physical processes drive continuous creation of S0s with younger stellar populations in higher-redshift
clusters. We propose here that the major mechanism for S0 creation is galaxy merging between two spirals of unequal masses.
Our numerical simulations demonstrate that galaxy merging exhausts a large amount of the interstellar medium of two gas-rich
spirals owing to the moderately enhanced star formation, and subsequently transforms the two into a single gas-poor S0 galaxy
with structure and kinematics strikingly similar to those observed. This secondary S0 formation via unequal-mass merging thus
provides an evolutionary link between a larger number of blue spirals observed in intermediate-redshift clusters and the red
S0s prevalent in present-day ones.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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