Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T01:39:09.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shells and the Potential Wells of Elliptical Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

P.J. Quinn  and
Lars Hernquist
P.J. Quinn
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218
Lars Hernquist
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A survey of the possible variety of sharp-edged, caustic features that may arise in the collision of galaxies with very different masses and sizes (Hernquist and Quinn 1986a) has shown that in general shells are morphologically very complex. It is therefore not easy to determine the history of the collision that produced the shells nor the properties of the galaxies involved. However, a small number of shell galaxies (notably NGC 3923) have a sufficiently simple and orderly shell distribution that we believe the shells were formed by a chance very symmetric and simple encounter. In such cases we are presented with a unique opportunity to investigate the potential well of an elliptical galaxy over a large range in radius (≃ 0.5re − 20re). An analysis of the NGC 3923 shell system (Hernquist and Quinn 1986b) has shown that a large amount of dark matter is present (Mdark≃ 40Mluminous, r < 17re).

Type
Invited Reviews
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 127: Structure and Dynamics of Elliptical Galaxies , 1987 , pp. 249 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1987 

References

REFERENCES

Arnold, V.I., 1984, Catastrophe Theory, Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Arp, H., 1966, Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, Astrophys. J. Suppl., 123, 1.Google Scholar
Athanassoula, E., & Bosma, A., 1985, Ann. Rev. Astr. Astrophys., 23, 147.Google Scholar
Bahcall, J.N., & Casertano, S., 1985, Astrophys. J. Letters, 293, L7.Google Scholar
Carter, D., Allen, D.A., & Malin, D.F., 1982, Nature, 295, 126.Google Scholar
Dupraz, C., & Combes, F., 1986, Astr. Astrophys., 166, 53.Google Scholar
Fabian, A.C., Nulsen, P.J., & Stewart, G.C., 1980, Nature, 287, 613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forman, W., Jones, C., & Tucker, W., 1985, Astrophys. J., 293, 102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fort, B.P., Prieur, J.L., Carter, D., Meatheringham, S.J., & Vigroux, L., 1986, Astrophys. J., 306, 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hernquist, L., & Quinn, P.J., 1986a, Astrophys. J., submitted.Google Scholar
Hernquist, L., & Quinn, P.J., 1986b, Astrophys. J., in press.Google Scholar
Hernquist, L., & Quinn, P.J., 1986c, this volume, p. 467.Google Scholar
James, R.A., & Wilkinson, A., 1986, this volume, p. 471.Google Scholar
Malin, D.F., 1979, Nature, 277, 279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malin, D.F., 1981, J. Photo. Sci., 29, 199.Google Scholar
Malin, D.F., 1982, J. Photo. Sci., 30, 87.Google Scholar
Malin, D.F., & Carter, D., 1980, Nature, 285, 643.Google Scholar
Malin, D.F., & Carter, D., 1983, Astrophys. J., 274, 534.Google Scholar
Malin, D.F., Quinn, P.J., & Graham, J.A., 1983, Astrophys. J. Letters, 272, L5.Google Scholar
Pence, W., 1986, STScI preprint.Google Scholar
Piran, T., & Villumsen, J.V., 1986, this volume, p. 473.Google Scholar
Quinn, P.J., 1982, Ph.D. Thesis, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Quinn, P.J., 1984, Astrophys. J., 279, 596.Google Scholar
Schweizer, F., 1980, Astrophys. J., 252, 303.Google Scholar
Schweizer, F., & Ford, W.K. Jr., 1985, in New Aspects of Galaxy Photometry, Lecture Notes in Physics No. 232, ed. Nieto, J.-L. (Springer Verlag), p. 145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toomre, A., 1977, In The Evolution of Galaxies and Stellar Populations, eds Tinsley, B. & Larson, R., (Yale Univ. Obs.), p. 401.Google Scholar
Toomre, A., 1983, in IAU Symposium No. 100, The Internal Kinematics and Dynamics of Galaxies, ed. Athanassoula, E.O., (Reidel, Dordrecht), p. 319.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, A., Sparks, W.B., Malin, D.F., & Carter, D., 1986, this volume, p. 465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, R.E., & Christiansen, W.A., 1985, Astrophys. J., 291, 80.Google Scholar