The effects of the orbital configurations of mergers on reshaping galaxy structures

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Wu, Xinyi, Zhu, Ling, Chang, Jiang, Zeng, Guangquan, Lei, Yu
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Wu, Xinyi
Zhu, Ling
Chang, Jiang
Zeng, Guangquan
Lei, Yu
author_facet Wu, Xinyi
Zhu, Ling
Chang, Jiang
Zeng, Guangquan
Lei, Yu
contents We performed a systematic analysis of how the orbital configuration of a merger can influence the structural formation of remnant galaxies using 531 merger pairs selected from IllustrisTNG-100. We comprehensively described the merger orbital configuration, considering the relative orbital motion of the merger pair and their disk orientations. We quantified the galaxy structures by dynamically defining four components: bulge, disk, warm component, and hot inner stellar halo. For mergers on spiral-in orbits, the disk planes of the two merging galaxies tend to be aligned with the orbital plane, leading to higher fractions for the disk and warm components, as well as lower fractions for the bulge and hot inner stellar halo components in the remnant galaxy. For mergers on direct collision orbits, the disk planes of the two galaxies tend to be perpendicular to the orbital plane, leading to lower fractions for disk and warm components, as well as higher fractions of the bulge and hot inner stellar halo in the remnant. Mergers can lead to either an increase or decrease in the disk and bulge mass fraction in the remnant compared to the progenitor galaxy, depending on the merger orbital configurations; however, in 93% of cases, mergers cause an increase in the hot inner stellar halo. As a result, the luminosity fraction of the hot inner stellar halo (but not the bulge) in galaxies at $z=0$ is highly correlated with its total ex situ stellar mass. In addition, we find that merger on spiral-in orbits is one of the possible reasons for the formation of recently discovered red but HI-rich (RR) galaxies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_02051
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The effects of the orbital configurations of mergers on reshaping galaxy structures
Wu, Xinyi
Zhu, Ling
Chang, Jiang
Zeng, Guangquan
Lei, Yu
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We performed a systematic analysis of how the orbital configuration of a merger can influence the structural formation of remnant galaxies using 531 merger pairs selected from IllustrisTNG-100. We comprehensively described the merger orbital configuration, considering the relative orbital motion of the merger pair and their disk orientations. We quantified the galaxy structures by dynamically defining four components: bulge, disk, warm component, and hot inner stellar halo. For mergers on spiral-in orbits, the disk planes of the two merging galaxies tend to be aligned with the orbital plane, leading to higher fractions for the disk and warm components, as well as lower fractions for the bulge and hot inner stellar halo components in the remnant galaxy. For mergers on direct collision orbits, the disk planes of the two galaxies tend to be perpendicular to the orbital plane, leading to lower fractions for disk and warm components, as well as higher fractions of the bulge and hot inner stellar halo in the remnant. Mergers can lead to either an increase or decrease in the disk and bulge mass fraction in the remnant compared to the progenitor galaxy, depending on the merger orbital configurations; however, in 93% of cases, mergers cause an increase in the hot inner stellar halo. As a result, the luminosity fraction of the hot inner stellar halo (but not the bulge) in galaxies at $z=0$ is highly correlated with its total ex situ stellar mass. In addition, we find that merger on spiral-in orbits is one of the possible reasons for the formation of recently discovered red but HI-rich (RR) galaxies.
title The effects of the orbital configurations of mergers on reshaping galaxy structures
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02051