On the dependence of galaxy morphologies on galaxy mergers
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
•
Macciò, Andrea V.
•
Hirschmann, Michaela
•
•
Kannan, Rahul
•
Somerville, Rachel S.
•
Wilman, Dave
Description
FF acknowledges financial support from the grants PRIN MIUR 2009 ‘The Intergalactic Medium as a probe of the growth of cosmic structures’, PRIN INAF 2010 ‘From the dawn of galaxy formation’ and from the Klaus Tschira Foundation. MH acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council via an Advanced Grant under grant agreement no. 321323 (NEOGAL). RSS thanks the Downsbrough family for their generous support. DJW thanks the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for funding via project WI 3871/1-1
Abstract
The distribution of galaxy morphological types is a key test for models of galaxy formation and evolution, providing strong constraints on the relative contribution of different physical processes responsible for the growth of the spheroidal components. In this paper, we make use of a suite of semi-analytic models to study the efficiency of galaxy mergers in disrupting galaxy discs and building galaxy bulges. In particular, we compare standard prescriptions usually adopted in semi-analytic models, with new prescriptions proposed by Kannan et al., based on results from high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations, and we show that these new implementations reduce the efficiency of bulge formation through mergers. In addition, we compare our model results with a variety of observational measurements of the fraction of spheroid-dominated galaxies as a function of stellar and halo mass, showing that the present uncertainties in the data represent an important limitation to our understanding of spheroid formation. Our results indicate that the main tension between theoretical models and observations does not stem from the survival of purely disc structures (i.e. bulgeless galaxies), rather from the distribution of galaxies of different morphological types, as a function of their stellar mass.
Volume
451
Issue
3
Start page
2968
Issn Identifier
0035-8711
Ads BibCode
2015MNRAS.451.2968F
Rights
open.access
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