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arXiv 0910.4018astro-ph.COastro-ph.GA
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主要合并:制造一个巨大的被动星系的方法

Major Merging: The Way to Make a Massive, Passive Galaxy

Arjen van der Wel, Hans-Walter Rix, Bradford P. Holden, Eric F. Bell, Aday R. Robaina

摘要:

我们分析了投影轴比分布,p(b/a),从斯隆数字巡天(DR 6)光谱选择的星系,具有低恒星形成率。对于这些静止的星系,我们发现在恒星质量为~10^{11} M_sol时,p(b/a)发生了相当突然的变化:在更高的质量下,几乎没有任何星系的b/a<0.6,这意味着它们基本上都不具有盘状的内在形状,必须是球状的。这个过渡质量比临界质量高3-4倍,超过临界质量,静止星系在数量上超过恒星形成星系,这表明这些质量尺度是不相关的。在质量低于~10^{11} M_sol时,静止星系的轴比范围很大,这意味着星系是由凸起和盘状星系组成的。我们的结果强烈地表明,大合并是产生大质量(>10^{11} M_sol)静止星系的最重要的,也许是唯一相关的演化通道,因为它不可避免地导致球状体。

英文摘要:

We analyze the projected axial ratio distribution, p(b/a), of galaxies that were spectroscopically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR6) to have low star-formation rates. For these quiescent galaxies we find a rather abrupt change in p(b/a) at a stellar mass of ~10^{11} M_sol: at higher masses there are hardly any galaxies with b/a<0.6, implying that essentially none of them have disk-like intrinsic shapes and must be spheroidal. This transition mass is ~3-4 times higher than the threshold mass above which quiescent galaxies dominate in number over star-forming galaxies, which suggests these mass scales are unrelated. At masses lower than ~10^{11} M_sol, quiescent galaxies show a large range in axial ratios, implying a mix of bulge- and disk-dominated galaxies. Our result strongly suggests that major merging is the most important, and perhaps only relevant, evolutionary channel to produce massive (>10^{11} M_sol), quiescent galaxies, as it inevitably results in spheroids.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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