Previous studies suggest that compact young early-type galaxies (ETGs) were formed by recent mergers. However, it has not yet been revealed whether tidal features that are direct evidence of recent mergers are detected frequently around compact young ETGs. Here, we investigate how the fraction of ETGs having tidal features ($f_{T}$) depends on age and internal structure (compactness, color gradient, and dust lanes) of ETGs, using 650 ETGs with $M_r\le-19.5$ in $0.015\le z\le0.055$ that are in deep coadded images of the Stripe 82 region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that tidal features are more frequent in younger ETGs and more compact ETGs, so that compact young ETGs with ages $\lesssim6$ Gyr have high $f_{T}$ of $\sim0.7$ compared to their less compact or old counterparts with ages $\gtrsim9$ Gyr that have $f_{T}\lesssim0.1$. Among compact young ETGs, those with blue cores have $\sim3$ times higher $f_{T}$ than those with red cores. In addition, ETGs with dust lanes have $\sim4$ times higher $f_{T}$ than those without dust lanes. Our results provide direct evidence that compact young ETGs especially with blue cores and ETGs with dust lanes are involved in recent mergers. Based on our results and several additional assumptions, we roughly estimate the typical visible time of tidal features after a merger, which is $\sim3$ Gyr in the depth of the Stripe 82 coadded images.
The most accurate current methods for determining the ages of open star clusters, stellar associations and stellar streams are based on isochrone fitting or the lithium depletion boundary. We propose another method for dating these objects based on the morphology of their extended tidal tails, which have been recently discovered around several open star clusters. Assuming that the early-appearing tidal tails, the so called tidal tails I, originate from the stars released from the cluster during early gas expulsion, or that they form in the same star forming region as the cluster (i.e. being co…
We study the stellar content in the tidal tails of three nearby merging galaxies, NGC 520, NGC 2623, and NGC 3256, using BVI imaging taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The tidal tails in all three systems contain compact and fairly massive young star clusters, embedded in a sea of diffuse, unresolved stellar light. We compare the measured colors and luminosities with predictions from population synthesis models to estimate cluster ages and find that clusters began forming in tidal tails during or shortly after the formation of the tails themselves. …
We use the hydrodynamical EAGLE simulation to test if ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) can form by tidal stripping by predicting the ages and metallicities of tidally stripped galaxy nuclei in massive galaxy clusters, and compare these results to compiled observations of age and metallicities of observed UCDs. We further calculate the colours of our sample of simulated stripped nuclei using SSP models and compare these colours to observations of UCDs in the Virgo cluster. We find that the ages of observed UCDs are consistent with simulated stripped nuclei, with both groups of objects having…
Tidal interactions between disc galaxies depend on galaxy structure, but the details of this relationship are incompletely understood. I have constructed a three-parameter grid of bulge/disc/halo models broadly consistent with $Λ$CDM, and simulated an extensive series of encounters using these models. Halo mass and extent strongly influence the dynamics of orbit evolution. In close encounters, the transfer of angular momentum mediated by the dynamical response of massive, extended haloes can reverse the direction of orbital motion of the central galaxies after their first passage. Tidal respon…
The Gaia mission promises to deliver precision astrometry at an unprecedented level, heralding a new era for discerning the kinematic and spatial coordinates of stars in our Galaxy. Here, we present a new technique for estimating the age of tidally disrupted globular cluster streams using the proper motions and parallaxes of tracer stars. We evolve the collisional dynamics of globular clusters within the evolving potential of a Milky Way-like halo extracted from a cosmological $Λ$CDM simulation and analyze the resultant streams as they would be observed by Gaia. The simulations sample a variet…
How does the tidal debris of minor galaxy mergers contribute to structures in spiral galaxies or in the intergalactic medium? While major mergers are known to create structures such as tidal dwarf galaxies and star clusters within their tidal debris, less is known about minor mergers (mass ratios between a dwarf galaxy and disk galaxy of less than one-third) and their tidal debris. This work surveys 6 nearby minor mergers using optical broad-band and H-alpha narrow-band imaging to characterize star formation in their tidal debris. Young star clusters with ages less than the dynamical age of th…
To search for Tidal Dwarf Galaxies (TDGs) and to study star formation in tidal features, we are conducting a large UV imaging survey of interacting galaxies selected from the Arp (1996) Atlas using the GALEX telescope. As part of that study, we present a GALEX UV and SDSS and SARA optical study of the gas-rich interacting galaxy pair Arp 305 (NGC 4016/7). The GALEX UV data reveal much extended diffuse UV emission and star formation outside the disks. This includes a luminous star forming region between the two galaxies, and a number of such regions in tidal tails. We have identified 45 young s…
The Delay Time Distribution of Tidal Disruption Events
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；The Hebrew University（希伯来大学）；University of Wisconsin, Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）；University of California, Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校）；Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics（马尼·L·博伊姆克理论物理研究所）；Carleton College（卡尔顿学院）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Stanford University（斯坦福大学）；Weizmann Institute of Science（魏茨曼科学研究所）
We present high-resolution Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) HI observations and deep Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) optical imaging of two galaxy groups: NGC 4725/47 and NGC 3166/9. These data are part of a multi-wavelength unbiased survey of the gas-rich dwarf galaxy populations in three nearby interacting galaxy groups. The NGC 4725/47 group hosts two tidal knots and one dIrr. Both tidal knots are located within a prominent HI tidal tail, appear to have sufficient mass (M_gas~10^8 M_sol) to evolve into long-lived tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) and are fairly young in age. The NGC 3…
We obtained SOAR telescope B and V photometry of 14 star clusters and 2 associations in the Bridge tidal structure connecting the LMC and SMC. These objects are used to study the formation and evolution of star clusters and associations under tidal stresses from the Clouds. Typical star clusters in the Bridge are not richly populated and have in general relatively large diameters (~30-35 pc), being larger than Galactic counterparts of similar age. Ages and other fundamental parameters are determined with field-star decontaminated photometry. A self-consistent approach is used to derive paramet…
The lenticular galaxy NGC474 hosts a rich system of tidal shells and streams, some of which are exceptionally bright. Two teams recently presented spectroscopic observations of the brightest shells. These were the first shell spectra ever observed in integrated starlight. The authors studied the stellar populations of the shell, of the center of the galaxy and of its globular clusters. The precise formation scenario for the tidal features of this prominent galaxy however still remained unclear. Here, we add further clues on their formation from the radii of the shells, and we present a scenari…
We present two newly-discovered, compact elliptical (cE) galaxies, which exhibit clear evidence of tidal steams, found in a search of SDSS DR7. The structural parameters of the cEs are derived using GALFIT and give effective radii < 400 pc. They also possess young to intermediate-age stellar populations. These two cEs provide direct evidence, a "smoking gun", for the process of tidal stripping that is believed to be the origin of M32-type galaxies. Both are found in small group environments with many late-type galaxies, suggesting that we may be seeing the formation of such galaxies in dynamic…
Blanco 1, a 100Myr open cluster in the solar neighborhood, is well known for its two 50pc-long tidal tails. Taking Blanco 1 as a reference, we find evidence of early-stage tidal disruption in two other open clusters of ~120Myr: the Pleiades and NGC 2516, via Gaia EDR3 data. These two clusters have a total mass of 2-6 times that of Blanco 1. Despite having a similar age as Blanco 1, the Pleiades and NGC 2516 have a larger fraction of their members bound: 86% of their mass is inside the tidal radius, versus 63% for Blanco 1. However, a correlation between Blanco 1's 50pc-long tidal tails and the…
Star clusters form out of the densest parts of infrared dark clouds. The emergence of massive stars expels the residual gas, which has not formed stars yet. Gas expulsion lowers the gravitational potential of the embedded cluster, unbinding many of the cluster stars. These stars then move on their own trajectories in the external gravitational field of the Galaxy, forming a tidal tail. We investigate the formation and evolution of the tidal tail forming due to expulsion of primordial gas under various scenarios of gas expulsion to provide predictions for tidal tails around dynamically evolved …
Galaxy mergers are known to host abundant young massive cluster (YMC) populations, whose formation mechanism is still not well-understood. Here, we present a high-resolution galaxy merger simulation with explicit star formation and stellar feedback prescriptions to investigate how mergers affect the properties of the interstellar medium and YMCs. Compared with a controlled simulation of an isolated galaxy, the mass fraction of dense and high-pressure gas is much higher in mergers. Consequently, the mass function of both molecular clouds and YMCs becomes shallower and extends to higher masses. …
The formation of globular clusters remains an open debate. Dwarf starburst galaxies are efficient at forming young massive clusters with similar masses as globular clusters and may hold the key to understanding their formation. We study star cluster formation in a tidal debris - including the vicinity of three tidal dwarf galaxies - in a massive gas dominated collisional ring around NGC~5291. These dwarfs have physical parameters which differ significantly from local starbursting dwarfs. They are gas-rich, highly turbulent, have a gas metallicity already enriched up to half-solar, and are expe…
We have explored the properties of a peculiar object detected in deep optical imaging and located at the tip of an HI tail emerging from Hickson Compact Group 16. Using multiband photometry from infrared to ultraviolet, we were able to constrain its stellar age to 58$^{+22}_{-9}$ Myr with a rather high metallicity of [Fe/H] = $-$0.16$^{+0.43}_{-0.41}$ for its stellar mass of M$_\star$ = 4.2$\times$10$^6$ M$_\odot$, a typical signature of tidal dwarf galaxies. The structural properties of this object are similar to those of diffuse galaxies, with a round and featureless morphology, a large effe…
In this work, we explore the idea that substructures like stellar clusters could be formed from the tidal stream produced in galactic minor mergers. We use $N$-body and SPH simulations of satellite galaxies interacting with a larger galaxy. We study the distribution of mass in streams to identify overdensity regions in which a substructure could be formed. We found that without gas, no substructure formed as none of the overdensities shows a definite morphology nor dynamical stability. Including gas we found that several clumps appear and proved to be real long standing physical structures ($t…
We present two newly-discovered compact elliptical (cE) galaxies, exhibiting clear evidence of tidal steams, and found during a search of SDSS DR7 for cE candidates. The structural parameters of the cEs are derived using GALFIT, giving effective radii, Re, of 388 and 263 parsecs, and B-band mean surface brightnesses within Re of 19.4 and 19.2 magnitudes per arcsec squared. We have re-analysed the SDSS spectra, which indicate that they possess young to intermediate-age stellar populations. These two cEs provide direct evidence, a "smoking gun", for the process of tidal stripping that is believe…
Some important predictions from 4 main models of spiral arm formation are tested here, using observational data acquired for the Milky Way galaxy. Many spiral arm models (density wave, tidal wave, nuclear Lyapunov tube, or dynamic transient wave) have some consistencies with some of the observations, and some inconsistencies. Our 4 tests consist of the relative locations and relative speeds of different arm tracers away from the dust lane, and the global arm pitch angle as obtained over two Galactic quadrants and several Galactic radii, as well as the arm's continuity of shape from Galactic qu…
In a series of papers, we present detailed chemo-dynamical simulations of tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs). After the first paper, where we focused on the very early evolution, we present in this work simulations on the long-term evolution of TDGs, ranging from their formation to an age of 3 Gyr. Dark-matter free TDGs may constitute a significant component of the dwarf galaxy (DG) population. But it remains to be demonstrated that TDGs can survive their formation phase given stellar feedback processes, the time-variable tidal field of the post-encounter host galaxy and its dark matter halo and ram-…
Mid-Infrared Outbursts in Nearby Galaxies: Nuclear Obscuration and Connections to Hidden Tidal Disruption Events and Changing-Look Active Galactic Nuclei
Accurate measurements of the cosmic shear signal require a separation of the true weak gravitational lensing signal from intrinsic shape correlations of galaxies. These `intrinsic alignments' of galaxies originate from galaxy formation processes and are expected to be correlated with the gravitational field through tidal processes affecting the galaxies, such as tidal shearing for elliptical galaxies and tidal torquing for spiral galaxies. In this study, we use morphologically selected samples of elliptical and spiral galaxies from the IllustrisTNG simulation at z=0 and z=1 to test the commonl…
We present a sample of dwarf galaxies that suffer ongoing disruption by the tidal force of nearby massive galaxies. Analysing structural and stellar population properties using the archival imaging and spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we find that they are likely a `smoking gun' example of the formation of early-type dwarf galaxies (dEs) in the galaxy group environment through the tidal stirring. Inner cores of these galaxies are fairly intact and the observed light profiles are well fitted with the Sersic functions, while the tidally stretched stellar halos are pro…
Context: Early-type galaxies (ETGs) are divided into slow and fast rotators (FRs and SRs) according to the degree of ordered rotation of their stellar populations. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations indicate that galaxies form as FRs before their rotational support decreases, usually because of mergers. Aims: We aimed to investigate this process observationally for galaxies outside of clusters. Methods: We made use of the fact that different merger types leave different traces that have different lifetimes. We statistically analyzed multiple characteristics of galaxies that are expected t…
One possible channel for the formation of dwarf galaxies involves birth in the tidal tails of interacting galaxies. We report the detection of a bright UV tidal tail and several young tidal dwarf galaxy candidates in the post-merger galaxy NGC 4922 in the Coma cluster. Based on a two-component population model (combining young and old stellar populations), we find that the light of tidal tail predominantly comes from young stars (a few Myr old). The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet data played a critical role in the parameter (age and mass) estimation. Our stellar mass estimates o…
In this study, we characterized 16 objects previously classified as faint or low contrast Galactic open clusters (OCs). We employed parameters associated to the OCs dynamical evolution: core ($r_c$), tidal ($r_t$) and half-mass ($r_{hm}$) radii, age and crossing time ($t_{cr}$). Relations among these parameters were exploited to draw some evolutionary connections. We also included 11 OCs with previous characterizations to provide wider coverage of the parameters space. The investigated sample spans a considerable range in age (log (t/yr) ~7.0 - 9.7) and Galactocentric distance ($R_G$ ~ 6 - 11 …
We show that a significant correlation (up to 5sigma) emerges between the bulge index, defined to be larger for larger bulge/disk ratio, in spiral galaxies with similar luminosities in the Galaxy Zoo 2 of SDSS and the number of tidal-dwarf galaxies in the catalogue by Kaviraj et al. (2012). In the standard cold or warm dark-matter cosmological models the number of satellite galaxies correlates with the circular velocity of the dark matter host halo. In generalized-gravity models without cold or warm dark matter such a correlation does not exist, because host galaxies cannot capture in-falling …
