Astron. Astrophys. 327, 921-929 (1997)

Mergers of galaxies in clusters: Monte Carlo simulation
of mass and angular momentum distribution

D.S. Krivitsky and V.M. Kontorovich

Institute of Radio Astronomy, Krasnoznamennaya 4, 310002, Kharkov, Ukraine (e-mail: rai@ira.kharkov.ua)

Received 16 September 1996 / Accepted 14 February 1997

Abstract

A Monte Carlo simulation of mergers in clusters of galaxies is carried out. An "explosive" character of the merging process (an analog of phase transition), suggested earlier by Cavaliere et al. (1991), Kontorovich et al. (1992), is confirmed. In particular, a giant object similar to cD-galaxy is formed in a comparatively short time as a result of mergers. Mass and angular momentum distribution function for galaxies is calculated. An intermediate asymptotics of the mass function is close to a power law with the exponent . It may correspond to recent observational data for steep faint end of the luminosity function. The angular momentum distribution formed by mergers is close to Gaussian, the rms dimensionless angular momentum being approximately independent of mass, which is in accordance with observational data.

Key words: galaxies: clusters: general galaxies: cD galaxies: interactions galaxies: mass function galaxies: statistics

Send offprint requests to: D.S. Krivitsky

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Joint mass and angular momentum distribution:
  Monte Carlo simulation
  • 2.1. Generalized Smoluchowski equation
    and merger probability
  • 2.2. Numerical simulation of mergers: methods
  • 2.3. Numerical simulation of mergers: results
• 3. Comparison of simulation results with solution
  of the Smoluchowski equation
• 4. Discussion
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1997

Online publication: April 6, 1998
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