Project Details
Projekt
The formation and evolution of tidal dwarf galaxies
Co-Applicant
Privatdozent Dr. Christian Theis
Subject Area
Astrophysics and Astronomy
Term
from 2007 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 42532944
Within the hierarchical structure formation scenario today’s galaxies emerge from the accumulation of smaller, gas-rich objects, the cosmological “building blocks”. As a result of angular momentum and energy conservation long, thin and gas-rich tidal arms are expelled when two such building blocks merge. These tidal arms can fragment into a series of self-gravitating dwarf galaxies under certain conditions. It is expected that the production of tidal-dwarf galaxies (TDGs) may have been much more efficient in the early universe than today, and so TDGs may form an important contribution to the faint-end of the galaxy luminosity function. This proposal aims at investigating the efficiency of the formation of TDGs in dependence of the gas fraction, the interaction morphology and mass ratio of the interacting galaxies. We also aim at studying the chemodynamical history of TDGs, in order to understand their survival and to uncover observable features that would help distinguishing them from the abundant cold-dark-matter sub-halos.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 1177:
Witnesses of Cosmic History: Formation and Evolution of Black Holes, Galaxies and Their Environments
International Connection
Austria
