Mass loss and dynamical friction on the Fornax dSph galaxy in the Milky Way potential

2025/08/05 by Di Cintio, Pierfrancesco, Iorio, Giuliano, Nipoti, Carlo +1
#Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2508.03286

Abstract

We study the interplay between mass-loss and dynamical friction (DF) on the orbital decay of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the potential of the Milky Way (MW). Using a simplified single particle approach combined with a mass-loss rate extrapolated by N-body simulations we find that the the effect of a time-dependent mass partially compensates DF, and typically produces a much less evident decay of the pergalactic distance, thus confirming that N-body simulations in smooth MW potentials without DF can be taken as a good model of the dynamics of dwarf satellite galaxies.

Citations

• The dynamical evolution of the stellar clumps in the Sparkler galaxy

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