1997/12/01 by Francois Schweizer, F. Schweizer, Schweizer, Francois
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9712017
10 pages, including 1 EPS figure, LaTeX, uses crckapb.sty and epsf.sty. To appear in proceedings of IAU Symp. 186, "Galaxy Interactions at Low and High Redshift", ed. D.B. Sanders (Kluwer, Dordrecht), 1998
arxiv created 1997/12/01 · openalex publication_date 1997/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Gravitational interactions and mergers affect the morphologies and dynamics of galaxies from our Local Group to the limits of the observable universe. Observations of interacting galaxies at low redshifts (z < 0.2) yield detailed information about many of the processes at work. I briefly review these processes and the growing evidence that mergers play a major role in the delayed formation of elliptical and early-type disk galaxies both in the field and in clusters. Low-z observations clearly contradict the notion of a single epoch of E formation at z > 2; instead, E and S0 galaxies continue forming to the present. The different rates of E and S0 formation inferred from observations of distant and nearby clusters may partially reflect the dependence of dynamical friction on mass: Major, E-forming mergers may tend to occur earlier than minor, S0-forming mergers because the dynamical friction is strongest for equal-mass galaxies.