2007/04/17 by Eduard Salvador-Solé, Sinue Serra, Salvador-Solé, Eduard +6
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Material Dynamics and Properties #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0704.2228
4 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2007/04/17 · openalex publication_date 2007/04/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In a series of recent papers, a new formalism has been developed that explains the inner structure of dark matter halos as collisionless, dissipationless systems assembled through mergers and accretion at the typical cosmological rate. Nearby ellipticals are also collisionless, dissipationless systems assembling their mass through mergers, but contrarily to the former structures they do not continuously accrete external matter because they are shielded by their host halos. Here we explore the idea that the infall of their own matter ejected within the halo on the occasion of a violent merger can play a role similar to external accretion in halos. The predicted stellar mass density profile fits the observed one, and the empirical total mass density profile is also recovered.