2007/10/05 by P. Di Matteo, F. Combes, A. -L. Melchior +2 · 2 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Space Technology and Applications #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078296
6 pages, 15 figures. Accepted on Astronomy & Astrophysics
arxiv created 2007/10/05 · openalex publication_date 2007/11/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We use numerical simulations to investigate the possibility of forming counter-rotating old stellar components by major mergers between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy. We show that counterrotation can appear both in dissipative and dissipationless retrograde mergers, and it is mostly associated to the presence of a disk component, which preserves part of its initial spin. In turn, the external regions of the two interacting galaxies acquire part of the orbital angular momentum, from the action of tidal forces exerted on each galaxy by the companion.