Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

Were the most compact and most diffuse stellar systems in galaxy clusters both formed by tidal stripping?

Carolin Wittmann , ARI

We use deep optical wide field imaging data of the nearby Perseus and Fornax galaxy clusters to analyse the most compact and most diffuse stellar systems for signs of tidal stripping. In the Fornax cluster core we examine a population of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) and probe whether they could be the remnant nuclei of destroyed nucleated early-type dwarfs. Although we do not detect diffuse tidal debris around any of the UCDs, a significant fraction of our sample exhibits distorted outer structures. In the core of Perseus we identify a population of low-surface brightness dwarf galaxy candidates of the kind named 'ultra-diffuse galaxies'. We investigate whether they show signs of current tidal disruption or whether they might be protected by a large dark matter content. Our sample seems surprisingly intact, with only very few candidates showing possible signs of current disruption. We discuss the importance of tidal stripping for the formation of both the compact and the diffuse cluster populations by comparison to the predicted timescales and frequency of disruption events from simulations.

ARI Institute Colloquium
18 Jan 2018, 11:15
ARI Moenchhofstrasse 12-14, Seminarraum 1

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