A thick-disk galaxy model and simulations of equal-mass galaxy pair collisions

Abstract

We implement a numerical model reported in the literature to simulate the evolution of a galaxy composed of four matter components, such as: a dark-matter halo; a rotating disk of stars; a spherical bulge of stars and a ring of molecular gas. We show that the evolution of this galaxy model is stable at least for 10 Gyr (Gyr = 109 years). We characterize the resulting configuration of this galaxy model by figures of the circular velocity and angular momentum distribution; the tangential and radial components of the velocity; the peak density evolution and the radial density profile. Additionally, we calculate several models of equal-mass galaxy binary collisions, such as: (i) frontal and (ii) oblique (with an impact parameter), (iii) two models with initial conditions taken from a 2-body orbit and (iv) a very close passage. To allow comparison with the galaxy model, we characterize the dynamics of the collision models in an analogous way. Finally, we determine the de Vaucouleurs fitting curves of the radial density profile, on a radial scale of 0–100 kpc, for all the collision models irrespective of the pre-collision trajectory. To study the radial mass density and radial surface density profiles at a smaller radial scale, 0–20 kpc, we use a four-parameter fitting curve.