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arXiv · 1110.5727

Could M31 be the result of a major merger?

Sylvain Fouquet·François Hammer·Yang-Bin Yang·Jianling Wang·Mathieu Puech·Hector Flores
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Abstract

We investigated a scenario in which M31 could be the remnant of a gas-rich major merger. Galaxy merger simulations, highly constrained by observations, were run using GADGET 2 in order to reproduce M31. We succeeded in reproducing the global shape of M31, the thin disk and the bulge, and in addition some of the main M31 large-scale features, such as the thick disk, the 10kpc ring and the Giant Stream. This lead to a new explanation of the Giant Stream which could be caused by tidal tail stars that have been captured by the galaxy potential.

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Sylvain Fouquet, François Hammer, Yang-Bin Yang, Jianling Wang, Mathieu Puech, Hector Flores. 2011-10-26. Could M31 be the result of a major merger?. https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf%2F20121901007

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