Creating lenticular galaxies with mergers. Issue Volume 11:Issue S321(2015) (21st March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Querejeta, Miguel; Eliche-Moral, M. Carmen; Tapia, Trinidad; Borlaff, Alejandro; van de Ven, Glenn; Lyubenova, Mariya; Martig, Marie; Falcón-Barroso, Jesús; Méndez-Abreu, Jairo; Zamorano, Jaime; Gallego, Jesús
• Editors: Gil de Paz, Armando; Knapen, Johan H.; Lee, Janice C.
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. Volume 11:Issue S321(2015)
• Page Start: 114
• Page End: 116
• Publication Date: 2017-03-21
• Subjects: galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, -- galaxies: structure, -- galaxies: evolution, -- galaxies: interactions, -- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; Astronomy -- Congresses; Astronomy -- Periodicals; 520
• DOI: 10.1017/S1743921316009030
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1743-9213

Abstract

Abstract: Lenticular galaxies (S0s) represent the majority of early-type galaxies in the local Universe, but their formation channels are still poorly understood. While galaxy mergers are obvious pathways to suppress star formation and increase bulge sizes, the marked parallelism between spiral and lenticular galaxies (e.g. photometric bulge–disc coupling) seemed to rule out a potential merger origin. Here, we summarise our recent work in which we have shown, through N -body numerical simulations, that disc-dominated lenticulars can emerge from major mergers of spiral galaxies, in good agreement with observational photometric scaling relations. Moreover, we show that mergers simultaneously increase the light concentration and reduce the angular momentum relative to their spiral progenitors. This explains the mismatch in angular momentum and concentration between spirals and lenticulars recently revealed by CALIFA observations, which is hard to reconcile with simple fading mechanisms (e.g. ram-pressure stripping).