Title: Shell galaxies: kinematical signature of shells, satellite galaxy disruption and dynamical friction Author: Ivana Ebrová Department / Institute: Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Supervisor of the doctoral thesis: RNDr. Bruno Jungwiert, Ph.D., Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Abstract: Stellar shells observed in many giant elliptical and lenticular as well as a few spiral and dwarf galaxies presumably result from radial minor mergers of galaxies. We show that the line-of-sight velocity distribution of the shells has a quadruple-peaked shape. We found simple analytical expressions that connect the positions of the four peaks of the line profile with the mass distribution of the galaxy, namely, the circular velocity at the given shell radius and the propagation velocity of the shell. The analytical expressions were applied to a test-particle simulation of a radial minor merger, and the potential of the simulated host galaxy was successfully recovered. Shell kinematics can thus become an independent tool to determine the content and distribution of dark matter in shell galaxies up to ~100 kpc from the center of the host galaxy. Moreover we investigate the dynamical friction and gradual disruption of the cannibalized galaxy...

We present new N-body, hydrodynamical simulations of the interaction between the starburst galaxy NGC 7714 and its poststarburst companion NGC 7715, focusing on the formation of the collisional features, including (1) the gas-rich star-forming bridge, (2) the large gaseous loop (and stellar tails) to the west of the system, (3) the very extended H I tail to the west and north of NGC 7714, and (4) the partial stellar ring in NGC 7714. Our simulations confirm the results of earlier work that an off-center inclined collision between two disk galaxies is almost certainly responsible for the peculiar morphologies of this system. However, we have explored a wider set of initial galaxy and collisional encounter parameters than previously and have found a relatively narrow range of parameters that reproduce all the major morphologies of this system. The simulations suggest specific mechanisms for the development of several unusual structures. We find that the complex gas bridge has up to four distinct components, with gas contributed from two sides of NGC 7715, as well as from NGC 7714. The observed gas-star offset in this bridge is accounted for in the simulations by the dissipative evolution of the gas. The models suggest that the most recently formed gas bridge component from NGC 7715 is interacting with gas from an older component. This interaction may have stimulated the band of star formation on the north side of the bridge. The models also indicate that the low surface brightness H I tail to the far west of NGC 7714 is the end of the NGC 7715 countertail, curved behind the two galaxies. The sensitivity of the tidal structures to collision parameters is demonstrated by comparisons between models with slightly different parameter values. Comparison of model and observational (H I) kinematics provides an important check that the morphological matches are not merely fortuitous. Line-of-sight velocity and dispersion fields from the model are found to match those of the observations reasonably well at current resolutions. Spectral evolutionary models of the NGC 7714 core by Lançon et al. suggest the possibility of multiple starbursts in the last 300 Myr. Our hydrodynamic models suggest that bursts could be triggered by induced ringlike waves and a postcollision buildup of gas in the core of the galaxy.

Hinge clumps are luminous knots of star formation near the base of tidal features in some interacting galaxies. We use archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV/optical/IR images and Chandra X-ray maps along with Galaxy Evolution Explorer UV Spitzer IR, and ground-based optical/near-IR images to investigate the star forming properties in a sample of 12 hinge clumps in five interacting galaxies. The most extreme of these hinge clumps have star formation rates of 1-9 M yr-1, comparable to or larger than the "overlap" region of intense star formation between the two disks of the colliding galaxy system the Antennae. In the HST images, we have found remarkably large and luminous sources at the centers of these hinge clumps. These objects are much larger and more luminous than typical "super star clusters" in interacting galaxies, and are sometimes embedded in a linear ridge of fainter star clusters, consistent with star formation along a narrow caustic. These central sources have FWHM diameters of 70 pc, compared to 3 pc in "ordinary" super star clusters. Their absolute I magnitudes range from MI -12.2 to -16.5; thus, if they are individual star clusters they would lie near the top of the "super star cluster" luminosity function of star clusters. These sources may not be individual star clusters, but instead may be tightly packed groups of clusters that are blended together in the HST images. Comparison to population synthesis modeling indicates that the hinge clumps contain a range of stellar ages. This is consistent with expectations based on models of galaxy interactions, which suggest that star formation may be prolonged in these regions. In the Chandra images, we have found strong X-ray emission from several of these hinge clumps. In most cases, this emission is well-resolved with Chandra and has a thermal X-ray spectrum, thus it is likely due to hot gas associated with the star formation. The ratio of the extinction-corrected diffuse X-ray luminosity to the mechanical energy rate (the X-ray production efficiency) for the hinge clumps is similar to that in the Antennae galaxies, but higher than those for regions in the normal spiral galaxy NGC 2403. Two of the hinge clumps have point-like X-ray emission much brighter than expected for hot gas; these sources are likely "ultra-luminous X-ray sources" due to accretion disks around black holes. The most extreme of these sources, in Arp 240, has a hard X-ray spectrum and an absorbed X-ray luminosity of 2 × 1041 erg s-1; this is above the luminosity expected by single high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), thus it may be either a collection of HMXBs or an intermediate mass black hole (≥80 M ).

In this thesis we present cloud-scale ALMA observations of two local mergers, NGC 3256 and NGC 4038/9 (the "Antennae"), in CO J=2-1. Through a pixel-based analysis of NGC 3256 we measure molecular-gas properties and compare to nearby spiral galaxies from the PHANGS-ALMA survey. NGC 3256 exhibits high mass surface densities, velocity dispersions, peak brightness temperatures, virial parameters, and internal turbulent pressures. High surface densities are expected to accompany its high star-formation rate, and high brightness temperatures may indicate warmer gas, heated by the vigorous star formation. Large virial parameters and internal pressures imply the molecular gas is not bound by self-gravity, but we explore how material external to clouds could alter this. We argue the molecular gas in NGC 3256 is smoother than in nearby spiral galaxies down to 55 pc. We also perform a cloud analysis of our NGC 3256 observations, identifying 185 clouds, and find similar results to the pixel analysis. We calculate additional cloud properties including eccentricity, CO luminosity, CO-estimated mass, virial mass, size-linewidth coefficient, and free-fall time. Properties in NGC 3256 are extreme compared to clouds from PHANGS-ALMA, including slightly larger clouds and shorter free-fall times. Cloud eccentricities in NGC 3256 are similar to those in PHANGS-ALMA galaxies, possibly indicating similar average cloud dynamical states. The shape of the cloud mass function in NGC 3256 is similar to many PHANGS-ALMA galaxies. Finally, we analyse our NGC 4038/9 observations using the same pixel methods as used in NGC 3256. NGC 4038/9 also harbours extreme molecular-gas properties and potentially smoother emission compared to spiral galaxies, but not as extreme as NGC 3256. We find the most-massive spiral galaxies have central molecular-gas properties similar to the mergers. Virial parameters in NGC 4038/9 are similar to many spiral galaxies, making it quite different from NGC 3256, potentially due to their different merger stages. Comparison of the overlap region of NGC 4038/9 in CO (2-1) to CO (3-2) shows general agreement. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Cette thèse a pour but de faire le lien entre l’évolution des galaxies, leur morphologie et les processus physiques internes, notamment la formation stellaire comme le résultat du milieu interstellaire turbulent et multiphase, en utilisant les simulations cosmologiques zoom-in, les simulations des galaxies isolées et en interaction, et le modèle analytique de la formation stellaire. Dans le chapitre 1, j’explique la motivation pour cette thèse et je passe brièvement en revue le contexte nécessaire lié à la formation des galaxies et la modélisation en utilisant les simulations numériques. Tout d’abord, j’explore l’évolution de la morphologie des galaxies du type de la Voie Lactée dans la série des simulations cosmologiques zoom-in à travers l’analyse des barres. J’analyse l’évolution de la fraction des barres avec le redshift, sa dépendance en fonction de la masse stellaire et l’histoire d’accrétion de galaxies individuelles. Je montre en particulier, que la fraction de barres décroit avec le redshift croissant, en accord avec les observations. Ce travail montre également que les résultats obtenus suggèrent que l’époque de la formation des barres correspond à la transition entre une phase précoce “violente” de la formation de galaxies spirales à z > 1, pendant laquelle elles sont souvent perturbées par les fusions avec les galaxies de masse comparable ou par multiple fusions avec les galaxies de petite masse, mais aussi les instabilités violentes de disque, et une phase "séculaire" tardive à z < 1, quand la morphologie finale est généralement stabilisée vers une structure dominée par le disque. Cette analyse est présentée dans le chapitre 2. Étant donné que ces simulations cosmologiques forment trop d'étoiles trop tôt par rapport aux populations de galaxies observées, je me concentre dans le chapitre 3 sur la formation stellaire dans un échantillon de simulation de galaxies en isolation, à bas redshift, et à résolution du parsec et sous-parsec. J'étudie l'origine physique de leurs relations de formation stellaire avec les cassures, et montre que le seuil de densité surfacique pour une formation stellaire efficace peut être lié à la densité caractéristique d'apparition de turbulence supersonique. Ce résultat s'applique aussi bien aux galaxies qui fusionnent, dans lesquelles l'augmentation de la turbulence compressive déclenchée par les marées compressives les conduit au régime de sursaut de formation d'étoiles. Un modèle analytique idéalisé de formation stellaire liant la densité surfacique de gaz au taux de formation stellaire comme une fonction de la présence de turbulence supersonique et la structure associée du milieu interstellaire est ensuite présenté dans le chapitre 4. Ce modèle prédit une cassure à basse densité de surface qui est suivie par un régime de loi de puissance à haute densité dans différents systèmes en accord avec les relations de formation stellaire des galaxies observées et simulées. La dernière partie de cette thèse est dédiée à la technique alternative de zoom-in cosmologique (Martig et al. 2009) et son implémentation dans le code à raffinement de maillage adaptatif RAMSES. Dans le chapitre 5, je présente les caractéristiques de base de cette technique aussi bien que certains de nos tout premiers résultats dans le contexte de l'accrétion cosmologique diffuse. / This thesis aims at making the link between galaxy evolution, morphology and internal physical processes, namely star formation as the outcome of the turbulent multiphase interstellar medium, using the cosmological zoom-in simulations, simulations of isolated and merging galaxies, and the analytic model of star formation. In Chapter 1, I explain the motivation for this thesis and briefly review the necessary background related to galaxy formation and modeling with the use of numerical simulations. I first explore the evolution of the morphology of Milky-Way-mass galaxies in a suite of zoom-in cosmological simulations through the analysis of bars. I analyze the evolution of the fraction of bars with redshift, its dependence on the stellar mass and accretion history of individual galaxies. I show in particular, that the fraction of bars declines with increasing redshift, in agreement with the observations. This work also shows that the obtained results suggest that the bar formation epoch corresponds to the transition between an early "violent" phase of spiral galaxies formation at z > 1, during which they are often disturbed by major mergers or multiple minor mergers as well as violent disk instabilities, and a late "secular" phase at z < 1, when the final morphology is generally stabilized to a disk-dominated structure. This analysis is presented in Chapter 2. Because such cosmological simulations form too many stars too early compared to observed galaxy populations, I shift the focus in Chapter 3 to star formation in a sample of low-redshift galaxy simulations in isolation at parsec and sub-parsec resolution. I study the physical origin of their star formation relations and breaks and show that the surface density threshold for efficient star formation can be related to the typical density for the onset of supersonic turbulence. This result holds in merging galaxies as well, where increased compressive turbulence triggered by compressive tides during the interaction drives the merger to the regime of starbursts. An idealized analytic model for star formation relating the surface density of gas and star formation rate as a function of the presence of supersonic turbulence and the associated structure of the ISM is then presented in Chapter 4. This model predicts a break at low surface densities that is followed by a power-law regime at high densities in different systems in agreement with star formation relations of observed and simulated galaxies. The last part of this thesis is dedicated to the alternative cosmological zoom-in technique Martig et al. 2009 and its implementation in the Adaptive Mesh Refinement code RAMSES. In Chapter 5, I will present the basic features of this technique as well as some of our very first results in the context of smooth cosmological accretion.