Speaker
Description
Prolate rotation in galaxies (rotation around the major axis) is a rare phenomenon in the Universe. The effect has been exclusively attributed to past major mergers and thus studies of prolate-rotating systems can help us better understand the hierarchical process of galaxy evolution. Dynamical studies of such galaxies is important to find their gravitational potential profile, total mass, and dark matter fraction. Recently, it has been shown from cosmological simulation that it is possible to form a prolate-rotating dwarf galaxy following a dwarf-dwarf merger event. The simulation also shows that the unusual prolate rotation can be time enduring. In this particular example the galaxy started rotating around its major axis about 7.4 Gyr ago and it is still continuing at the present time. In this project, we use mock observations of the hydrodynamically simulated galaxy to fit various stages of its evolution with Jeans dynamical models. The Jeans model successfully fits the early oblate state and also for late prolate stage of simulated galaxy, prior the major merger event, recovering the anisotropy, mass density distribution, velocity dispersion, and rotation of the simulated galaxy. This master thesis project is an important connecting link between cosmological simulations and real observational data, as many prolate rotation galaxies are being discovered.
| Do you plan to attend the symposium in-person or virtually? | in-person |
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