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| Paper: |
Galactic Mergers with Supermassive Black Holes |
| Volume: |
249, The Central Kiloparsec of Starbursts and AGN: the La Palma Connection |
| Page: |
379 |
| Authors: |
Cruz, Fidel; Merritt, David |
| Abstract: |
We present the results of N-body simulations of the accretion of high-density dwarf galaxies by low-density giant galaxies. Both galaxies contain power-law central density cusps and point masses representing supermassive black holes; the ratio of galaxy masses is 3:1. The cusp of the dwarf galaxy is always disrupted during the merger, leading to a remnant with a weak power law in the intrinsic density and a ``core'' in the projected density. Removing both black holes from the giant and dwarf galaxies allows the dwarf galaxy to remain intact and leads to a remnant with a high central density, contrary to what is observed. Our results support the hypothesis that the persistence of low-density cores in giant galaxies following mergers is a consequence of the existence of supermassive central black holes. |
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