Paper detail

Study of galaxy morphology and merging time of two interacting galaxies under different initial rotation and orientation configurations

Using the GADGET-2 N-body code, we make a study of the galaxy morphology and merging time due to two interacting galaxies (for the same types and different sizes and masses, $1:1$ and $1:10$ ratio masses) merging due to gravity interaction. This is done for different initial relative orientation and rotation of these galaxies (modes of interaction) but with the same relative bulge separation and the same relative initial velocities. It was found that the resulting galaxy morphology resemble many of the observed galaxies in our Universe, and that, in general, a binary galaxy system with 1:10 mass ratio has larger merging time than a binary galaxy system with 1:1 mass ratio. This difference is due to the different evolution of the masses during the interaction in both cases. For the case with a 1:10 mass ratio, the global mass maximum is located at the end evolution, meaning that the second galaxy increases its mass constantly. For the case with mass ratio 1:1, the global maximum is located around $t=0.35$ Gy, causing a reduction of the merging time.