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Oscar Agertz. Profile photo.

Oscar Agertz

Associate Professor / Senior university lecturer / Wallenberg Academy Fellow

Oscar Agertz. Profile photo.

Forming the local starburst galaxy Haro 11 through hydrodynamical merger simulations

Author

  • Timmy Ejdetjärn
  • Oscar Agertz
  • Florent Renaud
  • Göran Östlin
  • Alexandra Le Reste
  • Angela Adamo

Summary, in English

Haro 11 is a metal-poor, starburst galaxy believed to be the result of an ongoing merger, which is shaping the properties of the galaxy. In this study, we carry out a large suite of numerical simulations of a merger between two disc galaxies, to study possible origins of Haro 11 and understand under which conditions various features of the galaxy are formed. By varying galaxy parameters describing the orbital configurations, masses, and their inclination, we perform a total of ∼500 simulations. We demonstrate that a two-disc galaxy merger reproduces key, observed features of Haro 11, including its morphology, gas kinematics, star formation history, and stellar population ages and masses. In particular, we present a fiducial Haro 11 model that produces the single observed tidal tail, three stellar knots, and inner gas morphology and kinematics. The resulting orbit and galactic morphology are robust against small variations of the initial parameters. By performing mock observations, we compare with the results of observational data and discuss possible origins for various features. Furthermore, we present newly gathered observational data that confirms the presence of a stellar tidal tail with similar length and morphology as our simulations.

Department/s

  • Astrophysics
  • eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration

Publishing year

2025-11-01

Language

English

Pages

3849-3866

Publication/Series

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

543

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • galaxies: evolution
  • galaxies: individual (Haro 11)
  • galaxies: interactions
  • galaxies: starburst
  • methods: numerical

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0035-8711