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| Paper: |
The Sinking of Rigid and Live Satellites in a Milky Way like Galaxy Halo |
| Volume: |
197, XVth IAP Meeting Dynamics of Galaxies: From the Early Universe to the Present |
| Page: |
337 |
| Authors: |
Colpi, M.; Mayer, L.; Governato, F. |
| Abstract: |
The dynamical evolution of satellite galaxies in a Milky Way like spherical halo is studied using both the Theory of Linear Response (TLR) for dynamical friction and N-Body simulations. For nondeformable satellites placed on cosmologically relevant orbits TLR gives decay times longer by a factor of two with respect to previous estimates. Dissipation of orbital energy and angular momentum occurs without significant circularization. The orbital decay time of live satellites with initial masses < 5 cdot 1011Modot is sufficiently long that many of them have not merged with the primary stellar disk yet. Dwarf spheroidal satellites, like Sagittarius A and Fornax have already suffered mass stripping and with their present masses the sinking times exceed 10 Gyr even if they move on eccentric orbits. |
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