Dark Matter Halos in Galaxy Mergers

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the influence of dark matter in galactic halos on the dynamics of galaxies in merger events, using N-body simulations. In the standard cosmological picture, large massive galaxies are formed by mergers of smaller ones. These mergers are very important for galactic dynamics and evolution. The largest portion of the galactic mass is the dark matter halo. Dark matter has a very important role due to dynamical friction and the formation of observed substructures. Here we investigated how properties of spherical dark matter halos and merger circumstances influence the formation of these morphological structures.