Should Elliptical Galaxies Be Idealised as Collisionless Equilibria?

Long lived modes of elliptical galaxies can exist {\it \`a la} van Kampen. Specific systems may possess long lived oscillations which Landau damp on time scales longer than a Hubble time. Some physical processes such as a close encounter, tidal forces from a cluster or an orbiting satellite could preferentially excite a coherent mode. These may relate to the observed faint structure in elliptical galaxies such as shells and ripples. Their detection in projected phase space wo...

The dynamics of galactic nuclei can be affected by several mechanisms. Among these are stellar evolution, stellar collisions, mass segregation, and tidal disruptions of stars due to the central black hole. In this presentation I will address how each of these affects the stellar cusp and the resulting observational signatures. Using a set of dynamically evolving Fokker-Planck simulations I present the dynamical evolution a nuclear stellar cluster and the growth of the central...

Elliptical galaxies are modelled as homeoidally striated Jacobi ellipsoids where the peculiar velocity distribution is anisotropic, or equivalently as their adjoints configurations i.e. classical Jacobi ellipsoids of equal mass and axes, in real or imaginary rotation. Reasons for the coincidence of bifurcation points from axisymmetric to triaxial configurations in both the sequences, contrary to earlier findings, are presented and discussed. The effect of centrifugal support ...

We present $N$--body models for triaxial elliptical galaxies or halos of galaxies, which are fully self--gravitating, have near constant axis ratio as a function of radius and a $r^{-1}$ central density cusp. Preliminary investigation suggests the model are stable and orbit analysis shows no indication of chaotic orbits. The models provide a starting point for investigations into the evolution of triaxial figures of equilibrium, response of triaxial figures to central black h...

We use numerical simulations to study the evolution of triaxial elliptical galaxies with central black holes. In contrast to earlier numerical studies which used galaxy models with central density ``cores,'' our galaxies have steep central cusps, like those observed in real ellipticals. As a black hole grows in these cuspy triaxial galaxies, the inner regions become rounder owing to chaos induced in the orbit families which populate the model. At larger radii, however, the mo...

We study the impact of relatively weak AGN feedback on the interstellar medium of intermediate and massive elliptical galaxies. We find that the AGN activity, while globally heating the ISM, naturally stimulates some degree of hot gas cooling on scales of several kpc. This process generates the persistent presence of a cold ISM phase, with mass ranging between 10$^4$ and $\gtrsim$ 5 $\times$ 10$^7$ M$_\odot$, where the latter value is appropriate for group centered, massive g...

I selectively review the various dynamical scenarios that have been explored to date, especially those that illustrate the conundrums. In short, although the existence of asymmetries are convincing enough, the interpretation remains ambiguous. A coherent picture for the Milky Way asymmetries is an obvious lack; each mechanism is considered independently of all others. With this motivation, I will present a nonstandard picture which has the potential to explain some of the sig...

N-body simulations find a universal structure for the halos which result from the nonlinear growth of Gaussian-random-noise density fluctuations in the CDM universe. This talk summarized our attempts to derive and explain this universal structure by analytical approximation and simplified models. As an example, we show here that a 1D spherical infall model involving a fluid approximation derived from the Boltzmann equation can explain not only the halo density profile but its...

In the context of recent observational results that show massive ellipticals were in place at high redshifts, we reassess the status of monolithic collapse in a LCDM universe. Using a sample of over 2000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, by comparing the dynamical mass and stellar mass (estimated from colours) we find that ellipticals have `cores' which are baryon-dominated within their half-light radius. These galaxies correspond to 3-sigma peaks in the spherical c...

Results from IRAS and recent optical CCD surveys are examined to discuss the distribution and origin of dust and ionized gas in elliptical galaxies. In strong contrast with the situation among spiral galaxies, masses of dust in elliptical galaxies as derived from optical extinction are an order of magnitude LOWER than those derived from IRAS data. I find that this dilemma can be resolved by assuming the presence of a diffusely distributed component of dust which is not detect...