The Survival of the Core Fundamental Plane against Galactic Mergers

We have developed an effective simulation method and applied it to theproblem of the accretion of very dense secondary companions by tenuousprimaries. We have studied the accretion of objects of varying luminosityratios, with sizes and densities drawn from the core Fundamental Plane forelliptical galaxies under the assumption that the mass distribution in thecentral parts of the galaxies follows the light. The results indicate that inmergers with mass ratios greater than 10, the smaller object is only strippeddown to the highest density encountered in the primary during the accretionprocess. Thus, the form of the core Fundamental Plane suggests that the massdistribution in these galaxy centers is different than the light distribution,or that mergers on the core Fundamental Plane require more than the dynamics ofvisible stars.Comment: 30 pages LaTeX, 18 figure