Neal Katz (U.Mass.)
"Dynamical Friction: It's not what your father taught you!"
ABSTRACT
I will briefly review standard Chandrasekhar dynamical
friction. Owing to resonant effects it does not apply in galaxies. I will then
describe how dynamical friction actually works in galaxies. I will briefly
discuss some consequences of this. For example, in cuspy
dark matter halos the resultant wakes penetrate well into the cusp. Hence
dynamical fricting substructure can greatly affect the central structure
of dark matter halos, removing the cusps. Numerical noise can easily diffuse
these resonances, making it a challenge to simulate correctly.
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