Experiments With IDENTIKIT

TL;DR

IDENTIKIT is a fast modeling tool for galaxy interactions that helps determine initial conditions from observed tidal features and evaluates galaxy halo properties.

Contribution

This paper introduces new applications of IDENTIKIT for automating galaxy encounter modeling and analyzing tidal feature properties.

Findings

IDENTIKIT effectively constrains initial conditions of galaxy mergers.

The tool enables partial automation of dynamical modeling.

It provides a method to evaluate halo mass and extent from tidal features.

Abstract

IDENTIKIT was originally developed as a fast approximate scheme for modeling the tidal morphology and kinematics of disk galaxy encounters and mergers. In this form, it was first used to implement an interactive modeling tool for galaxy collisions; tests with artificial data showed that the morphology and kinematics of merging galaxies strongly constrain their initial conditions. This tool is now being applied to real galaxies. More recently, IDENTIKIT has been used to develop a mapping from the present state of a tidal encounter back to the initial conditions; this offers a way to partly automate the search for dynamical models of galaxy encounters. Finally, IDENTIKIT's theoretical applications include a comprehensive way to evaluate the mass and extent of tidal features as functions of halo structure.