Subjects: Astronomy submitted time 2024-01-05 Cooperative journals: 《天文学进展》
Abstract： The Local Group contains nearly one hundred galaxies of various sizes and shapes, including the Milky Way (MW), the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), the Magellanic Clouds and so on. M31 is the most massive and brightest galaxy in the Local Group. Studies of the Local Group have significant implications for understanding the interactions and evolution of galaxies, as well as cosmology. According to the hierarchical clustering theory of the universe, galaxies grow through mergers. In addition to numerous satellite galaxy mergers in the Local Group, there may also be a future merger between the two large galaxies, the Milky Way and M31. Observations indeed indicate that M31 and the Milky Way are approaching each other and will merge in the future. As a powerful tool for studying galaxy mergers, N -body simulation has rapidly matured during the past half century and played an important role in our quantitative understanding of galaxy mergers. Thanks to the development of galaxy structure theories, observational capabilities and N -body simulation software, information about the Milky Way and M31 has become increasingly clear, thus our understanding of the merger between the Milky Way and M31 has become more detailed. This article presents a brief overview of N -body simulations of the merger between M31 and MW, with an emphasis on the simulation procedure, as well as a comparison of recent results. Valuable future directions are also discussed.
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