The effect of ram pressure on the star formation, mass distribution and morphology of galaxies

Full text: We investigate the dependence of star formation and the distribution of the components of galaxies on the strength of ram pressure. By applying a combined N-body/hydrodynamic description (GADGET-2) with radiative cooling and a recipe for star formation and stellar feedback 12 different ram-pressure stripping scenarios for disc galaxies were calculated Several mock observations in x-ray, H / alpha and HI wavelength for different ram-pressure scenarios are presented. The star formation of a galaxy is enhanced by more than a magnitude in the simulation with a high ram-pressure (5 x 10-11 dyn/cm2) in comparison to the same system evolving in isolation. The enhancement of the star formation depends more on the surrounding gas density than on the relative velocity. Up to 95 % of all newly formed stars can be found in the wake of the galaxy out to distances of more than 350 kpc behind the stellar disc. (author)