Hα Kinematic Observations of Spiral Density Waves in M51 with the Maryland-Caltech Fabry-Perot

Details Hα Kinematic Observations of Spiral Density Waves in M51 with the Maryland-Caltech Fabry-Perot Hα Kinematic Observations of Spiral Density Waves in M51 with the Maryland-Caltech Fabry-Perot

Dec 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...181.4012g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #40.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1182

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present observations and interpretation of the disk velocity field of the prototypical grand design spiral, M51. Hα observations have been made with the Maryland-Caltech Imaging Fabry-Perot with a spatial resolution of 2('') (94 pc) and a velocity accuracy of 1 km s(-1) rms. The sensitivity is sufficient to detect Hα over most of the optical disk and reveals streaming perturbations as large as 150 km s(-1) for an inclination of 20°. The signature of the classic Roberts (1969) galactic shock, an abrupt shift in velocity, is not seen. This implies that gas gravity, viscosity, or the cloudy nature of the ISM must strongly influence the streaming motions. Analysis of the kinematic data coupled with n-body simulations provides new insight into the nature of the global spiral pattern and shows that the outer arms must have a different pattern speed than the inner disk. Contrary to many predictions, the star formation efficiency, as traced by Hα and CO emission, peaks in the vicinity of corotation for the inner pattern. This is attributed to gravitational instabilities triggered by the large amount of gas that has accumulated near the corotation radius.

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