Radial Mixing in Galactic Discs

Details Radial Mixing in Galactic Discs Radial Mixing in Galactic Discs

2002-03-28

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0203510v2

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.336:785,2002

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Accepted to appear in MNRAS, 13 pages, 16 figures, LaTeX uses mn2e.cls Minor additions to text and one extra figure

Scientific paper

10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05806.x

We show that spiral waves in galaxy discs churn the stars and gas in a manner that largely preserves the overall angular momentum distribution and leads to little increase in random motion. Changes in the angular momenta of individual stars are typically as large as ~50% over the lifetime of the disk. The changes are concentrated around the corotation radius for an individual spiral wave, but since transient waves with a wide range of pattern speeds develop in rapid succession, the entire disk is affected. This behaviour has profound consequences for the metallicity gradients with radius in both stars and gas. The ISM is also stirred by the same mechanism. We find observational support for stirring, propose a simple model for the distribution of stars over metallicity and age, and discuss other possible consequences.

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