Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-10-15
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 327 (2001) 1021
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
26 Latex pages, 6 .eps figures, 1 table. To appear in the MNRAS, vol. 327, November 1 issue, 2001
Scientific paper
10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04780.x
We investigate the dynamical effects of a molecular cloud complex with a mass of about 10**7 M_sun and a size of a few 100 pc on the vertical distribution of stars and atomic hydrogen gas in a spiral galactic disc. Such massive complexes have now been observed in a number of spiral galaxies. The extended mass distribution in a complex, with an average mass density 6 times higher than the Oort limit, is shown to dominate the local gravitational field. This results in a significant redistribution of the surrounding disc components towards the mid-plane, with a resulting decrease in their vertical scaleheights. A surprising result is the large radial distance of about 500 pc from the complex centre over which the complex influences the disc. The complex has a comparable effect on the vertical distribution of HI in the galactic disc. This `pinching' or constraining effect should be detectable in the nearby spiral galaxies. Thus the gravitational field of a complex results in local corrugations of the stellar and HI vertical scaleheights, and the galactic disc potential is highly non-uniform on scales of the inter-complex separation of about 1 kpc.
Jog Chanda J.
Narayan Chaitra A.
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