Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 1989
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989phdt........11l&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis Toronto Univ. (Ontario).
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Astronomical Models, Barred Galaxies, Dark Matter, Galactic Mass, Galactic Rotation, Milky Way Galaxy, Stellar Motions, Galactic Evolution, Galactic Structure, Statistical Analysis, Velocity Distribution
Scientific paper
The distant satellites of the Milky Way Galaxy are used to probe the distribution of dark matter in the Galactic halo. A new method of statistical analysis based on Bayes' theorem was devised, which directly yields confidence intervals for the mass of the Galaxy once the eccentricity distribution of the satellites is specified. Assuming an isotropic velocity distribution for 10 objects at distances of 50 to 140 kiloparsecs, mass results suggest that the Galaxy's massive dark halo extends to approximately less than 50 kiloparsecs from the Galactic center. A model galaxy with an artificial bar is used to explore the effect of dynamical friction on a galactic bar. An analytic formula is provided which correctly predicts angular momentum changes for a bar in interaction with a non self-gravitating disk. N-body simulations further show that disk self-gravity tends to make a bar without inner Lindblad resonances spin down more rapidly, and tends to make a bar dominated by inner Lindblad resonances spin up less rapidly. The long-term dynamical evolution of galactic bars is investigated using fully self gravitating bar-unstable disk-halo models. The models develop rapidly rotating bars which then slow down through transfers of angular momentum both to the outer disk and to the halo. The models suggest that the distance between the end of a bar and its corotation circle is proportional to the bar's age, and an approximate formula is presented which expresses this relationship. It is also concluded that the average tangential velocity within a barlike object drops by a factor of about 2 over approximately 45 initial rotation periods.
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