Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Aug 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009mnras.397.1587v&link_type=abstract
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 397, Issue 3, pp. 1587-1590.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
4
Galaxy: Disc, Globular Clusters: General
Scientific paper
So far, six mechanisms have been proposed to account for the Galactic disc heating. Of these, the most important appear to be a combination of scattering of stars by molecular clouds and by spiral arms. We study a further mechanism, namely the repeated disc impact of the original Galactic globular cluster population up to the present. We find that globular clusters could have contributed at most a small fraction of the current vertical energy of the disc, as they could heat the whole disc to σz = 5.5kms-1 (c.f. the observed 18 and 39 kms-1 for the thick and thin discs, respectively). We find that the rate of rise of disc heat (α = 0.22 in σz ~ tα with t being time) is close to that found for scattering by molecular clouds.
Cropper Mark
Ferreras Ignacio
Vande Putte Dave
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