Computer Science – Graphics
Scientific paper
Mar 1982
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982phdt.........7s&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis Yale Univ., New Haven, CT.
Computer Science
Graphics
17
Cold Gas, Computerized Simulation, Elliptical Galaxies, Galaxies, Spheroids, Computer Graphics, Gas Evolution, Trajectories, Wells
Scientific paper
The motions of cold gas residing in various spheroidal galactic potential wells are investigated, both analytically and through extensive numerical calculations. It is found that a gaseous layer embedded in the potential has a preferred orientation, in which individual gas clouds have orbits which do not precess. The gas will damp to the preferred orbits, through the combined effects of differential precession and radial excursions from circular trajectories, on time scales of less than one to two billion years for orbits of moderate radius. For elliptical galaxies with embedded gas disks this work provides a clear discriminator between prolate and oblate mass distributions. The preferred gas orbits lie in the equatorial planes of both of these potentials, so if a gas disk is seen projected against the minor axis of an elliptical, that galaxy is truly prolate, while if the lane is aligned with the major axis, the system is oblate. Tabulated observations show that both prolate and oblate ellipticals exist, in perhaps equal numbers. True axial ratios and spatial orientations can also be determined for these objects.
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