The Spiral Arms of the Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC1365 are Shearing

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The pattern speeds of spiral galaxies are measurable using integrated forms of the continuity equation applied to a spiral tracer. The method relates the observable flux density and velocity to the pattern speed. Results of this analysis for grand design spiral galaxies suggest their spiral arms are shearing. Such results open the question of whether shear is occurring in the arms of barred spiral galaxies as well because bars may drive evolution in spirals. To answer this question, we use neutral hydrogen flux density and velocity maps from the Very Large Array to calculate the spiral arm pattern speed of the barred spiral galaxy NGC1365. Our results show that the spiral arm pattern of NGC1365 is shearing at a rate that will wind itself up on a timescale of half a billion years. We discuss our results in the context of galaxy evolution and the density wave theories that explain spiral structure.
J. S. gratefully acknowledges the support of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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