Lifetime of a Lopsided Pattern: Damping of Lopsided Disks by Dynamical Friction

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

7

Celestial Mechanics, Stellar Dynamics, Galaxies: Halos, Galaxies: Kinematics And Dynamics, Galaxies: Structure, Methods: Analytical

Scientific paper

The effect of dynamical friction on the time evolution of lopsided disks is examined by using linear perturbation theory. The friction is caused by the gravitational interaction of a rotating lopsided pattern with a density wake induced in halos. The density wake is determined by solving the linearized collisionless Boltzmann and Poisson equations by means of the Fourier-Laplace transform. Then, it is found that dynamical friction always damps a lopsided pattern in our halo model. In addition, the damping time is much shorter than a Hubble time, typically 1 Gyr, unless the pattern speed is quite slow. Considering such a short damping timescale and the observed large fraction of lopsided disks in spirals, say, ~=30%, it will be unlikely that all of the lopsided disks are recently excited. Thus, it is suggested that most of the observed lopsided disks are very slowly rotating patterns. The significance of weakly damped modes that have a slow pattern speed is discussed.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Lifetime of a Lopsided Pattern: Damping of Lopsided Disks by Dynamical Friction does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Lifetime of a Lopsided Pattern: Damping of Lopsided Disks by Dynamical Friction, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Lifetime of a Lopsided Pattern: Damping of Lopsided Disks by Dynamical Friction will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1408238

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.