Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1999-11-15
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
18 pages, 11 figures, to appear in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03270.x
High-resolution observations of the inner regions of barred disk galaxies have revealed many asymmetrical, small-scale central features, some of which are best described as secondary bars. Because orbital time-scales in the galaxy center are short, secondary bars are likely to be dynamically decoupled from the main kiloparsec-scale bars. Here, we show that regular orbits exist in such doubly-barred potentials and that they can support the bars in their motion. We find orbits in which particles remain on loops: closed curves which return to their original positions after two bars have come back to the same relative orientation. Stars trapped around stable loops could form the building blocks for a long-lived, doubly-barred galaxy. Using the loop representation, we can find which orbits support the bars in their motion, and what are the constraints on the sizes and shapes of self-consistent double bars. In particular, it appears that a long-lived secondary bar may exist only when an Inner Lindblad Resonance is present in the primary bar, and that it would not extend beyond this resonance.
Maciejewski Witold
Sparke Linda S.
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