Journal of Vibration Testing and System Dynamics
The Building Blocks of the Spiral Arms in Galaxies
Journal of Vibration Testing and System Dynamics 8(2) (2024) 155--171 | DOI:10.5890/JVTSD.2024.06.001
Mirella Harsoula, Athanasios C. Tzemos
Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics of the Academy of Athens, Soranou Efessiou 4, 11527, Athens, Greece
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Abstract
This is a review paper on the main theories of orbital mechanism that support the spiral arms in the case of grand design galaxies as well as in the case of barred spiral galaxies. While, in the first case stable periodic orbits form families of precessing ellipses that produce spiral density waves similar to those observed in real grand design galaxies, in the second case the spiral structure is supported by sticky chaotic orbits along unstable asymptotic manifolds.
This mechanism is valid in the case of one pattern speed as well as of two different pattern speeds, for the bar and the spiral structure. Finally, in the case where the bar rotates much faster than the spiral arms, perturbed precessing ellipses can support spiral density waves.
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