No Arabic abstract
We identify an effective proxy for the analytically-unknown second integral of motion (I_2) for rotating barred or tri-axial potentials. Planar orbits of a given energy follow a tight sequence in the space of the time-averaged angular momentum and its amplitude of fluctuation. The sequence monotonically traces the main orbital families in the Poincare map, even in the presence of resonant and chaotic orbits. This behavior allows us to define the Calibrated Angular Momentum, the average angular momentum normalized by the amplitude of its fluctuation, as a numerical proxy for I_2. It also implies that the amplitude of fluctuation in L_z, previously under-appreciated, contains valuable information. This new proxy allows one to classify orbital families easily and accurately, even for real orbits in N-body simulations of barred galaxies. It is a good diagnostic tool of dynamical systems, and may facilitate the construction of equilibrium models.
We use a Cartesian grid to simulate the flow of gas in a barred Galactic potential and investigate the effects of varying the sound speed in the gas and the resolution of the grid. For all sound speeds and resolutions, streamlines closely follow closed orbits at large and small radii. At intermediate radii shocks arise and the streamlines shift between two families of closed orbits. The point at which the shocks appear and the streamlines shift between orbit families depends strongly on sound speed and resolution. For sufficiently large values of these two parameters, the transfer happens at the cusped orbit as hypothesised by Binney et al. over two decades ago. For sufficiently high resolutions the flow downstream of the shocks becomes unsteady. If this unsteadiness is physical, as appears to be the case, it provides a promising explanation for the asymmetry in the observed distribution of CO.
We run hydrodynamical simulations of a 2D isothermal non self-gravitating inviscid gas flowing in a rigidly rotating externally imposed potential formed by only two components: a monopole and a quadrupole. We explore systematically the effects of varying the quadrupole while keeping fixed the monopole and discuss the consequences for the interpretation of longitude-velocity diagrams in the Milky Way. We find that the gas flow can constrain the quadrupole of the potential and the characteristics of the bar that generates it. The exponential scale length of the bar must be at least $1.5rm, kpc$. The strength of the bar is also constrained. Our global interpretation favours a pattern speed of $Omega=40,rm km s^{-1} {kpc}^{-1}$. We find that for most observational features, there exist a value of the parameters that matches each individual feature well, but is difficult to reproduce all the important features at once. Due to the intractably high number of parameters involved in the general problem, quantitative fitting methods that can run automatic searches in parameter space are necessary.
This study presents a study of equilibrium points, periodic orbits, stabilities, and manifolds in a rotating plane symmetric potential field. It has been found that the dynamical behaviour near equilibrium points is completely determined by the structure of the submanifolds and subspaces. The non-degenerate equilibrium points are classified into twelve cases. The necessary and sufficient conditions for linearly stable, non resonant unstable and resonant equilibrium points are established. Furthermore, the results show that a resonant equilibrium point is a Hopf bifurcation point. In addition, if the rotating speed changes, two non degenerate equilibria may collide and annihilate each other. The theory developed here is lastly applied to two particular cases, motions around a rotating, homogeneous cube and the asteroid 1620 Geographos. We found that the mutual annihilation of equilibrium points occurs as the rotating speed increases, and then the first surface shedding begins near the intersection point of the x axis and the surface. The results can be applied to planetary science, including the birth and evolution of the minor bodies in the Solar system, the rotational breakup and surface mass shedding of asteroids, etc.
Spiral arms that emerge from the ends of a galactic bar are important in interpreting observations of our and external galaxies. It is therefore important to understand the physical mechanism that causes them. We find that these spiral arms can be understood as kinematic density waves generated by librations around underlying ballistic closed orbits. This is even true in the case of a strong bar, provided the librations are around the appropriate closed orbits and not around the circular orbits that form the basis of the epicycle approximation. An important consequence is that it is a potentials orbital structure that determines whether a bar should be classified as weak or strong, and not crude estimates of the potentials deviation from axisymmetry.
A phase-space distribution function of the steady state in galaxy models that admits regular orbits overall in the phase-space can be represented by a function of three action variables. This type of distribution function in Galactic models is often constructed theoretically for comparison of the Galactic models with observational data as a test of the models. On the other hand, observations give Cartesian phase-space coordinates of stars. Therefore it is necessary to relate action variables and Cartesian coordinates in investigating whether the distribution function constructed in galaxy models can explain observational data. Generating functions are very useful in practice for this purpose, because calculations of relations between action variables and Cartesian coordinates by generating functions do not require a lot of computational time or computer memory in comparison with direct numerical integration calculations of stellar orbits. Here, we propose a new method called a torus-fitting method, by which a generating function is derived numerically for models of the Galactic potential in which almost all orbits are regular. We confirmed the torus-fitting method can be applied to major orbit families (box and loop orbits) in some two-dimensional potentials. Furthermore, the torus-fitting method is still applicable to resonant orbit families, besides major orbit families. Hence the torus-fitting method is useful for analyzing real Galactic systems in which a lot of resonant orbit families might exist.