TIME-DEPENDENT COROTATION RESONANCE in BARRED GALAXIES

Yu Ting Wu, Daniel Pfenniger, Ronald E. Taam

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effective potential neighboring the corotation resonance region in barred galaxies is shown to be strongly time-dependent in any rotating frame, due to the competition of nearby perturbations of similar strengths with differing rotation speeds. Contrary to the generally adopted assumption that in the bar rotating frame the corotation region should possess four stationary equilibrium points (Lagrange points), with high quality N-body simulations, we localize the instantaneous equilibrium points (EPs) and find that they circulate or oscillate broadly in azimuth with respect to the pattern speeds of the inner or outer perturbations. This implies that at the particle level the Jacobi integral is not well conserved around the corotation radius. That is, angular momentum exchanges decouple from energy exchanges, enhancing the chaotic diffusion of stars through the corotation region.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number111
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume830
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 20 2016

Keywords

  • galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
  • methods: numerical

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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