English

Integrable models of galactic discs with double nuclei

Astrophysics 2009-10-31 v2

Abstract

We introduce a new class of 2-D mass models, whose potentials are of St\"ackel form in elliptic coordinates. Our model galaxies have two separate strong cusps that form double nuclei. The potential and surface density distributions are locally axisymmetric near the nuclei and become {\it highly} non-axisymmetric outside the nucleus. The surface density diverges toward the cuspy nuclei with the law Σr2\Sigma \propto r^{-2}. Our model is sustained by four general types of regular orbits: {\it butterfly}, {\it nucleuphilic banana}, {\it horseshoe} and {\it aligned loop} orbits. Horseshoes and nucleuphilic bananas support the existence of cuspy regions. Butterflies and aligned loops control the non-axisymmetric shape of outer regions. Without any need for central black holes, our distributed mass models resemble the nuclei of M31 and NGC4486B. It is also shown that the self-gravity of the stellar disc can prevent the double nucleus to collapse.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0002012,
  title  = {Integrable models of galactic discs with double nuclei},
  author = {M. A. Jalali and A. R. Rafiee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0002012},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

8 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:43:56.615Z