English

Orbital classification in rotating bar potentials using an empirical proxy of the second integral of motion

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2026-02-03 v2

Abstract

We present a novel method for classifying two-dimensional orbits in rotating bar potentials, based on an empirical proxy for the second integral of motion, Calibrated Angular Momentum (CAM), which is defined as the ratio of the time-averaged angular momentum (Lz\overline{L_z}) to its temporal dispersion (σLz\sigma_{L_z}) in the corotating frame. We show that CAM is determined by the ratio of the azimuthal to radial actions (Jϕ/Jr{J_\phi}^\prime / {J_r}^\prime) in the analytical Freeman bar model. We then construct a new parameter space defined by CAM versus the root-mean-square radius (RRMSR_{RMS}), and apply this framework to orbits in several representative rotating bar potentials. In the CAM-RRMSR_{RMS} plane, periodic orbits generate well-defined branches separating distinct regions corresponding to different orbital families. Several of these branches enclose isolated areas that can be associated with specific orbital families, such as the the x2x_2 orbital family. We further validate the method using orbits from test-particle simulations, which show a well-ordered and non-overlapping distribution of orbital families in the CAM-RRMSR_{RMS} plane. Since CAM is fundamentally linked to intrinsic orbital properties and readily applied to three-dimensional orbits in N-body simulations, our results establish the CAM-RRMSR_{RMS} plane as a robust and efficient framework for orbit classification in rotating bars that complements conventional methods.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.18870,
  title  = {Orbital classification in rotating bar potentials using an empirical proxy of the second integral of motion},
  author = {Tian-ye Xia and Juntai Shen and John Magorrian and Yu-jing Qin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.18870},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

ApJ accepted