Spiral instabilities in N-body simulations
Astrophysics of Galaxies
2010-11-19 v1
Abstract
N-body simulations of disc galaxies that display recurrent transient spiral patterns are comparatively easy to construct, but are harder to understand. In this paper, I summarise the evidence from such experiments that the spiral patterns result from a recurrent spiral instability cycle. Each wave starts as rapidly growing, small-amplitude instability caused by a deficiency of particles at a particular angular momentum. The resulting large-amplitude wave creates, through resonant scattering, the conditions needed to precipitate a new instability.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1011.4226,
title = {Spiral instabilities in N-body simulations},
author = {J. A. Sellwood},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1011.4226},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Conference article from 1989 posted so as to allow access to the full text through ADS