Related papers: Swinging Spiral Arms
We describe how a simple class of out of equilibrium, rotating and asymmetrical mass distributions evolve under their self-gravity to produce a quasi-planar spiral structure surrounding a virialized core, qualitatively resembling a spiral…
We investigate the short-term dynamical evolution of stellar grand-design spiral arms in barred spiral galaxies using a three-dimensional (3D) $N$-body/hydrodynamic simulation. Similar to previous numerical simulations of unbarred,…
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…
Spirals in galaxies have long been thought to be caused by gravitational instability in the stellar component of the disk, but discerning the precise mechanism had proved elusive. Tidal interactions, and perhaps bars, may provoke some…
The manifold theory of barred-spiral structure provides a dynamical mechanism explaining how spiral arms beyond the ends of galactic bars can be supported by chaotic flows extending beyond the bar's co-rotation zone. We discuss its…
The structure of spiral galaxies is essential to understanding the dynamics and evolution of disk galaxies; however, the precise nature of spiral arms remains uncertain. Two challenges in understanding the mechanisms driving spirals are how…
We examine the development of a transient spiral arm in a disk galaxy made up of both gas and stars. To this end we have performed numerical simulations in a shearing sheet (basically a rectangular patch of a disc) that contains gas in the…
Fragmentation of spiral arms can drive the formation of giant clumps and induce intense star formation in disc galaxies. Based on the spiral-arm instability analysis of our Paper I, we present linear perturbation theory of dynamical…
We analyze the motion of stars in the direction perpendicular to the galactic plane following a spiral arm passage. We show that the fast change in the vertical galactic potential causes a thermalized distribution to develop a distinctive…
We study the formation of the spiral structure of barred spiral galaxies, using an $N$-body model. The evolution of this $N$-body model in the adiabatic approximation maintains a strong spiral pattern for more than 10 bar rotations. We find…
We perform three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to investigate the formation of spiral arms in misaligned circumbinary discs. In a nearly broken disc the misaligned inner and outer discs interact at two nodes,…
Spiral-driven instabilities may drive gas inflow to enhance central star formation in disk galaxies. We investigate this hypothesis using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in a sample of 2779 nearby unbarred star-forming main-sequence…
The origin of grand design spiral structure in galaxies is still under debate but one of promising scenarios involves tidal interactions. We use N-body simulations to study the evolution of a Milky Way-size galaxy in a Virgo-like cluster.…
Circumstellar asymmetries such as central warps have recently been shown to cast shadows on outer disks. We investigate the hydrodynamical consequences of such variable illumination on the outer regions of a transition disk, and the…
We study the gravitational instability and fragmentation of primordial protostellar discs by using high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamics simulations. We follow the formation and evolution of spiral arms in protostellar discs, examine…
We use hydrodynamic simulations to investigate nonlinear gas responses to an imposed stellar spiral potential in disk galaxies. The gaseous medium is assumed to be infinitesimally thin, isothermal, and unmagnetized. We consider various…
The origin and types of spiral arms are reviewed with an emphasis on the connections between these arms and star formation. Flocculent spiral arms are most likely the result of transient instabilities in the gas that promote dense cloud…
The most important theory of the spiral arms of galaxies is the density wave theory based on the Lin-Shu dispersion relation. However, the density waves move with the group velocity towards the inner Lindblad resonance and tend to…
We employ very high resolution simulations of isolated Milky Way-like galaxies to study the effect of triaxial dark matter haloes on exponential stellar discs. Non-adiabatic halo shape changes can trigger two-armed grand-design spiral…
We present experimental measurements on the spontaneous formation of compact spiral structures in vertically-vibrated granular chains. Under weak vibration, when the chain is quasi two-dimensional and self-avoiding, spiral structures emerge…