Related papers: Galactokinetics
The measured rotation velocity profiles of mature spiral galaxies are successfully described with a gravitational model consisting of a thin axisymmetric disk of finte radius. The disk is assumed uniformly thin but with variable radial mass…
Observations reveal that mature spiral galaxies consist of stars, gases and plasma approximately distributed in a thin disk of circular shape, usually with a central bulge. The rotation velocities quickly increase from the galactic center…
A model of a galactic disk is presented which extends the homogeneous one zone models by incorporating propagation of material and energy in the disk. For reasonable values of the parameters the homogeneous steady state is unstable to the…
The disks of galaxies are primarily stellar systems, and fundamentally dynamical entities. Thus, to fully understand galactic disks, we must study their stellar kinematics as well as their morphologies. Observational techniques have now…
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…
A theory is developed for the dynamics of eccentric perturbations $[\propto \exp(\pm i\phi)]$ of a disk galaxy residing in a spherical dark matter halo and including a spherical bulge component. The disk is represented as a large number $N$…
The theoretical understanding of density waves in disk galaxies starts from the classical WKB perturbative analysis of tight-winding perturbations, the key assumption being that the potential due to the density wave is approximately radial.…
We present a unified theory of linear spiral structure in stellar disks. We begin by identifying the characteristic scales involved in the spiral structure problem and listing some quantitative requirements of a successful theory. We then…
We derive the evolution equations describing a thin axisymmetric disk of gas and stars with an arbitrary rotation curve that is kept in a state of marginal gravitational instability and energy equilibrium due to the balance between energy…
In this review, I discuss just three aspects of the stability and evolution of galactic discs. (1) I first review our understanding of the bar instability and how it can be controlled. Disc galaxies in which the orbital speed does not…
Detailed models of galactic disk formation and evolution require knowledge about the initial conditions under which disk galaxies form, the boundary conditions that affect their secular evolution and the micro-physical processes that drive…
Galactic disk formation requires knowledge about the initial conditions under which disk galaxies form, the boundary conditions that affect their secular evolution and the micro-physical processes that drive the multi-phase interstellar…
In low-mass disks, turbulent torques are probably the most important way of redistributing angular momentum. Here we present the theory of turbulent accretion disks. We show the molecular viscosity is far too small to account for the…
The theory of Galactic Winds, driven by the cosmic-ray pressure gradient, is reviewed both on the magnetohydrodynamic and on the kinetic level. In this picture the magnetic field of the Galaxy above the dense gas disk is assumed to have a…
Spiral shocks are potentially a major source of turbulence in the interstellar medium. To address this problem quantitatively, we use numerical simulations to investigate gas flow across spiral arms in vertically stratified,…
This chapter reviews theoretical work on the stellar dynamics of galaxy disks. All the known collective global instabilities are identified, and their mechanisms described in terms of local wave mechanics. A detailed discussion of warps and…
I describe how the dynamics of galactic disks can be inferred by imaging and spectroscopy. Next I demonstrate that the decomposition of the rotation curves of spiral galaxies into the contributions by the various components of the galaxies…
[Abridged] Star and planet formation are the complex outcomes of gravitational collapse and angular momentum transport mediated by protostellar and protoplanetary disks. In this review we focus on the role of gravitational instability in…
The Milky Way disc presents a warp, a flare, lopsidedness and other deviations from a purely axisymmetrical double exponential density component, both for the stellar and the gas component. Moreover, recent large-scale extended kinematics…
Precession is a very common phenomenon for small-scale astronomical objects. However, the precession of galactic disks, occurring on a scale larger than kilo-parsec, has barely been studied in the literature. Quantifying this precession in…