Related papers: Secular stability and instability in stellar syste…
Among the numerous discoveries resulting from the {\it Kepler} mission are a plethora of compact planetary systems that provide deep insights into planet formation theories. The architecture of such compact systems also produces unique…
Thermodynamical stability of fluid spheres is studied in the presence of a cosmological constant, both in the Newtonian limit, as well as in General Relativity. In all cases, an increase of the cosmological constant tends to stabilize the…
The two innermost planets of the Proxima Centauri system are separated by just 0.02 au, inducing strong gravitational interactions between them. We assess this interaction by leveraging fast orbital stability indicators and find that…
We have performed a series of high resolution N-body experiments on a Connection Machine CM-5 in order to study the stability of collisionless self-gravitating spherical systems. We interpret our results in the framework of symplectic…
The rotation of a star and the revolutions of its planets are not necessarily aligned. This article reviews the measurement techniques, key findings, and theoretical interpretations related to the obliquities (spin-orbit angles) of…
We discuss the results of high-resolution (~0.1-0.2 pc) BIMA CO observations of the central regions of 3 molecular clouds in the far-outer Galaxy (FOG). We identify clumps and investigate their stability by using the virial theorem,…
With $n$-body simulations we investigate the stability of tilted circumbinary planetary systems consisting of two nonzero mass planets. The planets are initially in circular orbits that are coplanar to each other, as would be expected if…
The long-term variations in the orbit of the Earth govern the insolation on its surface and hence its climate. The use of the astronomical signal, whose imprint has been recovered in the geological records, has revolutionized the…
We analyze the stability of two charged conducting spheres orbiting each other. Due to charge polarization, the electrostatic force between the two spheres deviates significantly from $1/r^2$ as they come close to each other. As a…
Recent numerical simulations indicate the presence of dynamical instabilities of the f-mode in differentially rotating stars even at very low values of $T/|W|$, the ratio of kinetic to potential energy. In this Letter we argue that these…
We study gravitational instabilities in disks, with special attention to the most massive clumps that form because they are expected to be the progenitors of globular-type clusters. The maximum unstable mass is set by rotation and depends…
We suggest a generalized definition of self-organized criticality (SOC) systems: SOC is a critical state of a nonlinear energy dissipation system that is slowly and continuously driven towards a critical value of a system-wide instability…
Using hydrodynamic approach, it is shown that the properties of a marginally stable collisionless stellar disc resemble those of a thermodynamic system undergoing a gas--liquid phase transition. The maximum in Toomre's stability diagram,…
We use a composite gravitational galactic model consisting of a disk, a halo, a massive nucleus and a strong nuclear bar, in order to study the connections between global and local parameters in a realistic dynamical system. The local model…
Here we model a star forming factory in which the continuous creation of stars results in a highly concentrated, massive (globular cluster-like) stellar system. We show that under very general conditions a large-scale gravitational…
We carry out a general study of the stability of astrophysical flows that appear steady in a uniformly rotating frame. Such a flow might correspond to a stellar pulsation mode or an accretion disk with a free global distortion giving it…
The orbital decay and tidal disruption of a star cluster in a galaxy is studied in an analytical manner. Owing to dynamical friction, the star cluster spirals in toward the center of the galaxy. Simultaneously, the galactic tidal field…
We study a spherical, self-gravitating fluid model, which finds applications in cosmic structure formation. We argue that since the system features nonlinearity and gravity-induced dispersion, the emergence of solitons becomes possible. We…
A perturber may excite a coherent mode in a star cluster or galaxy. If the stellar system is stable, it is commonly assumed that such a mode will be strongly damped and therefore of little practical consequence other than redistributing…
We present a pilot analysis of the influence of galaxy stellar mass and cluster environment on the probability of slow rotation in 22 central galaxies at mean redshift $z=0.07$. This includes new integral-field observations of 5 central…