ASPCS
 
Back to Volume
Paper: Old-fashion Approach to Kinematically Decoupled Cores in Elliptical Galaxies
Volume: 197, XVth IAP Meeting Dynamics of Galaxies: From the Early Universe to the Present
Page: 243
Authors: Boily, Christian M.
Abstract: Collapsing cold spheroids are prone to surface and radial-orbit modes of instability leading to triaxial configurations in equilibrium (Merritt 1999). When the mass distribution is not reflected through the equator, a net torque may act on the central region as the modes grow. The twist sets the central part and the outer-reach of the galaxy rotating in opposite direction. Can the equilibria show a dynamically decoupled central part, as observed for KDC ellipticals (eg, Carter et al. 1998; Hau et al. 1999)? To address this issue I have sought a stringent test for the survival of streaming motion the above setup would give rise to. I built on an analytic model to find out when the accrued angular momentum should be optimum: this is when a corrugated density mode ω is of amplitude the initial aspect ratio or more (eq. [1]). Analysis ends when the systems rebound, and numerical simulations are used to probe the virialised equilibria.
Back to Volume