Formation of disks with long-lived spiral arms from violent gravitational dynamics
Francesco Sylos Labini, Luis Diego Pinto, Roberto Capuzzo-Dolcetta
备注：
23 pages, 26 figures. To be published in Physical Review E. Movies of the simulations are available at https://tinyurl.com/rvyg5br. The revised version matches the published version
By means of simple dynamical experiments we study the combined effect of gravitational and gas dynamics in the evolution of an initially out-of-equilibrium, uniform and rotating massive over-density thought of as in isolation. The rapid variation of the system mean-field potential makes the point like particles (PPs), which interact only via Newtonian gravity, form a quasistationary thick disk dominated by rotational motions surrounded by far out-of-equilibrium spiral arms. On the other side, the gas component is subjected to compression shocks and radiative cooling so as to develop a much flatter disk, where rotational motions are coherent and the velocity dispersion is smaller than that of PPs. Around such gaseous disk long-lived, but nonstationary, spiral arms form: these are made of gaseous particles that move coherently because have acquired a specific phase-space correlation during the gravitational collapse phase. Such a phase-space correlation represents a signature of the violent origin of the arms and implies both the motion of matter and the transfer of energy. On larger scales, where the radial velocity component is significantly larger than the rotational one, the gas follows the same out-of-equilibrium spiral arms traced by PPs. We finally outline the astrophysical and cosmological implications of our results.
We present the numerical study of the formation of spiral structure in the context of violent relaxation. Initial conditions are the out-of-equilibrium disks of self-gravitating particles in rigid rotation. By that mechanism, robust and non-stationary spiral arms can be formed within a few free-fall times by the shearing of the mass ejection following the collapse. With a closer look, we find different properties of the arms in connection with the initial configuration. The winding degree tends to increase with initial angular speed provided that a disk is thin. If disk surface is circular, bo…
Context. The physical processes driving the formation of Galactic spiral arms are still under debate. Studies using open clusters favour the description of the Milky Way spiral arms as long-lived structures following the classical density wave theory. Current studies comparing the Gaia DR2 field stars kinematic information of the Solar neighbourhood to simulations, find a better agreement with short-lived arms with a transient behaviour. Aims. Our aim is to provide an observational, data-driven view of the Milky Way spiral structure and its dynamics using open clusters as the main tracers, and…
An overwhelming majority of galactic spiral arms trail with respect to the rotation of the galaxy, though a small sample of leading spiral arms has been observed. The formation of these leading spirals is not well understood. Here we show, using collisionless $N$-body simulations, that a barred disc galaxy in a retrograde dark matter halo can produce long-lived ($\sim3$ Gyr) leading spiral arms. Due to the strong resonant coupling of the disc to the halo, the bar slows rapidly and spiral perturbations are forced ahead of the bar. We predict that such a system, if observed, will also host a dar…
Using a sample of 215 supernovae (SNe), we analyse their positions relative to the spiral arms of their host galaxies, distinguishing grand-design (GD) spirals from non-GD (NGD) galaxies. Our results suggest that shocks in spiral arms of GD galaxies trigger star formation in the leading edges of arms affecting the distributions of core-collapse (CC) SNe (known to have short-lived progenitors). The closer locations of SNe Ibc vs. SNe II relative to the leading edges of the arms supports the belief that SNe Ibc have more massive progenitors. SNe Ia having less massive and older progenitors, show…
Spiral arms greatly affect gas flows and star formation in disk galaxies. We use local three-dimensional simulations of the vertically-stratified, self-gravitating, differentially-rotating, interstellar medium (ISM) subject to a stellar spiral potential to study the effects of spiral arms on star formation and formation of arm spurs/feathers. We adopt the TIGRESS framework of Kim & Ostriker (2017) to handle radiative heating and cooling, star formation, and ensuing supernova (SN) feedback. We find that more than 90% of star formation takes place in spiral arms, but the global star formation ra…
The structure and evolution of the spiral arms of our Milky Way are basic but long-standing questions in astronomy. In particular, the lifetime of spiral arms is still a puzzle and has not been well constrained from observations. In this work, we aim to inspect these issues using a large catalogue of open clusters. We compiled a catalogue of 3794 open clusters based on Gaia EDR3. A majority of these clusters have accurately determined parallaxes, proper motions, and radial velocities. The age parameters for these open clusters are collected from references or calculated in this work. In order …
Using a sample of 215 supernovae (SNe), we analyze their positions relative to the spiral arms of their host galaxies, distinguishing grand-design (GD) spirals from non-GD (NGD) galaxies. We find that: (1) in GD galaxies, an offset exists between the positions of Ia and core-collapse (CC) SNe relative to the peaks of arms, while in NGD galaxies the positions show no such shifts; (2) in GD galaxies, the positions of CC SNe relative to the peaks of arms are correlated with the radial distance from the galaxy nucleus. Inside (outside) the corotation radius, CC SNe are found closer to the inner (o…
There are two theories of stellar spiral arms in isolated disc galaxies that model stellar spiral arms with different longevities: quasi-stationary density wave theory, which characterises spirals as rigidly rotating, long-lived patterns (i.e. steady spirals), and dynamic spiral theory, which characterises spirals as differentially rotating, transient, recurrent patterns (i.e. dynamic spirals). In order to discriminate between these two spiral models observationally, we investigated the differences between the gas velocity patterns predicted by these two spiral models in hydrodynamic simulatio…
The evolution of self-gravitating systems, and long-range interacting systems more generally, from initial configurations far from dynamical equilibrium is often described as a simple two phase process: a first phase of violent relaxation bringing it to a quasi-stationary state in a few dynamical times, followed by a slow adiabatic evolution driven by collisional processes. In this context the complex spatial structure evident, e.g., in spiral galaxies is understood either in terms of instabilities of quasi-stationary states, or a result of dissipative non-gravitational interactions. We illust…
The diverse nature of spiral arms in the Auriga Superstars cosmological hydrodynamic simulations
Liverpool John Moores University（利物浦约翰摩尔斯大学）；Durham University（杜伦大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）；Universidad de La Serena（拉塞雷纳大学）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；Universität Zürich（苏黎世大学）
High-redshift star-forming galaxies often have irregular morphologies with {\it giant clumps} containing up to $10^{8-9}$ solar masses of gas and stars. The origin and evolution of giant clumps are debated both theoretically and observationally. In most cosmological simulations, high-redshift galaxies have regular spiral structures or short-lived clumps, in contradiction with many idealised high-redshift disc models. Here we test whether this discrepancy can be explained by the low gas fractions of galaxies in cosmological simulations. We present a series of simulations with varying gas fracti…
We present the first study of the effect of ram-pressure "unwinding" the spiral arms of cluster galaxies. We study 11 ram-pressure stripped galaxies from GASP (GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies) in which, in addition to more commonly observed "jellyfish" features, dislodged material also appears to retain the original structure of the spiral arms. Gravitational influence from neighbours is ruled out and we compare the sample with a control group of undisturbed spiral galaxies and simulated stripped galaxies. We first confirm the unwinding nature, finding the spiral arm pitch angle increases …
Dynamics of AGN feedback in the X-ray bright East and Southwest arms of M87, mapped by XRISM
SRON, Space Research Organisation Netherlands（荷兰空间研究所）；Leiden Observatory, Leiden University（莱顿大学莱顿天文台）；Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo（东京大学宇宙物质研究前沿中心）；NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center（美国国家航空航天局戈达德太空飞行中心）；School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学物理与天文学学院）；Department of Physics, Nagoya University（名古屋大学物理学系）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学滑铁卢天体物理中心物理与天文学系）；Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva（日内瓦大学天文学系）；Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland（马里兰大学天文学系）；Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA / GSFC (CRESST II)（NASA/戈达德太空飞行中心空间科学与技术研究与探索中心）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学天体物理学系）
With the advent of modern observational efforts providing extensive giant molecular cloud catalogues, understanding the evolution of such clouds in a galactic context is of prime importance. While numerous previous numerical and theoretical works have focused on the cloud properties in isolated discs, few have looked into the cloud population in an interacting disc system. We present results of the first study investigating the evolution of the cloud population in galaxy experiencing an M51-like tidal fly-by using numerical simulations including star formation, interstellar medium cooling and …
Theories of stellar spiral arms in disk galaxies can be grouped into two classes based on the longevity of a spiral arm. Although the quasi-stationary density wave theory supposes that spirals are rigidly-rotating, long-lived patterns, the dynamic spiral theory predicts that spirals are differentially-rotating, transient, recurrent patterns. In order to distinguish between the two spiral models from observations, we performed hydrodynamic simulations with steady and dynamic spiral models. Hydrodynamics simulations in steady spiral models demonstrated that the dust lane locations relative to th…
We address the nature of the giant clumps in high-z galaxies that undergo Violent Disc Instability, attempting to distinguish between long-lived clumps that migrate inward and short-lived clumps that disrupt by feedback. We study the evolution of clumps as they migrate through the disc using an analytic model tested by simulations and confront theory with CANDELS observations. The clump ``bathtub" model, which considers gas and stellar gain and loss, is characterized by four parameters: the accretion efficiency, the star-formation-rate (SFR) efficiency, and the outflow mass-loading factors for…
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the closest and most studied example of an irregular galaxy. Among its principal defining morphological features, its off-centred bar and single spiral arm stand out, defining a whole family of galaxies known as the Magellanic spirals (Sm). These structures are thought to be triggered by tidal interactions and possibly maintained via gas accretion. However, it is still unknown whether they are long-lived stable structures. In this work, by combining photometry that reaches down to the oldest main sequence turn-off in the colour-magnitude diagrams (CMD, up to…
The majority of galaxies in the local Universe exhibit spiral structure with a variety of forms. Many galaxies possess two prominent spiral arms, some have more, while others display a many-armed flocculent appearance. Spiral arms are associated with enhanced gas content and star-formation in the disks of low-redshift galaxies, so are important in the understanding of star-formation in the local universe. As both the visual appearance of spiral structure, and the mechanisms responsible for it vary from galaxy to galaxy, a reliable method for defining spiral samples with different visual morpho…
Stellar bars are a common feature in massive disc galaxies. On a theoretical ground, the response of gas to a bar is generally thought to cause nuclear starbursts and, possibly, AGN activity once the perturbed gas reaches the central super-massive black hole. By means of high resolution numerical simulations we detail the purely dynamical effects that a forming bar exerts on the gas of an isolated disc galaxy. The galaxy is initially unstable to the formation of non-axisymmetric structures, and within 1 Gyr it develops spiral arms that eventually evolve into a central stellar bar on kpc scale.…
The present paper is the culminating one of a series aimed to contribute to the understanding of the kinematic structures of the solar neighbourhood (SN), explaining the origin of the Local Arm and relating the moving groups with the spiral-arms resonances in the disk. With a model for the Galactic potential, with the Sun inside the spiral corotation resonance (CR), we integrate the 2D orbits of test particles distributed in birthplaces along the main spiral arms, the Local Arm, and in the axisymmetric disk. A comparison of the resulting U-V plane of the SN with that provided by Gaia DR2 confi…
The two-phase formation history of spiral galaxies traced by the cosmic evolution of the bar fraction
我们研究了星系棒的演化和与磁盘和球体形成的放大宇宙学模拟的样本中的链接。我们的模拟样本集中在现今恒星质量在10^10-10^11兆太阳范围内的星系，在场和松散的群环境中，具有各种各样的质量增长历史。在我们的模型中，在z>1.5时，现在螺旋的祖先几乎不存在条形，它们仍然很罕见，而且通常太弱而无法观察到z~1。在这一特征时期之后，可观测到的强条的比例迅速上升，80%的旋涡星系中存在条，其中三分之二在z<0.5时很容易观测到。这与观测到的棒分数的红移演化是定量一致的。我们的模型预测，随着红移的增加，酒吧分数的减少应该继续与可观察到的酒吧1的分数<10-15% in disk galaxies at z>。我们的模型还预测了较低质量星系中稍后的酒吧形成，与现有数据一致。我们发现，酒吧形成的特征时代，即红移z~0.8-1，对应的时代，今天的螺旋获得其磁盘为主的形态。在更高的红移，盘倾向于被合并和引力不稳定性迅速破坏，很少发展出明显的棒。棒形成时期对应于螺旋星系形成的早期“剧烈”阶段（z>1）和晚期“长期”阶段（z<0.8）之间的过渡。在长期阶段，酒吧的存在大大有助于增长的隆起，但隆起的质量预算仍然占主导地位的合并，相互作用和磁盘的不稳定性在高红移的贡献。z>1时的早期棒通常是短暂的，而z<1时形成的大多数棒一直持续到z=0，晚期宇宙学气体的注入是维持其中一些棒的必要条…
Both observations of arc-like structures and luminosity bursts of stars > 1 Myr in age indicate that at least some stars undergo late infall events. We investigate scenarios of replenishing the mass reservoir around a star via capturing and infalling events of cloudlets. We carry out altogether 24 three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of cloudlet encounters with a Herbig star of mass 2.5 solar mass using the moving mesh code AREPO. To account for the two possibilities of a star or a cloudlet traveling through the interstellar medium (ISM), we put either the star or the cloudlet at rest …
Spiral Structure Properties, Dynamics, and Evolution in MW-mass Galaxy Simulations
University of California, Merced（加州大学默塞德分校）；University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）；Observatório Nacional（国家天文台）；University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；University of Central Lancashire（兰开夏中央大学）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；Durham University（杜伦大学）
Revisiting gravitational instability in protostellar discs with improved radiative cooling models
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds（利兹大学物理与天文学院）；SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学天体物理卓越卓越中心天体物理研究所）；Centre for Exoplanet Science, University of Edinburgh（爱丁堡大学系外行星科学中心）；Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick（华威大学系外行星与宜居性中心）；Department of Physics, University of Warwick（华威大学物理系）
The formation and stability of collisionless self-gravitating systems are long standing problems, which date back to the work of D. Lynden-Bell on violent relaxation and extends to the issue of virialization of dark matter (DM) halos. An important prediction of such a relaxation process is that spherical equilibrium states can be described by a Fermi-Dirac phase-space distribution, when the extremization of a coarse-grained entropy is reached. In the case of DM fermions, the most general solution develops a degenerate compact core surrounded by a diluted halo. As shown recently, the latter is …
Debris disks, comprised of planetsimal belts and the dust and gas produced by their mutual collisions, are the longest-lived phase of circumstellar disks. Typically much fainter in emission than protoplanetary disks, debris disks can be found in associations in which some members still host protoplanetary disks rich in gas as well as around main sequence stars of all ages. There are even classes of debris disks around AGB stars and white dwarfs. Typically, these disks have been studied through dust emission though an increasing number of young disks are now found to host some gas which may be …
The Milky Way in context: The formation of galactic discs and chemical sequences from a cosmological perspective
Universitat de Barcelona（巴塞罗那大学）；Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台，PSL大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，CY塞尔吉巴黎大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo（东京大学 Kavli宇宙粒子与宇宙学研究所（WPI），UTIAS）；Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik（马克斯·普朗克天体物理研究所）；Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University（利物浦约翰摩尔斯大学天体物理研究所）
This article discusses the effects of the spiral-arm corotation on the stellar dynamics in the Solar Neighborhood (SN). All our results presented here rely on: 1) observational evidence that the Sun lies near the corotation circle, where stars rotate with the same angular velocity as the spiral-arm pattern; the corotation circle establishes domains of the corotation resonance (CR) in the Galactic disk; 2) dynamical constraints that put the spiral-arm potential as the dominant perturbation in the SN, comparing with the effects of the central bar in the SN; 3) a long-lived nature of the spiral s…
