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Title:
Galactic WARPS and the shape of heavy halos
Authors:
Sparke, L. S.
Affiliation:
AA(Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ)
Publication:
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 280, May 1, 1984, p. 117-125. (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
05/1984
Category:
Astrophysics
Origin:
STI
NASA/STI Keywords:
GALACTIC STRUCTURE, SPIRAL GALAXIES, STELLAR MOTIONS, DISKS (SHAPES), EQUATIONS OF MOTION, GALACTIC MASS, PRECESSION
DOI:
10.1086/161974
Bibliographic Code:
1984ApJ...280..117S

Abstract

The outer disks of many spiral galaxies are bent away from the plane of the inner disk; the abundance of these warps suggests that they are long-lived. Isolated galactic disks have long been thought to have no discrete modes of vertical oscillation under their own gravity, and so to be incapable of sustaining persistent warps. However, the visible disk contains only a fraction of the galactic mass; an invisible galactic halo makes up the rest. This paper presents an investigation of vertical warping modes in self-gravitating disks, in the imposed potential due to an axisymmetric unseen massive halo. If the halo matter is distributed so that the free precession rate of a test particle decreases with radius near the edge of the disk, then the disk has a discrete mode of vibration; oblate halos which become rapidly more flattened at large radii, and uniformly prolate halos, satisfy this requirement. Otherwise, the disk has no discrete modes and so cannot maintain a long-lived warp, unless the edge is sharply truncated. Computed mode shapes which resemble the observed warps can be found for halo masses consistent with those inferred from galactic rotation curves.

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