Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:08:29.755Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Quasi-Circular Orbits

from Part I - Potential Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2021

Luca Ciotti
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi, Bologna, Italy
Get access

Summary

This chapter presents the basic properties of quasi-circular orbits in axisymmetric stellar systems. In fact, axisymmetric models are often sufficiently realistic descriptions – beyond the zeroth-order spherical case – of elliptical and disk galaxies. The associated potentials (with a reflection plane, the equatorial plane) admit circular orbits, and in this chapter we focus on the properties of orbits slightly departing from perfect circularity, describing in some detail the second-order epicyclic approximation. We also derive, in a geometrically rigorous way, the expression of the Oort constants, important kinematical quantities related to the rotation curve of disk galaxies, and in particular to the orbit of the Sun around the center of the Milky Way.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Quasi-Circular Orbits
  • Luca Ciotti, Università degli Studi, Bologna, Italy
  • Book: Introduction to Stellar Dynamics
  • Online publication: 28 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511736117.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Quasi-Circular Orbits
  • Luca Ciotti, Università degli Studi, Bologna, Italy
  • Book: Introduction to Stellar Dynamics
  • Online publication: 28 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511736117.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Quasi-Circular Orbits
  • Luca Ciotti, Università degli Studi, Bologna, Italy
  • Book: Introduction to Stellar Dynamics
  • Online publication: 28 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511736117.007
Available formats
×