Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T16:11:40.334Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Heating of stellar disks by massive gas clouds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Cedric G. Lacey*
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, England

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I have analytically calculated the evolution of the three components of velocity dispersion of the stars in a galactic disk when these are scattered by massive gas clouds, in a generalization of Spitzer & Schwarzschild's (1953) calculation. The principal assumptions made are: (i) The stellar orbits obey the epicyclic approximation. (ii) The gas clouds are massive, long-lived and on circular orbits. (iii) The typical star-cloud encounter time is short compared to the orbital time. (iv) The evolution due to encounters is treated as a diffusion process.

Type
PART III: Dynamics and Evolution
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1985 

References

Chandrasekhar, S. 1960, “Principles of Stellar Dynamics” (Dover).Google Scholar
Lacey, C.G. 1984, Mon. Not. R. astron. Soc., in press.Google Scholar
Spitzer, L. and Schwarzschild, M. 1953, Astrophys. J. 118, p. 306.Google Scholar
van der Kruit, P.C. and Searle, L. 1981, Astron. Astrophys. 95, p. 105.Google Scholar
Wielen, R. 1974, Highlights of Astronomy 3 (Dordrecht: Reidel), p. 395.Google Scholar