Publication Date
2001
Journal or Book Title
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Abstract
We present a theory for describing the evolution of a galaxy caused by stochastic events such as weak mergers, transient spiral structure, orbiting blobs, etc. This noise excites large-scale patterns that drive the evolution of the galactic density profile. In a dark matter halo, the repeated stochastic perturbations preferentially ring the lowest-order modes with only a very weak dependence on the details of their source. The subsequent redistribution of halo mass is determined only by the mechanics of these modes. The halo profile then evolves toward a universal asymptotic form for a wide variety of noise sources. Such a convergence may help explain the similarity of normal galaxy morphology in diverse environments. A variety of other applications are discussed.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04883.x
Pages
311-320
Volume
328
Issue
1
Recommended Citation
Weinberg, MD, "Noise-driven evolution in stellar systems - I. Theory" (2001). MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 63.
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04883.x
Comments
This is a pre-published version which is collected from arXiv link. The published version is at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04883.x/abstract