Exponential Galaxy Disks from Stellar Scattering

Abstract

Stellar scattering off of orbiting or transient clumps is shown to lead to the formation of exponential profiles in both surface density and velocity dispersion in a two-dimensional non-self gravitating stellar disk with a fixed halo potential. The exponential forms for both nearly-flat rotation curves and near-solid body rotation curves. The exponential does not depend on initial conditions, spiral arms, bars, viscosity, star formation, or strong shear. After a rapid initial development, the exponential saturates to an approximately fixed scale length. The inner exponential in a two-component profile has a break radius comparable to the initial disk radius; the outer exponential is primarily scattered stars.

ApJ Letters, accepted for publication, 8 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Riding the Spiral Waves: Implications of Stellar Migration for the Properties of Galactic Disks
• Rapid formation of exponential disks and bulges at high redshift from the dynamical evolution of clump cluster and chain galaxies
• The structure of galactic disks: Studying late-type spiral galaxies using SDSS
• The Outer Disks of Early-Type Galaxies. I. Surface-Brightness Profiles of Barred Galaxies
• Color Profiles of Spiral Galaxies: Clues on Outer-Disk Formation Scenarios
• Antitruncated Stellar Disks via Minor Mergers
• On the formation of extended galactic disks by tidally disrupted dwarf galaxies
• An N-body/SPH Study of Isolated Galaxy Mass Density Profiles
• Color Profiles of Disk Galaxies since z~1: Probing Outer Disk Formation Scenarios
• Disk galaxies with broken luminosity profiles from cosmological simulations
• Evolution of gaseous disk viscosity driven by supernova explosion in star-forming galaxies at high redshift

Cited by in corpus (40)

• The age-metallicity structure of the Milky Way disk
• VINTERGATAN I: The origins of chemically, kinematically and structurally distinct discs in a simulated Milky Way-mass galaxy
• Measuring Radial Orbit Migration in the Milky Way Disk
• Non-linear violent disc instability with high Toomre's Q in high-redshift clumpy disc galaxies
• VINTERGATAN II: the history of the Milky Way told by its mergers
• A Star Formation Law for Dwarf Irregular Galaxies
• Origin of the galaxy HI size-mass relation
• Constraining churning and blurring in the Milky Way using large spectroscopic surveys -- an exploratory study
• DYNAMO II: Coupled Stellar and Ionized Gas Kinematics in Two Low Redshift Clumpy Disks
• Tidal origin of spiral arms in galaxies orbiting a cluster
• A model for the onset of self-gravitation and star formation in molecular gas governed by galactic forces: II. the bottleneck to collapse set by cloud-environment decoupling
• From giant clumps to clouds I: the impact of gas fraction evolution on the stability of galactic discs
• The Origin of Exponential Star-forming Disks
• Stellar Populations and the Star Formation Histories of LSB Galaxies: IV Spitzer Surface Photometry of LSB Galaxies
• Shrinking Galaxy Disks with Fountain-Driven Accretion from the Halo
• Properties of thick discs formed in clumpy galaxies
• Extragalactic archeology with the GHOSTS Survey I. - Age-resolved disk structure of nearby low-mass galaxies
• Galactic disc profiles and a universal angular momentum distribution from statistical physics
• Exponential Disks from Stellar Scattering: III. Stochastic Models
• Survival of pure disk galaxies over the last 8 billion years
• Exponential profiles from stellar scattering off interstellar clumps and holes in dwarf galaxy discs
• Smoothing Rotation Curves and Mass Profiles
• Spiral-arm instability - II: magnetic destabilisation
• Clumpy galaxies in cosmological simulations: The effect of ISM model
• Cosmic Outliers: Low-Spin Halos Explain the Abundance, Compactness, and Redshift Evolution of the Little Red Dots
• Forming disc galaxies in major mergers: III. The effect of angular momentum on the radial density profiles of disc galaxies
• The evolutionary pathways of disk galaxies with different sizes
• Stellar scattering and the formation of exponential discs in self-gravitating systems
• Young star clusters in the outer disks of LITTLE THINGS dwarf irregular galaxies
• Near-exponential surface densities as hydrostatic, nonequilibrium profiles in galaxy discs
• Cold Exponential Disks From Interstellar Fountains
• Stellar angular momentum distribution linked to galaxy morphology
• Power-law Sersic profiles in hydrostatic stellar galaxy discs
• Outskirts of Nearby Disk Galaxies: Star Formation and Stellar Populations
• Euclid: Early Release Observations -- The surface brightness and colour profiles of the far outskirts of galaxies in the Perseus cluster
• Galaxy Zoo JWST: Up to 75% of discs are featureless at $3<z<7$
• Orbits and action changes during star-clump encounters responsible for the origin of exponential discs in dwarf galaxies
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. Progression of Large-Scale Star Formation across Space and Time in M31
• Exponential galaxy discs as the quasi-stationary distribution in a Markov chain model simulating stellar scattering
• Physically motivated fit to mass surface density profiles observed in galaxies