Comparing the escape dynamics in tidally limited star cluster models

Abstract

The aim of this work is to compare the orbital dynamics in three different models describing the properties of a star cluster rotating around its parent galaxy in a circular orbit. In particular, we use the isochrone and the Hernquist potentials to model the spherically symmetric star cluster and we compare our results with the corresponding ones of a previous work in which the Plummer model was applied for the same purpose. Our analysis takes place both in the configuration $(x,y)$ and in the phase $(x,\dot{x})$ space in order to elucidate the escape process as well as the overall orbital properties of the tidally limited star cluster. We restrict our investigation into two dimensions and we conduct a thorough numerical analysis distinguishing between ordered and chaotic orbits as well as between trapped and escaping orbits, considering only unbounded motion for several energy levels above the critical escape energy. It is of particular interest to determine the escape basins towards the two exit channels (near the Lagrangian points $L_1$ and $L_2$) and relate them with the corresponding escape times of the orbits.

Published in MNRAS journal. arXiv admin note: previous papers with related context: arXiv:1411.4864, arXiv:1505.03968, arXiv:1505.03847

References in corpus (6)

• N-body Models of Rotating Globular Clusters
• Crash test for the Copenhagen problem with oblateness
• A Hamiltonian system of three degrees of freedom with eight channels of escape: The Great Escape
• Escapes in Hamiltonian systems with multiple exit channels: Part I
• Trapped and escaping orbits in an axially symmetric galactic-type potential
• Escape dynamics and fractal basin boundaries in Seyfert galaxies

Cited by in corpus (3)

• On the spatial collinear restricted four-body problem with non-spherical primaries
• Orbital and escape dynamics in barred galaxies - I. The 2D system
• Unraveling the escape dynamics and the nature of the normally hyperbolic invariant manifolds in tidally limited star clusters