Dynamics of Inner Galactic Disks: The Striking Case of M100

Abstract

We investigate gas dynamics in the presence of a double inner Lindblad resonance within a barred disk galaxy. Using an example of a prominent spiral, M100, we reproduce the basic central morphology, including four dominant regions of star formation corresponding to the compression maxima in the gas. These active star forming sites delineate an inner boundary (so-called nuclear ring) of a rather broad oval detected in the near infrared. We find that inclusion of self-gravitational effects in the gas is necessary in order to understand its behavior in the vicinity of the resonances and its subsequent evolution. The self-gravity of the gas is also crucial to estimate the effect of a massive nuclear ring on periodic orbits in the stellar bar.

11 pages, postscript, compressed, uuencoded. Paper and 4 figures available at ftp://pa.uky.edu/shlosman/nobel or at http://www.pa.uky.edu/~shlosman/ . Invited talk at the Centennial Nobel Symposium on "Barred Galaxies and Circumnuclear Activity," A.Sandquist et al. (Eds.), Springer-Verlag, in press

References in corpus (3)

• The Central Region in M100: Observations and Modeling
• THE STRIKING NEAR-INFRARED MORPHOLOGY OF THE INNER REGION IN M100
• Nuclear bars and blue nuclei within barred spiral galaxies

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A subarcsecond resolution near-infrared study of Seyfert and `normal' galaxies: II. Morphology
• Gas Dynamics in NGC 5248: Fueling a Circumnuclear Starburst Ring of Super Star Clusters
• Double Bars in Disk Galaxies: Dynamical Decoupling of Non-Self-Gravitating Gaseous Bars
• Nested Bars in Disk Galaxies: No Offset Dust Lanes in Secondary Nuclear Bars