Simple Distribution Functions for Stellar Disks

Abstract

Distribution functions (DFs) for dynamically warm thin stellar disks residing in arbitrary axisymmetric potentials are presented which approximately reproduce pre-described surface-density and velocity-dispersion profiles. The functional form of the DFs is obtained by `warming-up' a model made entirely of circular orbits. This can be done in various ways giving different functional forms for the DF. In the best case, the DF reproduces the pre-described profiles to within a few per cent for a typical case reminiscent to the old stellar disk in the Milky Way. This match may be improved to about one per cent or better by a simple iterative method. An algorithm is given to draw phase-space points randomly from the DFs for the purpose of, e.g., N-body simulations. All the relevant computer programs are available from the author.

accepted for publication in AJ, 10 pages, 5 figures (coloured only here, not in AJ), uses aas2pp4.sty

References in corpus (2)

• The Distribution of Nearby Stars in Velocity Space Inferred from Hipparcos Data
• Approximating Stellar Orbits: Improving on Epicycle Theory

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