Book Description
A computer model for isolated disks of stars is presented and is used to study the self-consistent motion of large numbers of point masses as they move in the plane of the galactic disk. The Control Data 6600 computer system at the Langley Research Center was used to integrate the equations of motion for each star for systems containing from 50,000 to 200,000 stars. Any initially cold balanced disk was found to be violently unstable. A sufficient amount of velocity dispersion will stabilize all small-scale disturbances. However, most disks investigated were found to be unstable against slowly growing long-wavelength modes, and after about two rotations the disks tended to assume a bar-shaped structure. It was also found that the final mass distribution for most disks could be closely approximated by an exponential variation irrespective of the initial mass distribution. To study the development of spiral structure, the model was modified to include a fixed central force similar to that in the Schmidt model of the Galaxy. The mass of the stars in the disk was taken to be from 5 to 50 percent of the total mass of the Galaxy. The evolution of a number of initial distributions of stars was investigated. The results of the calculation gave a velocity dispersion for the disk stars which was about 50 percent larger than the value of about 30 km/sec found from observation of stars in the solar neighborhood. For some of the disks investigated, a pronounced spiral structure remained even after 8.5 rotations.
