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On the Strength of the Galactic Shock Wave and the Degree of Development of Spiral Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2017

William W. Roberts Jr. ,
Morton S. Roberts  and
Frank H. Shu
William W. Roberts Jr.
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., U.S.A.
Morton S. Roberts
Affiliation:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Va., U.S.A.*
Frank H. Shu
Affiliation:
University of California at Berkeley, Calif., U.S.A.

Abstract

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The luminosity of a spiral arm is believed to originate primarily in the very young, newly forming stars; and the spiral arm itself to be a spiral wave which is capable of triggering the formation of the young stars selectively along the wave crest. A semi-empirical study of the density wave patterns predicted in the density wave models of twenty-five external galaxies has been made and one result of this study is presented here. It is found that those galaxies of the sample whose models predict the possibility of strong shock waves are also the galaxies which exhibit long, well-developed spiral arms; and those galaxies whose models predict weak shock waves are also the galaxies which exhibit less-developed spiral structure. This trend is seen through a correlation between w⊥0, the velocity component of basic rotation normal to a spiral arm, which is an important parameter in determining the shock strength on the one hand, and luminosity class, which is a measure of the degree of development of spiral structure on the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 58: The Formation and Dynamics of Galaxies , 1974 , pp. 439 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1974 

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