Formation of ring structures in galactic disks during close passages of galaxies

Аннотация

The formation of ring structures in galactic disks is investigated. It is shown that, in addition to the known mechanism of forming rings in “head-on” collisions between galaxies, ring structures can be formed during close passages of galaxies if the perturbing galaxy moves in a plane close to the equatorial plane of the perturbed disk galaxy, opposite to the direction of rotation of the disk. Numerical simulations of the formation of structures in the disk of a massive galaxy undergoing a passage with another galaxy are considered. The results of these cmputations show the formation of pronounced ring structures in the galactic disk when the initial inclination of the trajectory of the perturbing galaxy to the equatorial plane of the perturbed galaxy is no more than ~25°. However, the probability of close passages of galaxies with these parameters is small, as is the probability of head-on collisions. The characteristic time scale for the existence of pronounced rings is of order the dynamical time scale at the edge of the galaxy, 200–300 million years, close to the corresponding time for head-on collisions. The evolution of the rings has the same character in both cases: they gradually expand and move toward the periphery of the galaxy. The results of these simulations can also be applied to a close passage of one star by another star with a protoplanetary disk. According to the computation results, the characteristic time scale for the existence of pronounced rings in such a protoplanetary disk depends mainly on the size of the disk; this time scale can reach several tens of thousands of years for a disk radius of about 1000 AU. The formation of ring structures in such a disk could influence the formation and evolution of planetesimals, and possibly the character of the formation of planets and the distribution of their orbital semi-major axes.