Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T13:43:45.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Do Spiral Galaxies have a Variable Disk Thickness?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Kristen Rohlfs*
Affiliation:
Lehrstuhl für Astrophysik der Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Estimating the forces in the z-direction that affect the disks of spiral galaxies in reasonable galactic mass models we find (Rohlfs and Kreitschmann 1981) that all external forces are small compared to the self-gravity of the disk so that Spitzer's (1942) self-consistent sheet model should give a good description for the z-distribution of the disk where it is well visible. But then the three parameters describing this shape are connected by the formula

Type
I. Kinematics of Gas and the Underlying Mass Distribution
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1983 

References

Freeman, K.C. 1970, Astrophys. J. 160, 811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohlfs, K. 1982, in prep.Google Scholar
Rohlfs, K. and Kreitschmann, J. 1981, Astrophys. Space Sci. 79, 289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohlfs, K. and Wiemer, H.J. 1982, Astron. Astrophys. 112, 116.Google Scholar
Spitzer, L. 1942, Astrophys. J. 95, 329.Google Scholar
Spitzer, L. and Schwarzschild, M. 1953, Astrophys. J. 118, 106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Kruit, P.C. and Searle, L. 1981, Astron. Astrophys. 95, 105.Google Scholar
van der Kruit, P.C. and Searle, L. 1982, Astron. Astrophys. 110, 61.Google Scholar
Wielen, R. 1977, Astron. Astrophys. 60, 263.Google Scholar