Astron. Astrophys. 332, 88-92 (1998)

Potentials for the central parts of a barred galaxy

N.D. Caranicolas

Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics Department of Physics, University of Thessaloniki, GR-54006 Thessaloniki, Greece

Received 29 May 1997 / Accepted 25 November 1997

Abstract

On the grounds of the figure-eight orbits found by Miller and Smith (1979) we obtain a general potential to model the central parts of a barred galaxy. The orbits are given in parametric form , and the potential is obtained as a power series in the small parameter b. It is found that the resulting potential depends on an arbitrary function and its first derivative. As a typical example we present a potential which is a perturbed harmonic oscillator, symmetric to both axes x and y with terms up to the fourth degree in the variables x,y.

Key words: methods: analytical Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics

Send offprint requests to: N.D. Caranicolas

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Inverse problem theory
• 3. Potentials associated with figure-eight orbits
• 4. A special galactic model
• 5. Discussion
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1998

Online publication: March 10, 1998
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