Mir Abbas Jalali

Unstable Bar and Spiral Modes of Disk Galaxies

We present new analytical and numerical results for modes of flat stellar disks that lie in potentials with soft centers. Stars primarily circulate in one direction. We identify two modes of angular wavenumber 2: a more central fundamental mode and a more extensive and more spiral (trailing) secondary mode. The fundamental mode is particularly sensitive to the population of stars of low angular momentum. Depending on that population, a small fraction of the whole, the fundamental mode varies from a small compact bar to a trailing spiral that is almost as wound as the secondary mode. Modes transfer angular momentum from the central to the outer regions of the disk. Most of them release gravitational energy and convert it to kinetic energy, which also flows outward through the disk. Few Fourier components contribute significantly to this transfer. All modes rotate too rapidly to have an inner Lindblad resonance and are unstable unless there is a sufficiently large external halo or bulge.

Optimal Approach to Halo Orbit Control

Three-dimensional orbits in the vicinity of the collinear libration points of the Sun-Earth/Moon barycenter system are currently being considered for use with a number of missions planed for 2000 and beyond. Since such libration point trajectories are, in general, unstable, spacecraft moving on these paths must use some form of trajectory control to remain close to their nominal orbit. In this paper, circular restricted three body problem is reviewed and a numerical method to control spacecrafts on periodic halo orbits around L1 and L2 collinear points of the Sun-Earth/Moon barycenter system is investigated. The control approach is based on the optimal control theory and implements variation of extremals technique to solve the resulting two point boundary value problem. The reference trajectory, halo orbit, is supposed to be given in the form of the Fourier series.

Density waves in debris discs and galactic nuclei

We study the linear perturbations of collisionless near-Keplerian discs. Such systems are models for debris discs around stars and the stellar discs surrounding supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Using a nite-element method, we solve the linearized collisionless Boltzmann equation and Poisson’s equation for a wide range of disc masses and rms orbital eccentricities to obtain the eigenfrequencies and shapes of normal modes. We nd that these discs can support large-scale ‘slow’ modes, in which the frequency is proportional to the disc mass. Slow modes are present for arbitrarily small disc mass so long as the self-gravity of the disc is the dominant source of apsidal precession. We nd that slow modes are of two general types: parent modes and hybrid child modes, the latter arising from resonant interactions between parent modes and singular van Kampen modes. The most prominent slow modes have azimuthal wavenumbers m = 1 and m = 2. We illustrate how slow modes in debris discs are excited during a y-by of a neighbouring star. Many of the non-axisymmetric features seen in debris discs (clumps, eccentricity, spiral waves) that are commonly attributed to planets could instead arise from slow modes; the two hypotheses can be distinguished by long-term measurements of the pattern speed of the features.

UNSTABLE DISK GALAXIES. I. MODAL PROPERTIES

I utilize the Petrov-Galerkin formulation and develop a new method for solving the unsteady collisionless Boltzmann equation in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. In the first-order approximation, the method reduces to a linear eigenvalue problem which is solved using standard numerical methods. I apply the method to the dynamics of a model stellar disk which is embedded in the field of a soft-centered logarithmic potential. The outcome is the full spectrum of eigenfrequencies and their conjugate normal modes for prescribed azimuthal wavenumbers. The results show that the fundamental bar mode is isolated in the frequency space, while spiral modes belong to discrete families that bifurcate from the continuous family of van Kampen modes. The population of spiral modes in the bifurcating family increases by cooling the disk and declines by increasing the fraction of dark to luminous matter. It is shown that the variety of unstable modes is controlled by the shape of the dark matter density profile.

High resolution simulations of unstable modes in a collisionless disc

We present N-body simulations of unstable spiral modes in a dynamically cool collisionless disc. We show that spiral modes grow in a thin collisionless disk in accordance with the analytical perturbation theory. We use the particle-mesh code superbox with nested grids to follow the evolution of unstable spirals that emerge from an unstable equilibrium state. We use a large number of particles (up to N = 40 × 10 6 ) and high-resolution spatial grids in our simulations (128 3 cells). These allow us to trace the dynamics of the unstable spiral modes until their wave amplitudes are saturated due to nonlinear effects. In general, the results of our simulations are in agreement with the analytical predictions. The growth rate and the pattern speed of the most unstable bar-mode measured in N-body simulations agree with the linear analysis. However the parameters of secondary unstable modes are in lesser agreement because of the still limited resolution of our simulations.

Nonlinear Oscillations of Viscoelastic Rectangular Plates

Nonlinear oscillations of viscoelastic simply supported rectangular plates are studied by assuming the Voigt–Kelvin constitutive model. Using Hamiltons principle in conjunction with the kinematics associated with Kirchhoffs plate model, the governing equations of motion including the effect of damping are represented in terms of the transversal deflection and a stress function. Utilizing the Bubnov–Galerkin method, the nonlinear partial differential equations are reduced to an ordinary differential equation which is studied geometrically by approximate construction of the Poincaré maps. Explicit expressions are given for periodic solutions.

Regular and Chaotic Solutions of the Sitnikov Problem near the 3/2 Commensurability

Regular solutions at the 3/2 commensurability are investigated forSitnikov’s problem. Utilizing a rotating coordinate system and theaveraging method, approximate analytical equations are obtained for thePoincare sections by means of Jacobian elliptic functions and 3πperiodicsolutions are generated explicitly. It is revealed that the system exhibitsheteroclinic orbits to saddle points. It is also shown that chaotic regionemerging from the destroyed invariant tori, can easily be seen for certaineccentricities. The procedure of the current study provides reliable answersfor the long-time behavior of the system near resonances.

Attractors of a rotating viscoelastic beam

We investigate the non-linear oscillations of a rotating viscoelastic beam with variable pitch angle. The governing equations of motion are two coupled partial differential equations for the longitudinal and transversal displacements. Using a perturbation technique and Galerkins projection, we reduce the equations of motion to a non-autonomous ordinary differential equation. Our regular perturbation technique is based on the expansion of longitudinal displacement and the amplitude of first transversal mode in terms of a small parameter. We numerically generate the Poincare maps of the reduced equations and reveal that the system exhibits regular and chaotic attractors. The regular attractors are stable limit-cycles that are relevant to stable, short-period oscillations of the beam. A bifurcation analysis has also been performed when the pitch angle is constant.

Finite element modelling of perturbed stellar systems

I formulate a general finite element method (FEM) for self-gravitating stellar systems. I split the configuration space to finite elements, and express the potential and density functions over each element in terms of their nodal values and suitable interpolating functions. General expressions are then introduced for the Hamiltonian and phase space distribution functions of the stars that visit a given element. Using the weighted residual form of Poisson’s equation, I derive the Galerkin projection of the perturbed collisionless Boltzmann equation, and assemble the global evolutionary equations of nodal distribution functions. The FEM is highly adaptable to all kinds of potential and density profiles, and it can deal with density clumps and initially non-axisymmetric systems. I use ring elements of non-uniform widths, choose linear and quadratic interpolation functions in the radial direction, and apply the FEM to the stability analysis of the cutout Mestel disc. I also integrate the forced evolutionary equations and investigate the disturbances of a stable stellar disc due to the gravitational field of a distant satellite galaxy. The performance of the FEM and its prospects are discussed.

GLOBAL DRAG-INDUCED INSTABILITIES IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

We use the Fokker-Planck equation and model the dispersive dynamics of solid particles in annular protoplanetary disks whose gas component is more massive than the particle phase. We model particle--gas interactions as hard sphere collisions, determine the functional form of diffusion coefficients, and show the existence of two global unstable modes in the particle phase. These modes have spiral patterns with the azimuthal wavenumber