Could the Galactic disk heating be due to Globular Cluster impacts?

dc.creatorPutte, D. Vande
dc.creatorCropper, Mark
dc.creatorFerreras, Ignacio
dc.date2009-05-27
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T13:18:31Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T13:18:31Z
dc.descriptionSo far, six mechanisms have been proposed to account for the Galactic disk heating. Of these, the most important appear to be a combination of scattering of stars by molecular clouds and by spiral arms. We study a further mechanism, namely, the repeated disk impact of the original Galactic Globular Cluster population up to the present. We find that Globular Clusters could have contributed at most a small fraction of the current vertical energy of the disk, as they could heat the whole disk to {$σ$}$_{z}$ = 5.5kms$^{{\rm -} {\rm 1}}$ (c.f. the observed 18 and 39 kms$^{{\rm -} {\rm 1}}$ for the thick and thin disks respectively). We find that the rate of rise of disk heat ($α$=0.22 in \textit{$σ$}$_{z}$ $\sim t^α$ with \textit t being time), is close to that found for scattering by molecular clouds.
dc.description4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in MNRAS on 2009/May/14
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0905.4350
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0905.4350
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/231451
dc.subjectAstrophysics of Galaxies
dc.titleCould the Galactic disk heating be due to Globular Cluster impacts?
dc.typetext

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