Dynamics of Triaxial Stellar Systems

dc.creatorMerritt, David
dc.date1996-11-11
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:22:17Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:22:17Z
dc.descriptionRecent work on the dynamics of triaxial stellar systems is reviewed. The motion of boxlike orbits in realistic triaxial potentials is generically stochastic. The degree to which the stochasticity manifests itself in the dynamics depends on the chaotic mixing timescale, which is a small multiple of the crossing time in triaxial models with steep cusps or massive central singularities. Low-luminosity ellipticals, which have the steepest cusps and the shortest dynamical times, are less likely than bright ellipticals to have strongly triaxial shapes. The observational evidence for triaxiality is reviewed; departures from axisymmetry in early-type galaxies are often found to be associated with evidence of recent interactions or with the presence of a bar.
dc.description11 Tex pages, 2 Postscript figures, uses stromlo.tex. To appear in: The Nature of Elliptical Galaxies, Second Stromlo Symposium, ed. M. Arnaboldi, G. Da Costa & P. Saha
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9611082
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9611082
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/10822
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleDynamics of Triaxial Stellar Systems
dc.typetext

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