Open AccessThe pendulum dilemma of fish orbits
Author(s) -
Zhao HongSheng
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02871.x
Subject(s) - physics , galaxy , orbit (dynamics) , classical mechanics , astrophysics , circular orbit , constraint (computer aided design) , fish <actinopterygii> , geometry , biology , mathematics , fishery , engineering , aerospace engineering
The shape of a galaxy is constrained both by mechanisms of formation (dissipational versus dissipationless) and by the available orbit families (the shape and amount of regular and stochastic orbits). It is shown that, despite the often very flattened shapes of banana and fish orbits, these boxlet orbits generally do not fit a triaxial galaxy in detail because, similar to loop orbits, they spend too little time at the major axis of the model density distribution. This constraint from the shape of fish orbits is relaxed at (large) radii where the density profile of a galaxy is steep.