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Constraints On Radial Migration In Spiral Galaxies – Ii. Angular Momentum Distribution And Preferential Migration, Kathryne J. Daniel, Rosemary F. G. Wyse

Physics Faculty Research and Scholarship

The orbital angular momentum of individual stars in galactic discs can be permanently changed through torques from transient spiral patterns. Interactions at the corotation resonance dominate these changes and have the further property of conserving orbital circularity. We derived in an earlier paper an analytic criterion that an unperturbed stellar orbit must satisfy in order for such an interaction to occur, i.e. for it to be in a trapped orbit around corotation. We here use this criterion in an investigation of how the efficiency of induced radial migration for a population of disc stars varies with the angular momentum distribution …