Abstract
We study, theoretically and with N-body simulations, the formation of spiral patterns in retrograde galaxy encounters. A one-armed leading spiral dominates in a disk if the tidal perturbation from the companion is large and the disk is surrounded by a massive halo. Otherwise, a trailing pattern forms. The leading arm is made up of particles in slightly elongated orbits whose turning points outline the arm. The arm rotates opposite to the disk rotation. We have found one spiral galaxy, NGC4622, with a leading arm near its nucleus. From the literature, we find that very few spirals, if any, in a sample of strongly perturbed galaxies have leading arms. A possible reason for this is that few spiral galaxies have a halo with larger mass than the disk within the visible disk.
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Byrd, G.G., Thomasson, M., Donner, K.J. et al. Leading spiral arms, retrograde galaxy encounters and massive halos. Celestial Mechanics 45, 31–36 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01228973
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01228973