Slow m=1 instabilities of softened gravity Keplerian discs

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates the slow m=1 counter-rotating instability in a nearly Keplerian, collisionless disc using a simplified two-component softened gravity model, revealing conditions for overstability.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal analytical model for studying m=1 instabilities in Keplerian discs, deriving explicit expressions for mode frequencies and growth rates.

Findings

Discovered that hot discs are prone to overstability due to m=1 modes.

Derived analytical formulas for precession frequencies and growth rates.

Showed global modes can be constructed for zero net rotation.

Abstract

We present the simplest model that permits a largely analytical exploration of the m=1 counter-rotating instability in a "hot" nearly Keplerian disc of collisionless self-gravitating matter. The model consists of a two-component softened gravity disc, whose linear modes are analysed using WKB. The modes are slow in the sense that their (complex) frequency is smaller than the Keplerian orbital frequency by a factor which is of order the ratio of the disc mass to the mass of the central object. Very simple analytical expressions are derived for the precession frequencies and growth rates of local modes; it is shown that a nearly Keplerian disc must be unrealistically hot to avoid an overstability. Global modes are constructed for the case of zero net rotation.