Order and Chaos in a Three-dimensional Binary System of Interacting Galaxies

TL;DR

This study models the dynamics of a binary quasar system with interacting galaxies, revealing how orbital behavior shifts between regular and chaotic states influenced by galactic interactions and quasar development.

Contribution

It introduces a 3D gravitational model for binary quasars, analyzing orbital chaos and regularity during galactic evolution, including the impact of quasars on orbital dynamics.

Findings

Large fraction of chaotic orbits in 2D time-independent model

Lindblad resonances contribute to stellar chaos

Orbital character can change from regular to chaotic during evolution

Abstract

In the present article, we present a galactic gravitational model of three degrees of freedom, in order to investigate and reveal the behavior of orbits in a binary quasar system. The two quasars are hosted in a pair of interacting disk galaxies. We study in detail the regular or chaotic character of motion, in two different cases: the time independent model in both 2D and 3D dynamical systems and the evolving 3D model. Our numerical calculations, indicate that a large fraction of orbits in the 2D system are chaotic in the time independent case. A careful analysis suggest that several Lindblad resonances are also responsible for the chaotic motion of stars in both hosts galaxies. In the time dependent system, we follow the evolution of 3D orbits in our dynamical model, as the two interacting host galaxies develop dense and massive quasars in their cores, by mass transportation from the disks to their nuclei. In this interesting case, there are orbits that change their orbital character from regular to chaotic and vise versa and also orbits that maintain their character during the galactic evolution. These results strongly indicate that the ordered or chaotic nature of 3D orbits depends, not only in the galactic interaction but also in the presence of the quasars in the galactic cores of the host galaxies. The outcomes derived from our dynamical model are compared with observational data. Some theoretical arguments to support the numerically derived outcomes are presented, both in 2D and 3D systems, while a comparison with similar earlier work is also made.