A unified framework for the orbital structure of bars and triaxial ellipsoids

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the orbital structure of bars and triaxial ellipsoids using simulations, classifies orbits with a new automated method, and explores how a central black hole influences orbit dynamics, with implications for SMBH mass measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a new automated orbit classification method based on frequency analysis and studies the effects of SMBH growth on bar orbits in self-consistent simulations.

Findings

Most bar orbits are similar to box orbits with little net angular momentum.

A small fraction (~7%) are long axis tubes behaving like those in triaxial ellipsoids.

Growth of SMBH transforms some orbits into precessing Keplerian orbits.

Abstract

We examine a large random sample of orbits in self-consistent simulations of N-body bars. Orbits in the bars are classified both visually and with a new automated orbit classification method based on frequency analysis. The well known prograde x1 orbit family originates from the same parent orbit as the box orbits in stationary and rotating triaxial ellipsoids. However only a small fraction of bar orbits ~4% have predominately prograde motion like their periodic parent orbit. Most bar orbits arising from the x1 orbit have little net angular momentum in the bar frame making them equivalent to box orbits in rotating triaxial potentials. A small fraction of bar orbits (~7%) are long axis tubes that behave exactly like those in triaxial ellipsoids:they are tipped about the intermediate-axis due to the Coriolis force, with the sense of tipping determined by the sign of their angular momentum about the long axis. No orbits parented by prograde periodic x2 orbits are found in the pure bar model, but a tiny population (~2%) of short axis tube orbits parented by retrograde x4 orbits are found. When a central point mass representing a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is grown adiabatically at the center of the bar, those orbits that lie in the immediate vicinity of the SMBH are transformed into precessing Keplerian orbits (PKOs) which belong the same major families (short axis tubes, long axis tubes and boxes) occupying the bar at larger radii. During the growth of a SMBH the inflow of mass and outward transport of angular momentum transforms some x1 and long axis tube orbits into prograde short axis tubes. This study has important implications for future attempts to constrain the masses of SMBHs in barred galaxies using orbit based methods like the Schwarzschild orbit superposition scheme and for understanding the observed features in barred galaxies.