Swing Amplification of Galactic Spiral Arms: Phase Synchronization of Stellar Epicycle Motion

TL;DR

This paper revisits the swing amplification model of galactic spiral arms, revealing phase synchronization of stellar epicycle motion as the core process, and provides detailed calculations of spiral properties consistent with previous models.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed derivation of the perturbation equation and identifies phase synchronization as the key mechanism in spiral arm amplification.

Findings

Epicycle phases synchronize during amplification

Calculated pitch angles and wavelengths match previous models

Identified the most amplified spiral mode

Abstract

We revisit the swing amplification model of galactic spiral arms proposed by Toomre (1981). We describe the derivation of the perturbation equation in detail and investigate the amplification process of stellar spirals. We find that the elementary process of the swing amplification is the phase synchronization of the stellar epicycle motion. Regardless of the initial epicycle phase, the epicycle phases of stars in a spiral are synchronized during the amplification. Based on the phase synchronization, we explain the dependence of the pitch angle of spirals on the epicycle frequency. We find the most amplified spiral mode and calculate its pitch angle, wavelengths, and amplification factor, which are consistent with those obtained by the more rigorous model based on the Boltzmann equation by Julian and Toomre (1966).