Incompressible fluid ellipsoids in halos. I - The second-harmonic oscillations of the Maclaurin spheroids

Abstract

The structure and stability of Maclaurin spheroids embedded in rigid uniform-density oblate spheroidal halos are determined by the tensor virial-equation method. These spheroid-halo systems can be thought of as crude fluid analogs of disk galaxies with halos. The halos are assumed to have the same center, the same axis of symmetry, and the same equatorial radius as the Maclaurin spheroids. Only halos with lower eccentricity than the Maclaurin spheroids are considered. The dynamic instability of the toroidal (barlike) modes is suppressed when m, the ratio of the halo mass to Maclaurin spheroid mass, is greater than 3 pi/8 for spherical halos and when m is greater than 1/2 for halos congruent to the Maclaurin spheroids. Intermediate halo flattenings yield intermediate critical m-values. On the other hand, a neutral point of the toroidal modes in the rotating and inertial frames occurs for all m and for all allowed halo flattenings. Growth rates for secular instability beyond the neutral point are calculated, and the eigenfrequencies of all second-harmonic modes are given for select cases. The Ostriker-Peebles (1973) conjecture concerning the stability of disk galaxies against barlike perturbations appears to be incorrect.