The spiral-compact galaxy pair AM 2208-251: Computer simulations versus observations

The system AM2208-251 is a roughly edge-on spiral extending east-west with a smaller round compact E system about 60 arcsec east of the spiral nucleus along the major axis of the spiral. Bertola, Huchtmeier, and Zeilinger (1990) have presented optical spectroscopic as well as single dish 21 cm observations of this system. Their spectroscopic data show, via emission lines lambda lambda 3727-29A, a rising rotation curve near the nucleus. These spectroscopic observations may indicate a tidal interaction in the system. In order to learn more about such pairs, the authors simulated the interaction using the computer model developed by Miller (1976 a,b, 1978) and modified by the authors (Byrd 1986, 1987, 1988). To do the simulation they need an idea of the mutual orbits of the two galaxies. Their computer model is a two-dimensional polar N-body program. It consists of a self-gravitating disk of particles, within an inert axially symmetric stabilizing halo potential. The particles are distributed in a 24(radial) by 36(azimuthal) polar grid. Self consistent calculations can be done only within the grid area. The disk is modeled with a finite Mestel disk, where all the particles initially move in circular orbits with constant tangential velocities (Mestel 1963), resulting in a flat rotation curve. The gas particles in the spiral's disk, which make up 30 percent of its mass, collide in the following manner. The number of particles in each bin of the polar grid is counted every time step. If it is greater than a given critical density, all the particles in the bin collide, obtaining in the result the same velocities, equal to the average for the bin. This process produces clumps of gas particles-the star formation sites. The authors suppress the collision in the inner part of the disk (within the circle r = 6) to represent the hole seen in the gas in the nuclear bulge of spirals. They thus avoid spurious effects due to collisions in that region. They also varied the size of the collisional bins, which did not affect their conclusions.