Maclaurin discs and bifurcations to rings
Abstract
Flat, infinitesimally thin, rigidly rotating, self-gravitating configurations of a polytropic gas are investigated. By means of numerical computations it is demonstrated that, for more rapid rotation rates, Maclaurin discs undergo a bifurcation into dumb-bell shaped configurations which then turn into a toroidal sequence. The point of bifurcation lies approximately at T/W = 0.349. This bifurcation phenomenon corresponds closely to the three-dimensional case of homogeneous rotating bodies with a constant density.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 1996
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/282.1.234
- Bibcode:
- 1996MNRAS.282..234K
- Keywords:
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- HYDRODYNAMICS;
- GALAXIES: STRUCTURE