Tidally affected galaxies modelled as Maclaurin spheroids

Abstract

Tensor virial equations and impulse approximation are used to study the tidal transfer of energy and angular momentum to a test galaxy, modeled as a Maclaurin spheroid. It is shown that the fractional increase in kinetic energy falls off with increasing eccentricity, whereas the fractional increase in angular momentum squared rises till e = 0.83 and then falls off. The tidally transferred angular momentum is about an axis lying in the equatorial plane of the spheroidal test galaxy