Gravitational potential energy of a disk-sphere pair of galaxies

A Dynamical Proximity Analysis of Interacting Galaxy Pairs

“…where the symbols have the same meaning as in Paper I, except for p, which is the distance of closest approach between the colliding galaxies, measured in units of the radius of either galaxy; and x nq » which a measure of the mutual potential due to the gravitational interaction between the disk and the spherical galaxy and is defined as the mutual potential function for the disk-sphere pair (Ballabh, 1975). inclination, i, of the disk to the direction of relative motion between the two galaxies (see Paper I ) .…”

A Statistical Study of Merging Galaxies-Theory and Observations

“…The model is discussed in detail in Chatterjee, 1989. The theory for studying sphere-sphere and disk sphere collisions for mergers taking place in a single orbital period is basically the same as in Chatterjee, 1987 (hereafter referred to as Paper I ) , except that in the case of disk-sphere collisions the appropriate function x = X n c ^s use< 3 / which defines the Do mutual potential energy function for the disk-sphere system (cf. Ballabh, 1975). M-^ and M 2 are the masses and R-^ = R 2 = R their common radii.…”