Stellar Dynamics and the 3D Structure of Bars

D. Pfenniger

Published 1995-08-29, updated 1995-09-25Version 2

Recent observational constraints restrict the strict applicability of stellar dynamics in spirals to a few rotation periods. However, stellar dynamics concepts such as periodic orbits are invaluable for understanding the various dynamical processes occurring during much more periods. A distinction of two instability types in stellar systems is pointed out, the first one being well illustrated by the bar instability, and the second one by the bar bending instability. In bars the third dimension brings essential dynamical effects which modify the views about the history of bulges and the spiral secular evolution. Bars may grow, bend, thicken, and dissolve into spheroidal bulges, and spirals may evolve along the Hubble sequence in the sense Sd$\to$Sa. This leads to a much more dynamical picture of isolated galaxies than imagined before.