How Does a Low Surface Brightness Galaxy Form Spiral Arms?

Abstract The formation and evolution of spiral arms in low surface brightness galaxies (LSBs) are not well understood. We study the dynamics of spiral arms in two prototypical LSBs, FGC 568-VI and FGC 568-01, using both analytical models and N -body + hydrodynamical simulations. We first consider the disk as a two-component system of gravitationally coupled stars and gas in the force field of a spherical dark matter halo, subjected to local, nonaxisymmetric perturbations. However, no local spirals are formed. We next assume the disk to be a one-component system of stars in the net gravitational potential of a galaxy with a spherical dark matter halo perturbed by a global m = 2 instability. In this case, the growth time for spiral formation was low, equal to 0.78 and 0.96 Gyr, respectively, corresponding to a few dynamical times of the galaxies. Finally, we simulate the LSBs using the N -body + hydrodynamical simulation code RAMSES. Our results show that a quadrupolar field associated with an oblate halo with an axial ratio of 0.7 is necessary to drive a long-lived global spiral in the LSB disks. Further, feedback corresponding to a supernova mass fraction of ∼0.05 is essential to comply with the observed stellar surface density. The simulated spirals survive for about 10 dynamical times and the average pattern speed lies between 10 and 15 km s −1 kpc −1 . The spiral arms thus formed are therefore a transient global pattern driven by the tidal field of the oblate dark matter halo.