The Tidal Force of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Sufficient to Induce a Galactic Warp?

A Thesis submitted in Partial Satisfaction
of the Requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Science in Physics
at the University of California, Santa Cruz

by:
John M. Vinopal
3/24/97
All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

The theory that the Large Magellanic Cloud created the Milky Way's HI warp has been dismissed since Hunter and Toomre (1969) presented analytical evidence that the warp's magnitude requires an unrealistically close perigalacticon. However these analyses preceded by a decade the discovery of the massive galactic halos which strongly influence galactic dynamics. Recent analytical work by Weinberg (1995) suggests that a satellite perturbs the halo to create a warp with the proper sign and position, albeit of significantly lesser magnitude than the Milky Way's warp. Modern simulation codes permit galactic modeling within reactive halos and beg a revisitation of this theory.

Comments on the HTML Version

I converted this thesis from the original Word documents using the 'Internet Helper' converter on the Macintosh. The files were then poked and prodded by hand to put them into a 'nicer' format. The figures are a combination of postscript and xerox art; the raw ps is available on request.

More References And Such

Sections
Cover Page
Abstract Acknowledgements Table of Contents §1. Introduction §2. Background §3. Warps §4. Experimental Setup §5. Analysis §6. Discussion §7. Bibliography §8. Appendices
All Material Copyright JM Vinopal, 1997.
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