The Stability of Galaxy Disks

Authors :: Westfall, Kyle B.
Andersen, D. R.
Bershady, M. A.
Martinsson, T.
Swaters, R. A.
Verheijen, M. A.
Astronomy
Source :: American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
Publication Year :: 2013
Abstract: Using measurements of velocity dispersion and mass surface density for both the gas and stellar components, we calculate the multi-component stability (Q) for 30 galaxy disks observed by the DiskMass Survey. Despite their sub-maximality (Bershady et al. 2011, ApJL, 739, 47), we find all disks to be stable with roughly 85% falling in the range 1