The evolution of pitch angles of spiral arms

Abstract

In spiral galaxies, the pitch angle, α, of the spiral arms is often proposed as a discriminator between theories for the formation of the spiral structure. In Lin–Shu density wave theory, α stays constant in time, being simply a property of the underlying galaxy. In other theories (e.g. tidal interaction, and self-gravity), it is expected that the arms wind up in time, so that to a first approximation cot α ∝ t. For these theories, it would be expected that a sample of galaxies observed at random times should show a uniform distribution of cot α. We show that a recent set of measurements of spiral pitch angles (Yu & Ho) is broadly consistent with this expectation.