Quasi-resonant Theory of Tidal Interactions

Abstract

When a spinning system experiences a transient gravitational encounter with an external perturber, a quasi-resonance occurs if the spin frequency of the victim roughly matches the peak angular speed of the perturber. Such encounters are responsible for the formation of long tails and bridges during galaxy collisions. For high-speed encounters, the resulting velocity perturbations can be described by the impulse approximation. The traditional impulse approximation, however, does not distinguish between prograde and retrograde encounters, and therefore completely misses the resonant response. Here, we modify the impulse approximation to include the effects of quasi-resonant phenomena on stars orbiting within a disk. Explicit expressions are derived for the velocity and energy changes to the stars induced by tidal forces from an external gravitational perturber passing either on a straight line or a parabolic orbit. Comparisons with numerical-restricted three-body calculations illustrate the applicability of our analysis.