Global dynamics in galactic triaxial systems. I

¹ Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque S/N, La Plata (1900), Argentina e-mail: jperez@fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar
² Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata (IALP), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientícas y Técnicas de la República Argentina

Received: 19 December 2005
Accepted: 18 April 2006

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of the global dynamics in a triaxial galactic system using a 3D integrable Hamiltonian as a simple representation. We include a thorough discussion on the effect of adding a generic non-integrable perturbation to the global dynamics of the system. We adopt the triaxial Stäckel Hamiltonian as the integrable model and compute its resonance structure in order to understand its global dynamics when a perturbation is introduced. We provide a theoretical discussion about diffusive processes taking place in phase space.