RESONANCE EXCITATION AND THE SPIRAL-RING STRUCTURE OF DISK GALAXIES

Rings are common in disk galaxies. These rings are either indistinguishable from a pair of tightly wound spirals, or themselves are a part of the spiral structure. Furthermore, their occurrence is seen coincident with a bar in the center. In this paper, we interpret this spiral-ring structure as density waves resonantly excited by a rotating bar potential. The theory gives excellent agreement for the molecular spiral-rings in central parts. of nearby disk galaxies, observed by high resolution radio arrays. The same mechanism works for more distant spiral-rings in the outer parts of disk galaxies qualitatively, although the problem is complicated by the coupling of the stellar and gaseous disks.