A vertical resonance heating model for X- or peanut-shaped galactic bulges

Abstract

We explore a second-order Hamiltonian vertical resonance model for X-shaped or peanut-shaped galactic bulges. The X- or peanut-shape is caused by the 2:1 vertical Lindblad resonance with the bar, with two vertical oscillation periods per orbital period in the bar frame. We examine N-body simulations and find that due to the bar slowing down and disc thickening during bar buckling, the resonance and associated peanut-shape moves outward. The peanut-shape is consistent with the location of the 2:1 vertical resonance, independent of whether the bar buckled or not. We estimate the resonance width from the potential m = 4 Fourier component and find that the resonance is narrow, affecting orbits over a narrow range in the angular momentum distribution, dL/L ∼ 0.05. As the resonance moves outward, stars originally in the mid-plane are forced out of the mid-plane and into orbits just within the resonance separatrix. The height of the separatrix orbits, estimated from the Hamiltonian model, is approximately consistent with the peanut-shape height. The peanut- or X-shape is comprised of stars in the vicinity of the resonance separatrix. The velocity distributions from the simulations illustrate that low-inclination orbits are depleted within resonance. Within resonance, the vertical velocity distribution is broad, consistent with resonant heating caused by the passage of the resonance through the disc. In the Milky Way bulge, we relate the azimuthally averaged mid-plane mass density near the vertical resonance to the rotation curve and bar pattern speed. At an estimated vertical resonance galactocentric radius of ∼1.3 kpc, we confirm a mid-plane density of ∼5 × 108 M⊙ kpc−3, consistent with recently estimated mass distributions. We find that the rotation curve, bar pattern speed, 2:1 vertical resonance location, X-shaped tips and mid-plane mass density, are all self-consistent in the Milky Way galaxy bulge.