On the Formation of Tails in the Galactic Tidal Field

Abstract

The trajectories of stars of a cluster moving in the Schuster-Plummer potential on a circular orbit in the Galactic plane (Bok’s problem) are investigated. The impact of initial conditions on stellar motions, in particular on the possibility of escape of a star from the cluster, is analyzed, and numerous computations of stellar orbits are performed for various initial values of energy and momentum with respect to the cluster. Stars escaping from the cluster are shown to move mostly in spiral orbits and form well-defined spiral tails.