Alar Toomre connected the stability of a stellar galactic disk to the competition between self-gravity, rotation and random stellar motion. His 1964 analysis gave a local axisymmetric stability criterion, commonly expressed through the Toomre parameter. A dynamically cold disk can be more vulnerable to gravitational structure formation than one with larger velocity dispersion.[ref]
On the Gravitational Stability of a Disk of Stars by Alar Toomre. p. 1217, abstract and local stability problem
With Juri Toomre, he also modeled the tidal bridges and tails of interacting galaxies. Their test-particle encounters showed how gravity alone can draw long structures out of rotating galactic disks.[ref]
Portrait of Alar Toomre
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