Stability of self-gravitating astrophysical disks

Criteria which guarantee the stability of self-gravitating gaseous and stellar disks toward any localized small perturbations are obtained. These criteria are formulated as inequalities of the form Q > Q(c) (separately for gas and stars). The latter should be satisfied by the ''stability parameter'' Q, which is equal, by definition, to unity on the stability boundary of radial perturbations. The critical value of the stability parameter Q(c) is appreciably greater than (although of the order of) unity, attesting to the great instability of nonaxially symmetric perturbations. It is shown that the stability criterion derived for gaseous disks is valid for disks rotating within a spheroidal component (as in spiral galaxies) or in the field of a central mass (planetary rings and accretion disks). Stellar disks are stabilized with significantly greater difficulty. This is attributable mainly to the anisotropy of the velocity distribution inherent to them, which is favorable for instability. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.