Solitary vortices in galactic disk (Q1084986)

It is shown that solitary vortices, similar to those in the atmospheres of the large planets, may exist in galactic disks. An expression for the instability increment of a mode which perturbs the disk thickness but does not perturb the density of a differentially rotating disk is obtained. A solution for a solitary vortex in the galactic disk with radial dependence of the vertical component of a gravity field is obtained. The vortex moves in an azimuth direction of the disk as a whole. The nonlinear vortex may exist in a zonal flow and its field is in qualitative agreement with experiments.