Resonant Clumping and Substructure in Galactic Discs
  We describe a method to extract resonant orbits from N-body simulations
exploiting the fact that they close in a frame rotating with a constant pattern
speed. Our method is applied to the N-body simulation of the Milky Way by Shen
et al. (2010). This simulation hosts a massive bar, which drives strong
resonances and persistent angular momentum exchange. Resonant orbits are found
throughout the disc, both close to the bar itself and out to the very edges of
the disc. Using Fourier spectrograms, we demonstrate that the bar is driving
kinematic substructure even in the very outer parts of the disc. We identify
two major orbit families in the outskirts of the disc that make significant
contributions to the kinematic landscape, namely the m:l = 3:-2 and 1:-1
families resonating with the pattern speed of the bar. A mechanism is described
that produces bimodal distributions of Galactocentric radial velocities at
selected azimuths in the outer disc. It occurs as a result of the temporal
coherence of particles on the 3:-2 resonant orbits, which causes them to arrive
simultaneously at pericentre or apocentre. This resonant clumping, due to the
in-phase motion of the particles through their epicycle, leads to both inward
and outward moving groups which belong to the same orbital family and
consequently produce bimodal radial velocity distributions. This is a possible
explanation of the bimodal velocity distributions observed towards the Galactic
anti-Centre by Liu et al. (2012). Another consequence is that transient
overdensities appear and dissipate (in a symmetric fashion) on timescales equal
to the their epicyclic period resulting in a periodic pulsing of the disc's
surface density.
