Structures induced by companions in galactic discs
  Using N-body simulations we study the structures induced on a galactic disc
by repeated flybys of a companion in decaying eccentric orbit around the disc.
Our system is composed by a stellar disc, bulge and live dark matter halo, and
we study the system's dynamical response to a sequence of a companion's flybys,
when we vary i) the disc's temperature (parameterized by Toomre's Q-parameter)
and ii) the companion's mass and initial orbit. We use a new 3D Cartesian grid
code: MAIN (Mesh-adaptive Approximate Inverse N-body solver). The main features
of MAIN are reviewed, with emphasis on the use of a new Symmetric Factored
Approximate Sparse Inverse (SFASI) matrix in conjunction with the multigrid
method that allows the efficient solution of Poisson's equation in three space
variables. We find that: i) companions need to be assigned initial masses in a
rather narrow window of values in order to produce significant and more
long-standing non-axisymmetric structures (bars and spirals) in the main
galaxy's disc by the repeated flyby mechanism. ii) a crucial phenomenon is the
antagonism between companion-excited and self-excited modes on the disc. Values
of $Q >1.5$ are needed in order to allow for the growth of the
companion-excited modes to prevail over the the growth of the disc's
self-excited modes. iii) We give evidence that the companion-induced spiral
structure is best represented by a density wave with pattern speed nearly
constant in a region extending from the ILR to a radius close to, but inside,
corotation.
