Depending on the nature of the various components (stars, gas) present in triaxial stellar systems (elliptical galaxies, bulges and bars), the dynamics is expected to be rather different. The stars are collisionless, dissipationless, and dynamically hot; they are mainly trapped by quasi-periodic or chaotic orbits. On the contrary, the gas is collisional, dissipational, and dynamically cold; the cold or warm gas (≲ 104 K) is a powerful orbital tracer, however shocks prevent it from following self-crossing orbits. The hot gas (≲ 106 K) is influenced by “repulsive” pressure forces which prevent in close encounters the flow from being strongly shocked; it rather follows chaotic trajectories. By means of fully self-consistent 3D simulations with stars and gas using PM (Pfenniger & Friedli 1992) and SPH (Friedli & Benz 1992) techniques, we investigate the response of gaseous components in the following situations: 1) slow or fast pattern speed Ωp, 2) direct or retrograde gas motion with respect to the stars, and 3) warm or hot gas temperature T. Initial parameters and final characteristics of each runs are reported in Table I.
3D gas dynamics in triaxial systems
