Group Velocity of Spiral Waves in Galactic Disks

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Abstract
Studied here are density waves of the kind proposed especially by Lin to explain the spiral structures of disk galaxies. It is shown that any packet of such waves propagates radially (and toward increasingly short wavelengths) with a group velocity that is sufficient to obliterate it within a few galactic revolutions This does not necessarily mean that the density-wave hypothesis is wrong. But it does imply that any existing spiral waves in the disk of a galaxy must somehow be replenished if their pattern as a whole is to persist. Three conceivable sources of such replenishment are also discussed in this paper

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