Reviewing the observational evidence against long-lived spiral arms in galaxies

We review Foyle et al. (2011) previous results, by applying a Fourier intensity phases method to a nine object sample of galaxies. It was found that two of the objects (NGC 628 and NGC 5194), with strong two-arm patterns, present positive evidence for long-lived spirals. Only one of the objects (NGC 3627) shows the contrary evidence. As determined by an analysis of resolved mass maps, the rest of the objects can not be included in the analysis because they belong to flocculent and multi-arm type of spiral arms, which are not described by density wave theory.