Nuclear Spirals in Galaxies

Recent high-resolution observations indicate that nuclear spirals are often present in the innermost few hundred parsecs of disc galaxies. My models show that nuclear spirals form naturally as a gas response to non-axisymmetry in the gravitational potential. Some nuclear spirals take the form of spiral shocks, resulting in streaming motions in the gas, and in inflow comparable to the accretion rates needed to power local Active Galactic Nuclei. Recently streaming motions of amplitude expected from the models have been observed in nuclear spirals, confirming the role of nuclear spirals in feeding of the central massive black holes.