Constraining corotation from shocks in tightly wound spiral galaxies

We present a new method for estimating the corotation radius in tightly wound spiral galaxies, through analysis of the radial variation of the offset between arms traced by the potential (P-arms) and those traced by dust (D-arms). We have verified the predictions of semi-analytical theory through hydrodynamical simulations and have examined the uniqueness of the galactic parameters that can be deduced by this method. We find that if the range of angular offsets measured at different radii in a galaxy is greater than around π/4, it is possible to locate the radius of corotation to within ∼25 per cent. We argue that the relative location of the P- and D-arms provides more robust constraints on the galactic parameters than can be inferred from regions of enhanced star formation (SF-arms), as interpretation of the latter involves uncertainties due to reddening and the assumed star formation law. We thus stress the importance of K-band studies of spiral galaxies.