On steady distributions of self-attracting clusters under friction and fluctuations (Q1196245)

The author considers the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation for the probability distribution of a test-particle in a cloud confined to a bounded domain \(\Omega\), with a Newtonian attracting potential. Let \(F(\rho)\) be the free energy associated with the spatial density \(\rho\), which is given by a functional restricted to the set \(\Lambda_ M\) of the non-negative functions \(\rho\) on \(\Omega\) with given total mass \(M\). The Euler-Lagrange equation associated with the constrained variational problem \(\{F(\rho);\;\Lambda_ M\}\) gives a nonlinear integro- differential equation, the so-called generalized Lane-Emden equation (G.L.E. equation). In this paper it is proved that \(\rho_ s\) is a stationary solution for the associated Fokker-Planck equation for the mass distribution \(\rho\) if and only if it is a solution of the G.L.E. equation. When the interaction kernel is bounded on \(\Omega\) and uniformly continuous, the author establishes the existence of a global minimizer to the variational problem, which is a stable stationary solution of the Fokker-Planck equation. The second part of the paper is devoted to the case of gravitational self-interaction, when the free energy is not a convex functional and the G.L.E. equation may admit several solutions. It is proved that in a two-dimensional domain there exists a critical mass, beyond which the system may admit a gravitational collapse. Finally, a few results on uniqueness, stability, multiplicity and symmetry-breaking of stationary solutions are proved for one- dimensional model.