Physical characteristics of N-dimensional radially-symmetric polytropes (Q1094283)

This paper derives and summarizes systematically the equations about physical characteristics of radially symmetric polytropes. In difference with some previous works on this subject [\textit{M. A. Abramowicz}, Acta Astron. 33, 313-318 (1983)], restricted to the simplest physical characteristics as mass, radius and mean density the paper deals with other characteristics as gravitational potential and acceleration, gravitational and internal energy. With the aid of gamma functions, the general case of N-dimensional radially-symmetric polytropes is analyzed. The virial theorem with external pressure is derived in the relativistic limit, with Newtonian gravitation still valid. Some new findings are also reported. The gravitational energy of polytropes obeying the generalized Schuster-Emden integral is shown to be finite.