Stationary and static stellar dynamic models with axial symmetry (Q1567523)

Large stellar systems such as galaxies or globular clusters are often described by a density function \(f=f(t,x,v)\geq 0\) on phase space (\(t\) time, \(x\in \mathbb{R}^3\) space-variable, \(v\in\mathbb{R}^3\) velocity). The author considers an evolutionary model described by the known Vlasov-Poisson system \( \partial f+v.\nabla _xf-\nabla _xU.\nabla _vf=0\), \(\triangle U=4\pi \rho \), \(\rho (t,x)=\int f(t,x,v) dv\), where \(U(t,x)\) denotes the gravitational potential of the ensemble and \(\rho (t,x)\) is the spatial mass density. The existence of stationary solutions (independent of time) is investigated. A special class of solutions (called static solutions) satisfying \(\int vf(x,v)dv/\rho (x)=0\) is studied. If \(U\) depends only on \(x\) then the energy of a particle \(E=E(x,v)\) \(((x,v)\in \mathbb{R} ^6)\) being constant along solutions of the system \(\dot x=v\), \(\dot v=-\nabla U(x)\) (the characteristic system of the Vlasov equation) takes the form \(E=v^2/2+U(x)\). An interesting result is that every static solution \((f_0,\rho_0,U_0)\) in a certain subclass of the spherically symmetric class is embedded in continuous one-parameter families \((f^{\gamma },\rho ^{\gamma }, U^{\gamma })\) of stationary solutions with axial symmetry which coincide with \((f_0,\rho_0,U_0)\) for \(\gamma =0\). Moreover, \((f^{\gamma },\rho ^{\gamma }, U^{\gamma })\) is not spherically symmetric for \(\gamma \neq 0\), \(\rho ^{\gamma }\in C_c^1(\mathbb{R}^3)\), \(U^{\gamma }\in C_b^2(\mathbb{R}^3)\) (for \(|\gamma |<\gamma _0\)) and \(\rho ^{\gamma }\), \(U^{\gamma }\) are continuous functions of \(\gamma \in (-\gamma_0,\gamma_0)\).