Dynamical friction in a mean field approximation (Q794461)

Assuming a binary form for the Hamiltonian of the field particles and that the initial distribution of the N field particles are expressible as a product of N one-particle distributions which satisfies the Maxwell distribution, the Liouville equation is written down. One identifies the force terms, one of which is interpreted as 'friction force' (due to long range interaction). To arrive at a relatively simple form of the friction force, the following assumptions are made: (i) Non-trivial initial correlations between the test and field particles are neglected. (ii) The integration in time can be extended to the domain \((0,\infty)\). (iii) The trajectories of the field particles are approximated by the 'average' forms which would result if the actual gravitational field were replaced by the average value associated with the initial distribution \(\mu_ 0\) of the N particles. The friction for a special case is shown to be basically similar in form to Chandrasekhar's result. [This is an abridged version, the complete review is available on demand.]