We derive the proper form of Virial theorem for a system of rotating self-gravitating Brownian particles. We show that, in the two-dimensional case, it takes a very simple form that can be used to obtain general results about the dynamics of the system without being required to solve the Smoluchowski-Poisson system explicitly. We also develop the analogy between self-gravitating systems and two-dimensional point vortices and derive a Virial-like relation for the vortex system.
We investigate the quasi-equilibrium state of one-dimensional self-gravitating systems. If the null virial condition is satisfied at initial time, it is found that the number density around the center of the system at the quasi-equilibrium state has the universality similar to two- and three-dimensional self-gravitating systems reported in \cite{Tashiro16,Tashiro10}. The reason why the null virial condition is sufficient for the universality is unveiled by the envelope equation. We present a phenomenological model to describe the universal structure by using a special Langevin equation with a …
Three dimensional self-gravitating systems do not evolve to thermodynamic equilibrium, but become trapped in nonequilibrium quasistationary states. In this Letter we present a theory which allows us to a priori predict the particle distribution in a final quasistationary state to which a self-gravitating system will evolve from an initial condition which is isotropic in particle velocities and satisfies a virial constraint 2K=-U, where K is the total kinetic energy and U is the potential energy of the system.
The most probable state of an infinite self-gravitating gas in the dynamical equilibrium is defined by `gravitational haziness', a parameter representing many-body effects and formally like the temperature in the case of thermal equilibrium. A kinetic equation is constructed using a concept of statistical equipartition of the virial among subsystems of the self-gravitating gas. A closed equation for the gravitational potential is conjectured as a special property of the kinetic equation. An equilibrium particle distribution function in the phase space, an analog of the Maxwell-Boltzmann weight…
The evolution of self-gravitating systems, and long-range interacting systems more generally, from initial configurations far from dynamical equilibrium is often described as a simple two phase process: a first phase of violent relaxation bringing it to a quasi-stationary state in a few dynamical times, followed by a slow adiabatic evolution driven by collisional processes. In this context the complex spatial structure evident, e.g., in spiral galaxies is understood either in terms of instabilities of quasi-stationary states, or a result of dissipative non-gravitational interactions. We illust…
The existence of substellar cold H2 globules in planetary nebulae and the mere existence of comets suggest that the physics of cold interstellar gas might be much richer than usually envisioned. We study the case of a cold gaseous medium in ISM conditions which is subject to a gas-liquid/solid phase transition. First the equilibrium of general non-ideal fluids is studied using the virial theorem and linear stability analysis. Then the non-linear dynamics is studied by using simulations to characterize the expected formation of solid bodies analogous to comets. The simulations are run with a st…
We describe the dynamics and thermodynamics of collisionless particle disks orbiting a massive central body, in the case where the disk mass is small compared to the central mass, the self-gravity of the disk dominates the non-Keplerian force, and the spread in semi-major axes is small. We show that with plausible approximations such disks have logarithmic two-body interactions and a compact phase space, and therefore exhibit thermodynamics that are simpler than most other gravitating systems, which require a confining box and artificial softening of the potential at small scales to be thermod…
Large self-gravitating stellar systems share with correlated liquids in condensed matter physics a pattern of hierarchical density variations. While it takes the microscopic time resolution to discern the correlated dynamics of the critical opalescence, characteristic astronomical times hide fluctuational dynamics of stellar liquids, where, governed by interstellar correlations, denser clusters of stars assemble and disperse. For a semi-isolated galaxy, these dynamical fluctuations are dense globular clusters. For a galaxy cluster, these dynamical fluctuations are the member galaxies, elliptic…