Statistical-mechanical selection of the shapes of disk galaxies

Details Statistical-mechanical selection of the shapes of disk galaxies Statistical-mechanical selection of the shapes of disk galaxies

Feb 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991apj...368..380m&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 368, Feb. 20, 1991, p. 380-382.

Statistics

Computation

3

Computational Astrophysics, Disk Galaxies, Galactic Structure, Statistical Analysis, Astronomical Models, Distribution Functions, Partial Differential Equations

Scientific paper

A new method is proposed for selecting steady state shapes of disk galaxies as 'most probable states' of a large number of stars, given only the total energy and total angular momentum. A partial differential equation is derived for the mean gravitational potential; it is closely related to the 'sinh-Poisson' equation for the mean-field description of a line vortex system or electrostatic guiding-center plasma. A 'water bag' approximation to the distribution function for bound stars renders the equation analytically tractable, but accurate solution of it may require numerical integration, in view of its general nonlinearity.

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