The statistical mechanics of self-gravitating Keplerian discs
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: The statistical mechanics of self-gravitating Keplerian discs
zbMATH Open document ID: 1314.82015
DOI: 10.1088/1751-8113/47/29/292001
author: Jihad Touma
author: Scott Tremaine
published in: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
publication date: 2014-08-08T00:00:00Z
full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.5534
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 82B30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 34C23
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 85A05
zbMATH DE Number: 6328154
zbMATH Keywords: statistical mechanics
zbMATH Keywords: self-gravitating systems
zbMATH Keywords: phase transition
MaRDI profile type: Publication
OpenAlex ID: W2963456634
arXiv ID: 1401.5534
review text: The authors describe the dynamics and thermodynamics of collisionless particle discs orbiting a massive central body. They consider a case, where the disc mass is small compared to the central mass, the self-gravity of the disc dominates the non-Keplerian force, and the spread in the semi-major axes is small. By means of plausible approximations it is established that such discs have logarithmic two-body interactions and a compact phase space, and exhibit thermodynamics that are simpler than most other gravitating systems. The authors are able to solve the microcanonical axisymmetric thermal equilibria and demonstrate the existence of a symmetry-breaking bifurcation into lopsided equilibria.
reviewed by: Farruh Mukhamedov
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6328154