Damping versus oscillations for a gravitational Vlasov-Poisson system

Matthew Schrecker, Mahir Hadžić, Gerhard Rein, Christopher Straub

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We consider a family of isolated inhomogeneous steady states to the gravitational Vlasov-Poisson system with a point mass at the centre. They are parametrised by the polytropic index $k>1/2$, so that the phase space density of the steady state is $C^1$ at the vacuum boundary if and only if $k>1$.
We prove the following sharp dichotomy result: if $k>1$ the linear perturbations Landau damp and if $1/2< k\le1$ they do not.

The above dichotomy is a new phenomenon and highlights the importance of steady state regularity at the vacuum boundary in the discussion of long-time behaviour of the perturbations. Our proof of (nonquantitative) gravitational relaxation around steady states with $k>1$ is the first such result for the gravitational Vlasov-Poisson system. The key novelty of this work is the proof that no embedded eigenvalues exist in the essential spectrum of the linearised system.
Original languageEnglish
JournalArchive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis
Publication statusAcceptance date - 22 Apr 2025

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