English

Vector Resonant Relaxation and Statistical Closure Theory. II. One-loop Closure

Statistical Mechanics 2026-05-26 v2 Astrophysics of Galaxies

Abstract

We use stellar dynamics as a testbed for statistical closure theory. We focus on the process of "Vector Resonant Relaxation," a long-range, non-linear, and correlated relaxation mechanism that drives the reorientation of stellar orbital planes around a supermassive black hole. This process provides a natural setting to evaluate the predictive power of generic statistical closure schemes for dynamical correlation functions, in the fully non-linear and non-perturbative regime. We develop a numerical scheme that explicitly implements the seminal "Martin-Siggia-Rose" formalism at one-loop order via an iterative fixed-point approach, thereby improving upon the bare order from the "Direct Interaction Approximation." Using this framework, we quantitatively validate the ability of the formalism to predict (i) the two-point two-time correlation function; (ii) the renormalised three-point interaction vertex; (iii) the three-point three-time correlation function. These predictions are compared to direct measurements from numerical simulations. We conclude by discussing the limitations of this approach and presenting possible future venues.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.22164,
  title  = {Vector Resonant Relaxation and Statistical Closure Theory. II. One-loop Closure},
  author = {Sofia Flores and Jean-Baptiste Fouvry},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.22164},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

28 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review E

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:58:28.903Z