English

Why does Einasto profile index $n\sim 6$ occur so frequently?

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2018-04-04 v3 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

We consider the behavior of spherically symmetric Einasto halos composed of gravitating particles in the Fokker-Planck approximation. This approach allows us to consider the undesirable influence of close encounters in the N-body simulations more adequately than the generally accepted criteria. The Einasto profile with index n6n \approx 6 is a stationary solution of the Fokker-Planck equation in the halo center. There are some reasons to believe that the solution is an attractor. Then the Fokker-Planck diffusion tends to transform a density profile to the equilibrium one with the Einasto index n6n \approx 6. We suggest this effect as a possible reason why the Einasto index n6n \approx 6 occurs so frequently in the interpretation of N-body simulation results. The results obtained cast doubt on generally accepted criteria of N-body simulation convergence.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.05302,
  title  = {Why does Einasto profile index $n\sim 6$ occur so frequently?},
  author = {Anton N. Baushev and Maxim V. Barkov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.05302},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

7 pages, 2 figures, Accepted to JCAP

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:47:26.985Z