Related papers: The approach to equilibrium in N-body gravitationa…
We study the relaxation towards thermodynamical equilibrium of a 1-D gravitational system. This OSC model shows a series of critical energies $E_{cn}$ where new equilibria appear and we focus on the homogeneous ($n=0$), one-peak ($n=\pm 1$)…
The role of thermodynamics in the evolution of systems evolving under purely gravitational forces is not completely established. Both the infinite range and singularity in the Newtonian force law preclude the use of standard techniques.…
Using the Ricci and scalar curvatures of the configuration manifold of gravitational N-body systems, we study the exponential instability in their trajectories. It is found that the exponentiation time-scale for isotropic Plummer spheres…
Self-gravitating systems are expected to reach a statistical equilibrium state either through collisional relaxation or violent collisionless relaxation. However, a maximum entropy state does not always exist and the system may undergo a…
Theory and simulations are used to study collisionless relaxation of a gravitational $N$-body system. It is shown that when the initial one particle distribution function satisfies the virial condition -- potential energy is minus twice the…
I consider a self-gravitating, N-body system assuming that the N constituents follow regular orbits about the center of mass of the cluster, where a central massive object may be present. I calculate the average over a characteristic…
We study, using both theory and molecular dynamics simulations, the relaxation dynamics of a microcanonical two dimensional self-gravitating system. After a sufficiently large time, a gravitational cluster of N particles relaxes to the…
Astrophysical systems differ often in two points from classical thermodynamical systems: 1.) They are open and 2.) gravity is a dominant factor. Both modifies the homogeneous equilibrium structure, known from classical thermodynamics. In…
Real physical systems are often maintained off equilibrium by energy or matter flows. If these systems are far from equilibrium then the thermodynamical branch become unstable and fluctuations can lead them to other more stable states.…
We revisit the r\^{o}le of discreteness and chaos in the dynamics of self-gravitating systems by means of $N$-body simulations with active and frozen potentials, starting from spherically symmetric stationary states and considering the…
Simulations of purely self-gravitating N-body systems are often used in astrophysics and cosmology to study the collisionless limit of such systems. Their results for macroscopic quantities should then converge well for sufficiently large…
We investigate the statistical equilibrium properties of a system of classical particles interacting via Newtonian gravity, enclosed in a three-dimensional spherical volume. Within a mean-field approximation, we derive an equation for the…
The stability of the dynamical trajectories of softened spherical gravitational systems is examined, both in the case of the full $N$-body problem and that of trajectories moving in the gravitational field of non-interacting background…
Using controlled numerical N-body experiments, we show how, in the collapse dynamics of an initially cold and uniform distribution of particles with a generic asymmetric shape, finite $N$ fluctuations and perturbations induced by the…
Much of standard galaxy dynamics rests on the implicit assumption that the corresponding N-body problem is (near) integrable. This notion although leading to great simplification is by no means a fact. It is therefore important to develop…
This paper summarises a number of new, potentially significant, results, obtained recently by the author and his collaborators, which impact on various issues related to the gravitational N-body problem, both Newtonianly and in the context…
One of the fundamental aspects of statistical behaviour in many-body systems is exponential divergence of neighbouring orbits, which is often discussed in terms of Liapounov exponents. Here we study this topic for the classical…
A fundamental question in many-body physics is how closed quantum systems reach equilibrium. We address this question experimentally and theoretically in an ultracold large-spin Fermi gas where we find a complex interplay between internal…
We investigate the old problem of the fast relaxation of collisionless $N$-body systems which are collapsing or perturbed, emphasizing the importance of (non-collisional) discreteness effects. We integrate orbit ensembles in fixed external…
The integrable system is constrained strictly by the conservation law during the time evolution, and the nearly integrable system or nonintegrable system is also constrained by the conserved parameters (like the constants of motion) with…