English

Exactly solved model of a one dimensional self gravitating system

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2026-01-07 v1 Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems

Abstract

A model one-dimensional self consistent steady state collisionless self-gravitating system in which all the particles have the same energy is presented. This has the remarkable property that the position and velocity of the particles orbiting in their own self consistent potential are given exactly, in terms of time, by the truncations of sine and cosine functions to the first two terms in their respective Taylor series. The potential and density also have simple analytic expressions in terms of time as parameter. It is not being claimed that this system has any direct astronomical application. However, it does motivate a conjecture about the behaviour of the density, potential, and orbits near caustics in simulations of cold collisionless dark matter. It is a rather surprising result which might interest practitioners of stellar dynamics and serve as an elementary example in teaching the subject.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.02423,
  title  = {Exactly solved model of a one dimensional self gravitating system},
  author = {Rajaram Nityananda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.02423},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

4 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:51:31.811Z