Abstract:
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 density profiles maximizing the microcanonical entropy and solve it numerically. At low angular momenta, i.e. for a slowly rotating system, the well-known gravitational collapse “transition” is recovered. At higher angular momenta, instead, rotational symmetry can spontaneously break down giving rise to more complex equilibrium configurations, such as double-clusters (“double stars”). We analyze the thermodynamics of the system and the stability of the different equilibrium configurations against rotational symmetry breaking, and provide the global phase diagram.
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Received 8 July 2002 Published online 15 October 2002
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Votyakov, E., De Martino, A. & Gross, D. Thermodynamics of rotating self-gravitating systems. Eur. Phys. J. B 29, 593–603 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00317-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00317-4