The missing mass problem
(p3)
.
- Spherically symmetric solution
In 1916 Eddington derived a spherically symmetric steady-state solution, combining the Vlasov and the Poisson equations. He assumed that the ellipsoid of the velocities was spherically symmetric and pointed towards the center of the system.
Figure 1 (ga3114): Ellipsoid of velocities corresponding to an Eddington-type solution.
Eddington derived the following relation between the mass density and the gravitational potential
(20)
which represents a steady-state distribution of matter in a collision-free gas, in a gravitational potential Y, in which the gravitational force balances the pressure force. Let us take the same kind of a solution for the antipodal region
(21)
So that we have to solve the following equation
(22)
Take
(23)
Introduce the following adimensional quantities :
(24)
We get
(24)
which can be solved by numerical computation. We can take the following initial conditions
j
'o = 0
j
"o = 10
l = 10
Figure 2 : Spherically symmetric Eddington-type solution. The gravitational potential
Figure 3 : Spherically symmetric Eddington-type solution. Mass densities. If a cluster exists in one fold, an associated diffuse halo exists in the conjugated region of the second fold.