Flat galaxies with dark matter halos - existence and stability

TL;DR

This paper proves the existence and nonlinear stability of flat, disk-like galaxy models with dark matter halos using a Vlasov-Poisson system, advancing understanding of galaxy structure and stability.

Contribution

It introduces a variational method to establish steady state solutions and their stability for a two-species gravitational system modeling galaxies with dark matter halos.

Findings

Existence of steady state solutions for the galaxy-dark matter system.

Proof of nonlinear stability of these solutions.

Application of variational techniques to gravitational models.

Abstract

We consider a model for a flat, disk-like galaxy surrounded by a halo of dark matter, namely a Vlasov-Poisson type system with two particle species, the stars which are restricted to the galactic plane and the dark matter particles. These constituents interact only through the gravitational potential which stars and dark matter create collectively. Using a variational approach we prove the existence of steady state solutions and their nonlinear stability under suitably restricted perturbations.