Measuring the mass distribution in stellar systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new statistical method for determining the mass distribution in stellar systems that avoids complex phase-space modeling, outperforming existing distribution-free estimators especially in harmonic and Kepler potentials.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, distribution-free estimator for mass distribution that simplifies analysis and improves accuracy over traditional methods.

Findings

Outperforms other distribution-free estimators in tests

Effective for harmonic and Kepler potentials

Simplifies the process of mass inference in stellar systems

Abstract

One of the fundamental tasks of dynamical astronomy is to infer the distribution of mass in a stellar system from a snapshot of the positions and velocities of its stars. The usual approach to this task (e.g., Schwarzschild's method) involves fitting parametrized forms of the gravitational potential and the phase-space distribution to the data. We review the practical and conceptual difficulties with this approach and describe a novel statistical method for determining the mass distribution that does not require determining the phase-space distribution of the stars. We show that this new estimator out-performs other distribution-free estimators for the harmonic and Kepler potentials.