Derivation of an equation of pair correlation function from BBGKY hierarchy

in a weakly coupled self gravitating system

Anirban Bose
Serampore College, Serampore, Hooghly 712201, India
arXiv:2210.15442v2 [cond-mat.stat-mech] 9 Nov 2022

An equation of pair correlation function has been derived from the first two members
of BBGKY hierarchy in a weakly coupled inhomogeneous self gravitating system in quasi
thermal equilibrium. This work may be useful to study the thermodynamic properties of the
central region of a star cluster which is older than a few or more central relaxation time.
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I. INTRODUCTION

Finite, bound self gravitating system has negative heat capacity. The thermodynamics [1–8]
of such system differs significantly from that of normal laboratory system and there is a question
that if self gravitating system, where the constituent particles are interacting with each other via
long range gravitational force, may at all attain the thermal equilibrium state.
In fact, absolute thermal equilibrium is not possible. Since, in contrast to the laboratory system,
there is no physical container to confine the system to a particular place. Therefore, evaporation of
particles from the high energy tail of the distribution function does not allow the system to reach
thermal equilibrium.
This confinement problem may be theoretically resolved by the introduction of artificial bound-
ary. Thermodynamic properties of such system have been extensively investigated [9–11] by con-
fining N point particles each with mass m in a spherical container. The system is assumed to
be thermally conducting. Therefore, the equilibrium state of this system is expected to be the
isothermal sphere. But that is not the actual fact. For both canonical and microcanonical ensem-
bles instabilities occur if the density contrast between the centre and edge of an isothermal gas
exceeds certain values. For microcanonical ensembles this phenomenon is recognised as gravother-
mal catastrophe [9–11] and such system can increase entropy by settling down to a state which is
not isothermal.
However, self gravitating system like globular cluster whose relaxation time is less than the age
of the cluster has a chance to reach close to the thermal equilibrium state. At least, the central
part of a cluster older than a few central relaxation time is close to thermal equilibrium[2]. These
globular clusters are approximately spherical in shape and may be modelled by the N particle
system confined in a spherical container.
There are different theoretical approaches [1, 2, 12–15]to study the self gravitating system.
Probably, the most common way is to explore the Fokker-Planck equation [1, 2] of the concerned
system.
There are other ways. For example, integrating the N particle Liouville equation over the
phase space of (N-1) particles we obtain the first member of BBGKY hierarchy equation which, in
the limit of N → ∞, becomes the collisionless Vlasov equation. This equation deals successfully
with the self gravitating system where the influence of encounters are neglected. Integrating the
Liouville equation once again over the phase space of (N-2) particles we obtain the second member
of BBGKY hierarchy. These two equations, in the limit of large but finite values of N, are capable
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of exploring the thermodynamics of the system with weak encounters. [12, 16].
In this article we attempt to derive an equation of pair correlation function from the first two
members of BBGKY hierarchy for the inhomogeneous self gravitating system in quasi thermal
equilibrium. This method has been previously applied[17] to study the thermodynamic properties
of the weakly correlated inhomogeneous plasma system.

II. DERIVATION OF THE EQUATION OF PAIR CORRELATION IN THERMAL

EQUILIBRIUM

We consider a self gravitating system of N particles enclosed in a spherical container. We

assume, for simplicity, that all the particles have same mass m. This system is older than few
collisional relaxation time so that the distribution function is in thermal equilibrium. Under these
assumptions, the first two members of BBGKY hierarchy are written as :

∂f1 ∂f1 ∂
Z
+ v1 · + n0 dX2 a12 · [f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) + g12 ] = 0 (1)
∂t ∂x1 ∂v1

∂g12 ∂g12 ∂g12 ∂g12 ∂g12

Z  
+ v1 · + v2 · + n0 dX3 f1 (X3 ) a13 · + a23 ·
∂t ∂x1 ∂x2 ∂v1 ∂v2
∂ ∂
 
= − a12 · + a21 · [f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) + g12 ]
∂v1 ∂v2
∂f1 (X1 ) ∂f1 (X2 )
Z  
−n0 dX3 a13 · g23 + a23 · g13 (2)
∂v1 ∂v2

where X = (x, v), f1 is the single particle distribution, g12 is the pair correlation function and

1 ∂
aij = − φij
m ∂xi

where

Gm2
φij = −
|xi − xj |

The terms aij denote acceleration of the i th particle due to force exerted by the j th particle and
φij is the energy of interaction between them. The three particle correlation function is ignored
which is justified for large but finite values of N.
The system is considered to be in thermal equilibrium. Hence, the first terms of eqs. (1) and
(2) are ignored. The pair correlation function g12 is written as

g12 (X1 , X2 ) = f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 )χ12 (x1 , x2 ) (3)

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and the single particle distribution functions f1 (X1 ) and f1 (X2 ) are functions of both position
and velocity. χ12 is a symmetric function of x1 and x2 . Using eqs. (1) and (3),

∂g12 ∂f1 (X2 ) ∂χ12

v2 · = f1 (X1 )χ12 v2 · + f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 )v2 · (4)
∂x2 ∂x2 ∂x2
∂f1 (X2 ) ∂
Z
v2 · = −n0 dX3 a23 · (f1 (X2 )f1 (X3 ) + g23 ) (5)
∂x2 ∂v2

and similar expressions for v1 · ∂g12 /∂x1 . Using Eqs. (4) and (5) in eq. (2), we obtain:

∂χ12 ∂χ12
 
f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) v1 · + v2 ·
∂x1 ∂x2
∂g13 ∂g23
Z  
−n0 dX3 f1 (X2 )χ12 a13 · + f1 (X1 )χ21 a23 ·
∂v ∂v2
 1
∂ ∂

= − a12 · + a21 · (f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) + g12 )
∂v1 ∂v2
∂f1 (X1 ) ∂f1 (X2 )
Z  
−n0 dX3 a13 · g23 + a23 · g13 (6)
∂v1 ∂v2

The single particle distribution functions are written in the following form:

f1 (X1 ) = fM (v1 )F1 (x1 )

where fM is a Maxwellian distribution and F1 is the space part.

Inserting g23 and g13

∂χ12 ∂χ21 1 ∂φ12 ∂φ12

   
f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) v1 · + v2 · =− · v1 + · v2 f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 )(1 + χ12 )
∂x1 ∂x2 kB T ∂x1 ∂x2
n0 m
Z
+f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) dX3 [a13 · v1 f1 (X3 )χ23 + a23 · v2 f1 (X3 )χ13 ] −
kB T
n0 m
Z
f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 ) dX3 [a13 · v1 f1 (X3 )χ13 χ12 + a23 · v2 f1 (X3 )χ23 χ21 ]
kB T
(7)

We can write,

f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 )A · v1 + f1 (X1 )f1 (X2 )B · v2 = 0 (8)

where

∂χ12 1 ∂φ12 n0 ∂φ13 n0 χ12 ∂φ13

Z Z
A= + (1 + χ12 ) + dX3 f1 (X3 )χ23 − dX3 f1 (X3 )χ13
∂x1 kB T ∂x1 kB T ∂x1 kB T ∂x1
(9)
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∂χ21 1 ∂φ21 n0 ∂φ23 n0 χ21 ∂φ23

Z Z
B= + (1 + χ21 ) + dX3 f1 (X3 )χ13 − dX3 f1 (X3 )χ23
∂x2 kB T ∂x2 kB T ∂x2 kB T ∂x2
(10)

For arbitrary and linearly independent v1 and v2 , A and B both vanish. Therefore,

∂χ12 1 ∂φ12 1 ∂φ12 n0 ∂φ13

Z
+ + χ12 + dX3 f1 (X3 )χ23
∂x1 kB T ∂x1 kB T ∂x1 kB T ∂x1
n0 χ12 ∂φ13
Z
− dX3 f1 (X3 )χ13 = 0 (11)
kB T ∂x1

This is the equation of the pair correlation function derived from the BBGKY hierarchy. In the
weak correlation limit (χ  1), we can drop the third and last term of the equation to obtain

∂χ12 1 ∂φ12 n0 ∂φ13

Z
+ + dX3 f1 (X3 )χ23 = 0
∂x1 kB T ∂x1 kB T ∂x1
(12)

Hence,

1 n0
Z
χ12 =− φ12 − dX3 φ13 f1 (X3 )χ23 (13)
kB T kB T

Performing the velocity integral

1 1
Z
χ12 =− φ12 − dr3 φ13 n1 (r3 )χ23 (14)
kB T kB T

The pair correlation equation is obtained in the weak coupling limit.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In the previous section, we have derived the equation of pair correlation function of a weakly
coupled self gravitating system from BBGKY hierarchy.
In order to obtain the equation we have assumed that the pair correlation function is the
product of the single particle distribution functions and a general function of positions of the
pairing particles. This general function arises due to correlation.
The structure of this function depends on the nature of the system. For homogenous cases,
it is the sole function of | x1 − x2 |. For inhomogeneous cases, it can not be the sole function
of | x1 − x2 | since it does not reflect where the pair is placed in the system which is now an
important factor. Therefore, it must be a symmetric function of x1 and x2 and should also reflect
the inhomogeneity of the system.
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We must choose the form of the pair correlation function in such a way that after inserting it
in BBGKY equations we should obtain an equation which is applicable to both homogeneous and
inhomogeneous cases.
We may calculate the pair correlation function for homogeneous cases to check how does the
equation work. Although self gravitating system is intrinsically inhomogeneous, we may consider
the system to be locally flat if the distance between the pair particles is much less than the size
of the system. Moreover, the homogeneous cases are relatively easy to tackle mathematically.
Therefore, we apply eq.(14) to calculate the pair correlation function in the homogeneous case.
Using the following transformations
Z
χij = dkχ(k)eik·(xi −xj )

Gm2 dk ik·(xi −xj )

Z
φij = − e
2π 2 k2

in eq.(14) we obtain

1 Gm2
χ(k) = (15)
2π 2 kB T k 2 − kj2

where kj2 = 4πn0 Gm2 /kB T . Therefore, the pair correlation function with collective effects is
obtained as

1 Gm2
χij = cos (kj r) (16)
kB T r

where r =| xi − xj | Hence, the potential of interaction is

Gm2
− cos (kj r)
r

. which is identical to what has been shown by Chavanis [18]. We could neglect the collective
effects by switching off the last term of eq.(14) to obtain

1 Gm2
χij = (17)
kB T r

It is interesting to note that in the limit kj r << 1 the result with collective effects (eq.(16)) tends
to become identical to the result without collective effects (eq.(17)). It has a serious implication
on self gravitating system. Since, as described by Binney and Treamine[2], equal octaves in impact
parameter contribute equally to gravitational scattering, most of the contributions of the two body
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interactions are local in nature i.e. the distance between the pairing particles is much less than
the Jean’s length. Therefore, under such circumstances, we could effectively use the result without
collective effect in place of the result with collective effects. It may be the reason that the theory
of Chandrasekhar[19–21] which did not consider the collective effects, gives a reasonably good
description of the self gravitating system. Obviously there is scope to incorporate the collective
effects in the system to make the calculation more rigorous. We may expect the above discussion
to be true even for the inhomogeneous system. After all the inhomogeneous system appears to
be homogeneous for the shorter length scale and the underlying physics of collective phenomenon
does remain same in both the cases. If we increase the distance between the pairing particles the
collective effects should reflect in the expression of the pair correlation function. Intuitively, some
symmetric function of positions, other than the function of | xi −xj |, may appear in the expression.
For example, it may be a function of (x1 + x2 ) which is the simplest function among the functions
which are symmetric in positions of the particles. Finally, consideration of strong inhomogeneity
needs numerical techniques which is beyond the scope of this work.

IV. CONCLUSION

We have obtained an equation of pair correlation function from the first two members of BBGKY
hierarchy for a weakly interacting inhomogeneous self gravitating system confined by a finite spher-
ical container in thermal equilibrium. Application of artificial container is not uncommon in the
literature [9–11, 22] of many body self gravitating system. In our case, presence of artificial spher-
ical container is necessary to prohibit the particles to escape from the system and achieve the
thermal equilibrium state.
A real self gravitating system never reach thermal equilibrium due to the evaporation of particles
from the system. However, the central part of a star cluster that is a few or more times older than
its central relaxation time will be close to the thermal equilibrium state [2] and in that particular
situation we may ignore the high-energy regions close to the escape energy and those cases in which
the system is unstable to gravothermal collapse. Hence, this formalism may be useful to explore
the thermodynamic properties of such system.
The pair correlation function χ12 is a symmetric function of x1 and x2 . However, in contrast
to the homogeneous and locally flat cases, it is not the sole function of |x1 − x2 |. Consequently, we
are not bound to consider our system to be locally flat. In addition to that, the presence of third
term of eq.(12) confirms that this formalism also accounts for the collective effects.
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A. Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge helpful discussions with Prof. S. Tremaine.

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