The gravitational Vlasov-Poisson system on the unit 2-sphere with initial data along a great circle
Date
2014-08-27
Authors
Lind, Crystal
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Abstract
The Vlasov-Poisson system is most commonly used to model the movement of charged
particles in a plasma or of stars in a galaxy. It consists of a kinetic equation known
as the Vlasov equation coupled with a force determined by the Poisson equation.
The system in Euclidean space is well-known and has been extensively studied under
various assumptions. In this paper, we derive the Vlasov-Poisson equations assuming
the particles exist only on the 2-sphere, then take an in-depth look at particles which
initially lie along a great circle of the sphere. We show that any great circle is an
invariant set of the equations of motion and prove that the total energy, number of
particles, and entropy of the system are conserved for circular initial distributions.
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Keywords
Vlasov, Poisson, Curved spaces, 2-sphere, Kinetic equations, Collisionless Boltzmann equation, Gauss's Law, Conservation laws, Non-Euclidean, Potential, Gravitational Force, Gravitational potential, Gravity, Equation of motion