Power-law stellar distributions

• DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.10.042
• Publication Date: 2005-01-06T07:16:02Z
• Authors: J.A.S. Lima; R.E. de Souza
• Keywords: Astrophysics (astro-ph); 0103 physical sciences; FOS: Physical sciences; Astrophysics; 01 natural sciences

The density profiles and other quantities of physical interest for spherically symmetric systems are computed by assuming that a collisionless stellar gas may relax to the non-Gaussian power law distribution suggested by the nonextensive kinetic theory. There are two different classes of solutions. The first class behaves like a subset of the polytropic Lane-Emden spheres, whereas the second one corresponds to a transition between two different polytropic indices. Unlike the isothermal Maxwellian sphere, the total mass and sizes of both classes are finite for a large range of the nonextensive q-parameter.<br/>16 pages, 6 figures<br/>