Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fluctuations In Finite-N Equilibrium Stellar Systems, Md Weinberg

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Gravitational amplification of Poisson noise in stellar systems is important on large scales. For example, it increases the dipole noise power by roughly a factor of 6 and the quadrupole noise by 50 per cent for a King model profile. The dipole noise is amplified by a factor of 15 for the core-free Hernquist model. The predictions are computed by summing over the wakes caused by each star in the system — the dressed-particle formalism of Rostoker & Rosenbluth — and are demonstrated by N-body simulation. This result implies that a collisionless N-body simulation is impossible; the fluctuation noise which …