The self induced secular evolution of gravitating systems

Christophe Pichon (Institut d”Astrophysique de Paris (IAP))

June 05, 2017

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Abstract: Since the seminal work of Einstein, physicists have understood in the context of kinetic theory how ink slowly diffuses in a glass of water. The fluctuations of the stochastic forces acting on water molecules drive the diffusion of the ink in the fluid. This is the archetype of a process described by the so-called fluctuation-dissipation theorem, which universally relates the rate of diffusion to the power spectrum of the fluctuating forces. For stars in galaxies, a similar process occurs but with two significant differences, due to the long- range nature of the gravitational interaction: (i) for the diffusion to be effective, stars need to resonate, i.e. present commensurable frequencies, otherwise they only follow the orbit imposed by their mean field; (ii) the amplitudes of the induced fluctuating forces are significantly boosted by collective effects, i.e. by the fact that, because of self-gravity, each star generates a wake in its neighbours. In the expanding universe, an overdense perturbation passing a critical threshold will collapse onto itself and, through violent relaxation and mergers, rapidly converge towards a stationary, phase- mixed and highly symmetric state, with a partially frozen orbital structure. The object is then locked in a quasi-stationary state imposed by its mean gravitational field. Of particular interests are strongly responsive colder systems which, given time and kicks, have the opportunity to significantly reshuffle their orbital structure towards more likely configurations. This presentation aims to explain this long-term reshuffling called gravity-driven secular evolution on cosmic timescales, described by extended kinetic theory. They offer unique physical insights into the competing dynamical processes at play, complementing N-body approaches. I will illustrate this with radial migration, disc thickening and the stellar cluster in the galactic centre.