2005/01/25 by Takayuki Tatekawa, Freddy Bouchet, Thierry Dauxois +1 · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #astro-ph #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.71.056111
published as Phys.Rev. E71 (2005) 056111
arxiv created 2005/01/25 · openalex publication_date 2005/05/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We present the phase diagram, in both the microcanonical and the canonical ensemble, of the self-gravitating-ring (SGR) model, which describes the motion of equal point masses constrained on a ring and subject to 3D gravitational attraction. If the interaction is regularized at short distances by the introduction of a softening parameter, a global entropy maximum always exists, and thermodynamics is well defined in the mean-field limit. However, ensembles are not equivalent and a phase of negative specific heat in the microcanonical ensemble appears in a wide intermediate energy region, if the softening parameter is small enough. The phase transition changes from second to first order at a tricritical point, whose location is not the same in the two ensembles. All these features make of the SGR model the best prototype of a self-gravitating system in one dimension. In order to obtain the stable stationary mass distribution, we apply an iterative method, inspired by a previous one used in 2D turbulence, which ensures entropy increase and, hence, convergence towards an equilibrium state.