Chandrasekhar and Modern Stellar Dynamics

Abstract

Stellar dynamics occupied Chandrasekhar's interest for a brief interlude between his more prolonged studies of stellar structure and radiative transfer. This paper traces the history of one of his ideas -- namely, that the shape of the galactic potential controls the orientation of the stellar velocity dispersion tensor. It has its roots in papers by Eddington (1915) and Chandrasekhar (1939), and provoked a fascinating dispute between these two great scientists -- less well-known than their famous controversy over the white dwarf stars. In modern language, Eddington claimed that the integral curves of the eigenvectors of the velocity dispersion tensor provide a one-dimensional foliation into mutually orthogonal surfaces. Chandrasekhar challenged this, and explicitly constructed a counter-example. In fact, the work of neither of these great scientists was without flaws, though further developments in stellar dynamics were to ultimately draw more on Eddington's insight than Chandrasekhar's. We conclude with a description of modern attempts to measure the orientation of the velocity dispersion tensor for populations in the Milky Way Galaxy, a subject that is coming into its own with the dawning of the Age of Precision Astrometry.

To appear in Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India, Chandra Centennial Issue, eds D.J. Saikia and Virginia Trimble; 14 pages, 2 figures