Dissipationless collapse of a set of N massive particles

Abstract

The formation of self-gravitating systems is studied by simulating the collapse of a set of N particles which are generated from several distribution functions. We first establish that the results of such simulations depend on N for small values of N. We complete a previous work by Aguilar and Merritt concerning the morphological segregation between spherical and elliptical equilibria. We find and interpret two new segregations: one concerns the equilibrium core size and the other the equilibrium temperature. All these features are used to explain some of the global properties of self-gravitating objects: origin of globular clusters and central black hole or shape of elliptical galaxies.

12 pages, 15 postscript figures. This is a preprint of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of The Royal Astronomical Society